What separates an anxiety disorder from just being worried or overly cautious?
I’ve talked briefly about my own journey with an anxiety disorder. To summerise, it’s a fairly new diagnosis, but is thought to have been there throughout my life. I wasn’t aware of just how common anxiety and panic were in the general population until I recently. It appears that anxiety and panic disorder are extremely common in the general population.
Many of my readers and writers are no stranger to the effects of both anxiety and panic. Therefore I’ve managed to create quite a library of resources from tips on managing anxiety to the science behind panic attacks.
So, we’ve talked about how we can cope with anxiety, what panic attacks are and coping techniques. But, we’ve never actually talked about different types of anxiety disorder, and how they differ from panic.
Guest Blogger: LittleTinkaBlee.
LittleTinkaBlee is a mental health and review blogger. She’s also a fellow Yogi!
Tinka first began her blog in order to spread positivity to the lives of others. She suffers from a severe anxiety disorder, therefore making her the perfect candidate to educate us on the subject.
If you’re into mental health, yoga, cats, book review and much more, then you should definitely check out her blog. My favourite post is My Eating Disorder Story.
What is an Anxiety Disorder?
By LittleTinkaBlee
Dealing with an anxiety disorder and panic attacks can be incredibly difficult. Especially when you have little knowledge of what they are or how they truly effect us both mentally and physically. As much as they are a mental illness, they can cause very real physical symptoms.
I’ve experienced my fair share of anxiety attacks but very few panic attacks. However, the few I have experienced made it very clear just how different panic and anxiety disorders are from each other.
Although I don’t personally suffer from a panic disorder, I’ve people close to me who do. So, in order to help them, I’ve done some research on different anxiety and panic disorders out there.
What are anxiety and panic disorders?
An anxiety disorder can be experienced in a lot of different ways. There’s more than just one type of anxiety disorder out there. Depending on your symptoms, if you meet certain criteria then your doctor may diagnose you with a specific anxiety disorder.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
This means having regular or uncontrollable worries about a variety of different things. There are many possible symptoms of an anxiety disorder, therefore, this can be quite a broad diagnosis. Your own symptoms or experience with GAD can be vastly different from that of another person’s.
You may find yourself suffering from a variety of the below symptoms and much, much more.
Social Anxiety Disorders.
You’re likely to experience fear or anxiety that is triggered by any social situations. Social Anxiety Disorder is also known as social phobia.
You may experience any or a number of the following;
- A sense of fear or dread connected with everyday social activities. This includes anticipation about meeting strangers, having a conversation, using the phone, going to work or going shopping.
- Worrying or avoiding social activities. Even those that include people you know.
- Worrying about doing something embarrassing in public i.e sweating, appearing incompetent.
- Feeling like you’re being judged by others all the time.
- Low self-esteem and confidence.
- Avoiding eye contact with others, even those we know.
- Palpitations, sweating, ringing in the ears, panic, etc when in social situations.
- Panic attacks.
Panic Disorder.
A panic disorder can be triggered by sometimes unrelated experiences. This may cause you to worry about experiencing a panic attack because you don’t know when it will happen. This fear can prevent you from doing a variety of things including leaving the house and going to work.
Phobias.
An extreme fear or anxiety triggered by particular situations. This can include literally anything. For example, a common phobia is arachnophobia, wherein people are intensely afraid of spiders.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
PTSD is diagnosed if the anxiety developed after experiencing trauma. PTSD can feel like you are reliving all the fear, anxiety and terror that you experienced during the actual event.
As we talk about PTSD, I think it’s important to note that trauma is different for everyone. What one person finds traumatic may not impact another. For example, some women may experience PTSD after childbirth, while other women may not.
Check out Kati Morton‘s video on Trauma.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
OCD may be diagnosed if the anxiety revolves around repetitive thoughts, behaviours or urges. With this disorder, there’s an overwhelming urge to act out certain actions in order to calm ourselves in stressful situations.
It’s important to note that compulsions are often seen in other mental health conditions such as eating disorders. Experiencing obsessive thoughts and behaviours doesn’t necessarily mean you have OCD. It’s always important to get diagnosed by a medical professional.
Health Anxiety.
When you experience obsessions and compulsions relating to illness and health. This includes researching symptoms or obsessively checking to see if you have them. Health Anxiety can also be related to OCD.
Perinatal Anxiety or Perinatal OCD.
This is when you experience obsessions and compulsions relating to your physical appearance. It’s closely related to Body Dysmorphic Disorder and can often be seen in those with eating disorders.
It’s very common to experience anxiety alongside other mental health problems, such as depression or an eating disorder. If you’ve symptoms of both anxiety and depression, but you don’t fit one more clearly than the other, then you may be diagnosed with mixed Anxiety and Depressive Disorder.
But, what’s the difference?
In conclusion, anxiety and panic attacks have similar symptoms, causes, and risk factors. BUT they are not the same. Panic attacks tend to be more intense and are often accompanied by more severe physical symptoms.
The following from Healthline helps us put it into perspective. We can clearly see the similarities and differences from using the chart below. Although there are many overlapping symptoms, there are major differences in regards to our emotional state.
I wasn’t aware of the difference between both panic and anxiety disorders until reading Tinka’s post. I’m so grateful that she’s been able to clear this up for us.
If you would like to appear as a guest on my blog in 2020, I’m now accepting submissions! Please see my Collaboration page for more information on what I’m expecting, and how to apply.
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