12 Signs you may have an Anxiety Disorder

Do you suffer from one or more of these?

Then you may suffer from an Anxiety Disorder.

• Excessive Worry – A very classic sign of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is excessive worrying about everything. If you’re having persistent worrying thoughts for months, and these thoughts are impacting your life.
• Sleep Problems – If you find yourself constantly lying awake at night, agitated or worried about specific problems or even nothing at all, it could be associated with GAD.
• Irrational fears – Anxiety is almost always specific to one thing or situation. Some people can go years without any episodes, but in the right situation their fears can be triggered, and then they worry they need counseling. Hear of an illness and suspect you have it too (Hypochondriac).
• Muscle tension – Some common muscle tension symptoms you may experience are clenching of the jaw, clenched fists or flexing of your bodies muscles. It can become so persistent that some people may not even realize that they’re even doing it.
• Chronic indigestion – You’re anxiety often starts in your mind but then begins to appear in more physical symptoms. People with GAD often have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, with symptoms like cramping, gas, constipation, diarrhea, stomach aches and bloating.
• Stage fright – Everyone gets a few nerves when they have to stand up in front of people, but if no amount of coaching or practice will get you up you may have a social anxiety disorder.
• Self-consciousness – Social anxiety disorder doesn’t just apply to public speaking. It can also apply to attending parties or even eating in front of people. It can make it hard to meet new people or maintain a normal life.
• Panic – Not everyone that experiences a panic attack has an anxiety disorder but if you experience them repeatedly it is more likely. The signs of a panic attack are problems breathing, racing the heart, numb or tingling hands, sweating, dizziness and much more.
• Flashbacks – If you are relieving traumatic events or violent encounters this is a classic sign of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD shares some common traits with anxiety disorders, and until recently was considered a type of anxiety disorder. Some anxiety disorders also have PTSD-like flashbacks.
• Perfectionism – If you are constantly worried about making mistakes or falling short of your goals then you could have an anxiety disorder. People with the Obsessive-compulsive disorder have extreme symptoms, but it could also just manifest in small things that aren’t as easily noticed.
• Compulsive behaviors – It doesn’t have to be as extreme as the people who suffer from the Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Small things such as having something set a certain way can manifest into a compulsive behavior.
• Self-doubt – If you constantly doubt and second guess yourself you could be suffering from an anxiety disorder. It might not be anything serious but just the fact that you don’t know 100% can create anxiety and self-doubt.

This is an oversimplified model we follow to treat anxiety disorders. We find anxiety disorder treatment by itself fairly simple and easy to train people to manage and better deal with it. A usual treatment for anxiety session is about five hours, comprised of teaching the person a mechanism to relax and be able to engage the mechanism instantly. The next step is teaching the brain other protocols to disengage it from what is sometimes referred to spin dryer or negative thinking.

Depending on the seriousness of the disorder, we sometimes find, we have to dig a little deeper into the past to relive the past memories which trigger the event(s). Many times anxiety disorder has a close associate called depression which can be treated in the same manner at the same time. Anxiety is usually fear based which promotes a fight or flight response and some adrenalin and after adrenalin wears off then depression sets in. Other times anxiety disorder treatments can be used to manage ADD/ADHD problems which many times include anxiety, depression and impulsiveness. The other area is PTSD which usually involves anxiety, depression, and many painful memories.

This is the same treatment for anxiety and depression but more complicated in the removal of the painful memories and rebuilding parts of the psyche. We can discuss anxiety treatment options with you just contact us for more information.