One mistake people often make when trying to find a solution to their anxiety is trying to apply every remedy that pops in a search engine to their own situation.
Trying to do this will usually leave you completely lost and confused.
When a person suffering from anxiety finally decides it is time to do something about it, the first objective they should have on their list is to try to identify what sector of anxiety disorder they best fall under.
I generally divide the different types of anxiety disorders into 6 different categories.
1.
Panic Attacks: People who suffer from panic attacks experience sudden episodes of intense fear that seems to come on for no apparent reason.
The persons heart races; they may experience chest pains, difficulty breathing, chocking sensation, lightheadedness, tingling and numbness.
While having a panic attack, people often worry about terrible thing suddenly happening such as having a heart attack or dying.
Also, while not experiencing an episode, these patients are usually worrying about when they are going to experience the next one.
2.
Generalized Anxiety: This type of anxiety is categorized by unrelenting anxiety in result of constant worry about every day events such as work or school performance.
Generalized anxiety causes restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disorders.
3.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: As the name applies, this type of anxiety is a result of some type of trauma in the person's life.
These patients are typically very irritable and jumpy.
They avoid situations that remind them of the trauma and often have reoccurring dreams about the occurrence.
4.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: This is categorized by having reoccurring thoughts or images that become intrusive to every day live and cause anxiety.
These patients often know that these thoughts are unreasonable and excessive, but they can't seem to control them.
This most apparent symptom of OCD is repetitive behavior.
5.
Social Phobia: People with a social phobia are afraid of one or more social or performance situations such as taking a test around other people, being the center of attention, eating in front of people, etc.
These patients often adjust their everyday life to compensate for their phobia, avoiding these key situations whenever possible.
6.
Specific Phobia: Examples of specific phobias include heights, storms, water, animals, elevators, closed-in-spaces, receiving an injection, or seeing blood.
Social situations are not included in this list of specific phobias.
These patients usually experience the same type of symptoms as people who suffer from social phobia.
Once you have determined a category that your symptoms best relate to, it will be much easier to develop a course of action to take in trying to resolve these symptoms.
It is also important that you diagnose your behavior shortly after you begin to notice your symptoms.
If left untreated, anxiety can completely alter you everyday course of life to the point where it is very difficult to become "the person you once were.
" I am a senior in college enrolled in the Engineering Technology Department and plan on graduating with a MMET degree in the fall.
I started experiencing high levels of anxiety around my sophomore year.
I began slowly altering my social life to conform to what eventually became a phobia.
After taking a course of action this year through a structured program, I am now noticing characteristics of my old self starting to show up again.
I am now on the right track to meeting my overall goal: which is to be able to focus on the matter at hand while in an environment that requires me to interact with a reasonable number of people.