Anxiety disorder, The disease of a whole generation

In these fast times and the rapid rhythm of life, anxiety in our society has become a fever running among people. with a lot of events going on every day, you find yourself worrying about many things even the smallest and normal ones. Each of us deals with his worries in a different way, which we might not even pay attention to. These ways may be fear, anger, addiction, or sitting down.

what is anxiety?

Anxiety is an abnormal feeling of stress, restlessness, and worry. It is a feeling that can interfere with your daily activity and hinder you from taking normal actions. it differs in its degree and can be expressed in many shapes, physical or psychological.

anxiety disorder has different forms with different emotions to ventilate it.

generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Social anxiety or phobia.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
panic attacks
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
agoraphobia
separation anxiety disorder (SAD)

Different forms of anxiety

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

The most common type of anxiety is a persistent condition of constant unease about normal daily activities. and is usually accompanied by fatigue, sleeping problems, difficulty focusing, restlessness, and a moody personality.

Social anxiety

The state of fear from indulging in crowds and human gatherings. It includes difficulty in public speaking, having normal conversations, and expressing feelings. Social anxiety is a serious condition that hinders people’s lives and prevents them from intimate human contact and society’s indulgence.

Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder (OCD)

It is an annoying condition of having recurrent thoughts, and behaviors accompanied by constant actions according to them. it is more like a circle the person got caught up in. The disease occurs at different ages and levels of our lives and usually hits the person at times when he is under a lot of pressure or having a big change in his life.

It has different shapes and levels from mild OCD actions that people might not recognize as a disease and severe situations that can separate patients from life sometimes.

Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder (OCD) can be about

cleaning and ordering.
work perfection and obsession with control.
inappropriate sexual thoughts.
religious dilemmas and urgent questions.
annoying thoughts of hurting others.
hair-picking disorder.
pure O, which is a mental condition of having intrusive thoughts all the time.

The disease comes with specific genes: NRXN1, HTR2A, CTTNBP2, and REEP3 genes.

Panic attacks

A state of anxiety with physical symptoms includes breathlessness, fast heart beating, sweating, dry mouth, blurring vision, or nausea. The attacks usually happen when you happen to be under a lot of pressure lately or dealing with a life crisis. It is not dangerous but it hits you all of a sudden and can be a serious obstacle in social and working life.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

(PTSD) is a state of anxiety developed by experiencing horrifying incidents, crimes, or accidents or watching them. the person usually suffers from a long period of depression, shutting down, and fear after the incident. During that he deals with awful nightmares and intrusive flashbacks. This condition can make a person completely separated from life around him for long periods, which may be years.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is a state of anxiety when the person fears being in places hard to escape or leave. this includes different situations like:

being in closed places like tunnels, offices, cinemas, basements, and garages.
fear of getting out alone.
fear of traveling.
being afraid of the sea.

Separation phobia

It is the fear of losing people or things you are attached to. This condition happens to every toddler and goes away while growing up. Some people can not deal with this problem and develop separation anxiety disorder (SAD).

Things that trigger your anxiety

Anxiety is a normal emotion we all get. but it differs in people according to their personality, genes, and environment.

Some people can handle their anxiety better than others.

Reasons for anxiety:

1- Social media. The constant need to follow everything going around and see how people react to our pics and posts causes us to worry more than we think.

2- Work. The responsibility of work can be a burden for everyone.

3- Fear of judgment. This might be one of our greatest problems that causes us to stress out. The fear of other people’s opinions about our way of talking, wearing, and acting is a huge source of struggling and worrying all the time.

4- Personality and environment. the way you grow up and your parents deal in front of you, shape your way of handling emotions including anxiety.

5- Smoke and alcohol. cigarettes and liquor have been proven to increase your cortisol level, which is secreted when you are stressed.

Other causes include illness, drugs, and trauma.

How can we handle our anxiety?

Dealing with anxiety can be a challenging thing, as it is an emotion that arises anytime or even all the time. but the most important thing during the process is to stay away from any upsetting situation or difficult environment. then, you should focus on things that trigger your anxiety like a certain place, person, or activity that stresses you out. and stay away from it as much as possible.

If you can’t, you should then recognize the effect of these things on you to deal with it properly.

Other ways to face anxiety include:

1- Exercise. Sports and physical activity have been proven mental health by decreasing your cortisol level and enhancing your morale throughout the day.

2- Meditate. meditation rests your body and soul and makes them more immune to stressors.

3- Write about it. carry a small notebook around, and write down any thoughts, ideas, or problems you are going through.

4- Breath out a lot.

5- Drink a lot of water.

6- Talk to people about your day.

And always remember to use the 5 minutes rule. The rule states that: “anything that is not affecting you in the next 5 years doesn’t deserve your thinking for more than 5 minutes”.