How to Identify an Anxiety Disorder

The major symptom of an anxiety disorder is constant worrying that never goes away. This worry keeps you from living a normal life. In fact, it can be debilitating to the point where you believe your life isn’t even worth living at all. The medical term for this kind of worry is generalized anxiety disorder. It is referred here simply as anxiety disorder.

Everyone experiences some sort of anxiety on a daily basis. This is not an anxiety disorder. If you have an anxiety disorder, you:

• Worry all the time

• Have experienced bothersome worrying for the majority of days over the past six months

• Worry about more than one thing at a time and the worry is mostly irrational

• Are unable to quit worrying even if you have tried to make it go away.

This kind of worry will keep you from doing the things you want to do. It might even keep you from performing the normal everyday functions such as driving, applying for a job, or even leaving your house.

Other Symptoms

People who have an anxiety disorder experience a minimum of three of the following symptoms:

1. Restlessness and the inability to relax. You may feel up all the time.

2. Exhaustion. Even a short jaunt to the corner convenience store tires you out. You might feel like you want to sleep constantly, even if you have just slept a full night.

3. Agitation. It is normal to be irritated on occasion, but certain sufferers of anxiety disorders are agitated constantly.

4. Muscle tightness. Your muscles may hurt from being constantly tense or your hands might shake to the point where you can’t hold onto a coffee mug or write legibly.

5. Sleep disturbance. You are not able to go to sleep without effort, or you keep waking up once you fall asleep. You might also toss and turn in your sleep, resulting in a sleep that is not beneficial.

Physical Symptoms

In addition to mental symptoms, anxiety can manifest itself in physical symptoms as well. These symptoms are scary and can make people believe they are suffering from a physical ailment. These symptoms are often what motivate people to see a physician.

Approximately 50% of all people suffering from an anxiety disorder make an appointment with a cardiologist because of these symptoms.

Following is a list of the most common physical symptoms of anxiety:

• Cold extremities

• Cotton mouth

• Perspiration

• Upset stomach

• Loose bowels

• Fast heartbeat

• Difficulty breathing

The reason why these physical symptoms occur is because of your autonomic nervous system. This is the system responsible for the involuntary actions of the body. This includes the heartbeat and breathing. This system makes you sweat when you are hot, your heart speed up with you are exercising, and your salivary glands to produce saliva when you are eating.

In the case of people who are overly anxious, the autonomic nervous system gets overloaded. It then makes you perspire more than you normally would, causes your heartbeat to speed up faster than it should go, and dry out your mouth.

There are some other symptoms of anxiety that are not connected to the involuntary nervous system such as chest pain, joint pain, and headaches.

These symptoms actually exist; however, physicians are unable to link them to a specific physical cause. As such, they are referred to as psychosomatic symptoms. This is where your body is manifesting your emotions into actual pain. Some sufferers of anxiety disorder experience these symptoms, but others do not.