What is the definition of anxiety?
How can we know if we have an anxiety disorder if we can’t define anxiety?
If you have Googled “define anxiety, anxiety definition” or “definition of anxiety” you have done it for a reason. Either you are researching anxiety out of curiosity or you have started to feel that your own reaction to anxiety is inappropriate. It may be that you are experiencing unusually high levels of anxiety or even panic attacks. If so; read on .
The dictionary definition of anxiety according to Wikipedia, the online free encyclopaedia is:
Anxiety (also called angst or worry) is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive and behavioural components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is “to vex or trouble”; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness and dread. Anxiety is considered to be a normal reaction to a stressor. It may help someone to deal with a difficult situation by prompting them to cope with it. When anxiety becomes excessive, it may fall under the classification of an anxiety disorder.
Did that help? Are you any closer to knowing if you have an anxiety disorder or not?
One of the problems with diagnosing any anxiety disorder and especially self diagnosis of an anxiety disorder is that a certain level of anxiety is the norm. All of us experience anxiety about different situations and most of us cope with it most of the time, simply accepting that a certain level of anxiety is perfectly normal. So how do we know if our reaction is abnormal?
The problem with anxiety and anxiety disorders is that they are something that is experienced on a very individual basis. All of us are capable of feeling anxious about a variety of situations that we find ourselves in, but why do some go on to develop an anxiety disorder and how do we know when we have.
Anyone who suffers from an anxiety disorder will have developed the problem in their own way, from their own life experiences. Ask any two anxiety sufferers what caused their anxiety disorder and you will never get the same answer.
Anxiety is the body’s reaction to a perceived threat. That is a simple explanation of a hugely complicated subject. Our bodies react to threats in a variety of ways in exactly the same way as animals react to danger.
This is perfectly normal and natural and was originally part of our survival mechanism.
Where it starts to go wrong is when instead of reacting to real threats, we start to react to imagined threats. This is something that is thought to be a uniquely human ability. Anxiety disorder is thought to be something that only experienced by humans.
Our memory and imagination allows us to move backwards and forwards in time, remembering situations in which we felt threatened and imagining similar situations that we could come across in the future. It is this ability to remember and imagine threats and danger that allows us to, and sometimes conditions us to, react to imagined dangers.
Post traumatic syndrome is an extreme example of this, where the feelings of danger and threat that someone experienced in the past can trigger irrational fear or anxiety in the present. It also demonstrates that a large proportion of an anxiety disorder is the result of anticipating future events.
If we weren’t able to think in terms of the past and future, if we couldn’t relate past experience to predicted future events we would be incapable of suffering from an anxiety disorder.
An anxiety disorder can essentially come about in one of two ways. It could for example be the result of a sudden trauma such as the death of a loved one. Divorce or a job loss are both events that have been known to set off an anxiety disorder.
Alternatively it may be a series of smaller events coming one after another that gradually conditions us to think in an anxious way so that our reaction to anxiety becomes extreme. It is almost as if the natural level of anxiety that we experience on a day to day basis has changed so that even a small amount of additional anxiety will cause us to overreact, feeling extreme anxiety in a situation which we would normally cope with.
So, if you think that you have developed an anxiety disorder what symptoms should you be aware of. These can really be split into two. Physical symptoms of an anxiety disorder and metal symptoms of an anxiety disorder.
Physical symptoms of anxiety
It is now estimated that anything up to 17% of people in the western world will suffer from some sort of anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Consequently there is a fair bit of research going on and new symptoms are being recognised all the time but here are the most common ones.
- Chest tightness or chest pain
- Heart palpitations or heart flutters, having a racing heart for no apparent reason
- You can experience muscular pain or muscle spasms, a feeling of twitching in your muscles.
- Excessive tiredness or feeling weak
- Pins and needles in the hands and feet
- Feeling breathless almost as if you can’t take a full breath
- Going pale or looking blanched
- Increased or decreased sex libido (sex drive)
- Hot flushed or blushing
- Cold chills
- Feeling faint, dizzy or light headed
- Feeling sick (nauseous) or actually being sick
- A sudden and uncontrollable need to go to teh toilet.
- Having shooting pains in the head, neck or face
- An ongoing tension in the neck, shoulders and upper arms often resulting in ‘tension headaches’
- Being startled by sudden movements or noises that would not normally trouble you.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of teh physical symptoms of anxiety. People suffering from an anxiety disorder can become more susceptible to general illnesses like coughs and colds simply because they become run down and exhausted.
Mental symptoms of anxiety
When you suffer from anxiety your body will play tricks on you. The physical symptoms of anxiety are your body’s over-reaction to the underlying anxiety. You can also experience a wide range of mental symptoms.
- Depersonalisation and depersonalisation. These are feelings almost of an out of body experience, being in a dream like state as if you are watching what is happening to you rather than experiencing it.
- Feeling emotionally numb almost as if you are unable to react to things in a normal way.
- Feeling angry or impatient a lot of the time or feeling on edge
- A constant feeling of fear even in normal situations
- Difficulty concentrating or remembering everyday things almost as if your mind is overwhelmed by events
- An inability to concentrate and follow or join in conversations
- Feeling that you are going out of your mind
- Thinking repetitive thoughts where you are thinking about the same thing constantly
- You can become very self absorbed, dwelling on your thoughts and emotions constantly.
- Not feeling like yourself, almost not recognising the way in which you are thinking.
Giving a definition of anxiety is difficult simply because everyone will experience anxiety in a different way. People suffering from an anxiety disorder will experience some symptoms but not others. They may experience symptoms that are not on this list.
Each of us develops anxiety in a different way and each of us will experience it differently.
For more information on anxiety disorders and their treatment take a look at Charles Linden’s website.
Read about Panic Attacks in your sleep next