Living with Anxiety

What Is Anxiety & How Do I Identify It?

Muscle tension. Upset stomach. Tight chest. Clenched jaw. Racing thoughts. Symptoms of anxiety are commonplace in every person’s life. But what’s the difference between anxiety, stress, excitement, nervousness, fear, and other feelings? The experience of all of these emotional states overlap heavily and can look and feel incredibly similar. So what separates anxiety from all of these? Well, stress, excitement, nervousness, and fear tend to be momentary and shorter in length. They also tend to be helpful to us, in that they motivate us to act in certain, generally effective ways. Maybe nervousness pushes you to prepare for that job interview; maybe stress gets you out of bed and tackling your daily to-do list; maybe excitement helps you to feel positive and engage in planning fun activities. Anxiety, on the other hand, tends to be longer in duration, “persistent”, “excessive”, and generally less “functional”, in that it does not help to motivate us to act effectively.

So, anxiety sticks around, can feel overwhelming, and isn’t usually helpful to us. But what does anxiety look and feel like? Let’s take a look at some common symptoms. When thinking about anxiety symptoms, I tend to consider three broad categories of symptoms: cognitive symptoms, physiological symptoms, and emotional symptoms.

            Cognitive symptoms

                        Difficulty concentrating

                        Rumination

                        Racing thoughts

                        Irrational fears, including predicting the worst results possible

                        Feeling as if you’re going crazy

                        Mind frequently going blank

            Physiological symptoms

                        Sweating

                        Trembling

                        Dizziness

                        Gastrointenstinal distress

                        Muscle tension

                        Shortness of breath and/or tight chest

                        Accelerated heart rate

                        Feeling physically weak

                        Dry mouth

            Emotional symptoms

                        Nervousness

                        Feeling restless, tense, keyed-up or on edge

                        Irritability or having a “short fuse”

                        Feeling overwhelmed

                        Apprehension

                        Feeling a sense of doom or danger

When someone experiences many of these symptoms and those symptoms begin to cause someone to avoid engaging in their regular activities (socializing, paying bills, completing work or school projects, or similar behaviors), healthcare professionals may begin to consider different anxiety diagnoses that the individual may be experiencing.

Common Anxiety Diagnoses

One of the most common anxiety diagnoses is Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which indicates an individual has experienced many of the anxiety symptoms listed above for at least six months, about a wide array of topics including but not limited to: their health; their career; money; housing; relationships; their future; and the world.

Another type of anxiety disorder is Panic Disorder, in which an individual experiences panic attacks, characterized by short but incredibly intense anxiety symptoms listed above. Often in panic disorder, individuals will experience tremendous fear about having future attacks, which causes them to avoid various relationships, settings, and responsibilities, thereby creating dysfunction in multiple areas of their life.

A third form of an anxiety disorder is Social Anxiety Disorder, typified by anxiety symptoms and intense fear about being judged or evaluated poorly by others. The fear of evaluation pushes the individual to avoid socializing, public speaking, or other activities around other people. Similar to social anxiety disorder, specific phobias are intense fears an individual might have about certain objects, animals, or tasks (such as flying, injections, or spiders) that push the person to avoid those stimuli to an unhelpful degree.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America suggests that 6.8 million adults experience Generalized Anxiety Disorder, while 6 million adults live with Panic Disorder, 15 million live with Social Anxiety Disorder, and 19 million live with some type of a specific phobia.

Other diagnoses that commonly occur with anxiety disorders include Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Major Depressive Disorder, Substance Use Disorders, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

What To Do With Your Anxiety

Thinking you might be experiencing anxiety symptoms or even a full anxiety disorder? Have no fear, there’s plenty of ways to help manage the distress that comes with anxiety! Included in those treatment methods are medication management, psychotherapy, social skills training, case management, and others. Let’s take a look at a few here.

Medication management can be incredibly helpful in coping with anxiety. There are several classes of medications that can aid one in easing anxiety, including benzodiazepines, anxiolytics, SSRIs, and others. Talk with your primary care physician or psychiatrist about what options are available to you! Attending to physical health (including tweaking sleep, exercise, eating, nicotine use, caffeine consumption, and other substance use) is another path one can take to help manage anxiety.

Decades of research suggests several psychotherapy styles may benefit you if you’re living with anxiety, including but not limited to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Psychotherapeutic interventions that may be valuable include relaxation training, grounding techniques, mindfulness practice, social skills training, breathing exercises, assertiveness training, exposure therapy, and reframing ineffective thinking patterns. Support groups and process groups can also be helpful in managing anxiety. Talk with CPGR to learn more methods of coping with anxiety!

One other technique to help manage anxiety can be to engage in case management with a social worker. Case management can help identify and evaluate what options exist to meet your health needs. Case managers can help to schedule appointments, organize important health information, connect you to resources and providers, provide education about the healthcare system, and advocate for your needs with other providers. If having someone to support you in completing these tasks sounds helpful, check in with your county’s human services department about what case management options are available to you.

If you would like other ideas for managing anxiety and increasing your satisfaction in life, be sure to give CPGR a call today to set up an appointment!