Anxiety
You’re going about your day when suddenly, everything feels overwhelming, irritating, or simply too scary to handle and you need to take a break. If this sounds like something that you regularly experience, you might understand what it’s like to have an anxiety disorder. While most people experience anxiety at some point in their lives, an anxiety disorder goes past that general feeling of uneasiness or apprehension and is a mental illness that requires treatment and therapy.
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety can be a normal reaction to stressors in your environment and can actually be beneficial in helping people make smart decisions about their situation in order to stay safe or prepare for potential outcomes. However, an anxiety disorder is different and goes beyond that normal reaction to negatively affect the way a person thinks and feels in everyday situations. As some of the most common mental illnesses, anxiety disorders affect almost 30% of adults at some point of their lives, but they are treatable and manageable.
Symptoms to Look Out For
There are many kinds of anxiety disorders and each may present itself differently. However, some common symptoms among these disorders may clue you in as to whether you may need a diagnosis:
- Restlessness, feeling on-edge or wound-up
- Fatiguing easily
- Difficulties concentrating or focusing
- Feelings of irritability or frustration
- Unexplained headaches, stomachaches, muscle aches or body pains
- Inability or difficulty with controlling feelings of worry
- Sleep pattern changes, such as trouble staying asleep or falling asleep
When To Seek Help
Seeking help can be difficult when a person has an anxiety disorder because they may not realize that they have an illness that can be effectively treated to improve their quality of life. However, many people find success in treating their anxiety with therapy sessions from a licensed mental health professional.