What Are The Different Types Of Anxiety?

If you feel you are suffering from symptoms of anxiety, it is important that you understand the different types of anxiety as this can help you and your healthcare professional best diagnose and treat you. At The Center • A Place of HOPE, our treatment team will help you by helping you to diagnose which type of anxiety disorder you may have. It is good to know that whatever type of anxiety problem you are suffering from, there is help available and at The Center • A Place of HOPE we can help you and have our very award-winning Anxiety Treatment Program.

Different types of anxiety:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – this is the anxiety condition where you feel constant worry and anxiety about activities or events happening every day. The worry you feel with this disorder is constant and is always there. Even every day routine activities may cause worry or anxiety. This worry can cause physical symptoms in your body like headaches, stomach aches, or problems with your sleep. This is more than just being someone who overthinks things and worries a bit about events. This is a continuous feeling of anxiety and fear.

GAD is the most common anxiety disorder, affecting about 7 million Americas. Women are twice as likely to experience GAD than men.

Panic Disorder (PD) – this is when you may feel a terror or panic that strikes at random times. You may experience panic attacks which cause you to become short of breath, sweaty, have chest pains and heart palpitations. You may feel as if you can’t breathe or are choking, or that you are having a heart attack. Other symptoms you may feel are light-headedness, dizziness, numbness or tingling sensations especially in your peripheries; feeling hot or cold or both; nausea; fear of losing control or fear of dying.

Panic attacks or disorders affect more than 6 million Americans and women are more likely to suffer from PD than men.

Social Anxiety Disorder, or Social Phobia – this is one of the most common disorders with social anxiety disorder affecting more than 16 million Americans. This disorder is common in men and in women and affects both equally.

This is when you feel overwhelming worry and a feeling of self-consciousness about everyday social situations like seeing friends, or work functions, even going to work each day and interacting with your colleagues. This fear is more than feeling a bit nervous about interactions with people, this can cause you to avoid these social situations. This condition is very treatable with the right health professionals looking after you and helping you through this journey.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – OCD is the continual experience of unwanted thoughts or worries that cause anxiety. These worries can cause you to relieve your anxiety by performing certain rituals or behaviors. These rituals may include excessive hand washing; counting or rechecking completed tasks; checking repeatedly if you’ve done something such as whether you’ve locked the house or turned the stove off. People tend to do these tasks obsessively in the hope that it will prevent these destructive thoughts to go away. You often find relief from your anxious thoughts by doing these tasks

OCD affects around 2 million Americans and the symptoms typically start around the age of leaving high school. OCD affects men and women equally.

This condition responds very well to treatment.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – PTSD occurs after a person has experienced a traumatic event such as an assault; an accident; living in a war zone or military combat; natural disasters as well as other personal traumas. Some of the symptoms of PTSD are avoiding certain situations out of fear; avoiding any situation that you think may be stressful; hiding your feelings of anxiety or worry; being more emotional and worrisome than usual; emotional numbing; changes in sleep patterns; and changes in appetite and eating patterns.

PTSD affects up to 8 million Americans, and women are more likely to experience PTSD than men.

Anxiety Co-Occurring with Depression – depression and anxiety often occur at the same time. A study found that about 50% of people with anxiety, also are suffering with depression and vice versa.

Depression symptoms are usually feeling of sadness, hopelessness, low energy and mood, irritability, restlessness, suicidal thoughts, changes in sleep and appetite, chronic fatigue, difficulty concentrating and pains or aches without clear cause.

As we’ve discussed before the symptoms of anxiety are muscle tension, heart racing, grinding teeth, restlessness, dread and panic, as well as difficulty concentrating.

Both the symptoms of depression and anxiety overlap and it may be hard to tell which is affecting you more, and the two co-existing can make the symptoms more intense and severe. This is why it is important to seek help from professionals, as they will be able to help you and guide you to the right diagnosis and treatment for you for each of the two conditions.

Phobias – phobias are the fear of a specific object or situation. It goes beyond the normal fear that is appropriate to an object or situation. Some examples are a fear of flying, a fear of heights or a fear of open spaces.

Phobias affect about 8% of adults in the US and women are more likely to be affected than men. This condition is very treatable with the right professional help.

Find out more about the various causes of Anxiety.

There are different types of anxiety disorders, each presenting in their own way. Each one is treatable with the right help and care. The Center • A Place of HOPE is able to help you with the correct diagnosis for your condition as well as helping you on each step of your journey towards wellness in finding the right treatments and advice for you.