Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Anxiety refers to feelings of apprehension, nervousness, fear, or worry. Some of these worries are justified, but anxiety becomes a problem if and when it begins to interfere with the sufferer’s ability to function or sleep. Anxiety may happen with or without a cause, but regardless, the feelings are out of proportion to what would normally be expected. When anxiety becomes severe, it can have a very serious impact on your daily life.
There are a number of physical symptoms that accompany anxiety. These symptoms are often related to the heart, lungs, gastrointestinal, and nervous system. People suffering from anxiety may have an upset stomach, trouble breathing, diarrhea, or may even feel like they are going to have a heart attack.
Anxiety may be caused by a physical condition, a mental condition, the effects of drugs, or a combination of all of the above. The doctor first must determine if the anxiety is an effect of a medical condition. Conditions may include asthma attack, infection, anemia, drug intoxication or withdrawal, or more. There are several forms of anxiety.
Panic Disorder: Along with panic attacks, some of the common symptoms of panic disorders include heart palpitations, upset stomach, and shortness of breath. A person suffering from a panic attack may find their mind going blank or they may feel like they are looking at themselves from the outside. If you have a panic disorder, you would need to experience repeated panic attacks instead of just one episode.
Symptoms: A panic disorder is present when there are recurrent episodes of the panic attacks for at least a month. These panic attacks must be associated with at least four of the following: heart palpitations, trembling, sweating, sense of choking, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, nausea or stomach upset, a feeling like you are detached from the world, fear of dying, being unable to think as if the mind is blank, numbness or tingling, and hot flashes or chills.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: If you have a generalized anxiety disorder, you will experience a number of worries that are on your mind. These worries may prevent you from sleeping or functioning normally.
Symptoms: To have generalized anxiety disorder, you must have three of the following: quickly fatigued, restlessness, irritability, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, and sleep problems.
Phobic Disorders: People with phobic disorders often feel irrational fear that can rise to a panic attack as a response to a particular trigger, such as a thing or situation. Some of these phobias may include fear of spiders, insects, tight spaces, flying on an airplane, heights, or social anxiety.
Symptoms: If you have a phobic disorder, you will have a persistent and intense fear of certain objects or situations. The object or situation can trigger a panic attack.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: People who have obsessive compulsive disorder frequently have intrusive or distressing thoughts or become involved in repetitive behaviors that they cannot prevent themselves from doing. Some of these obsessions may include worries about having everything in a particular order or worrying about germs.
Symptoms: Repeated behaviors, irritability or upset when patterns are not followed, and constant worry.
Separation Anxiety Disorder: This is typically a disorder that children experience. It can be diagnosed in a situation in which a child is extremely anxious when separated from a caregiving adult.
Symptoms: Symptoms would include extreme crying or temper tantrums. Sometimes the child will not be consoled.
Stress Disorders: There are several common factors that can cause anxiety. These may include stress from home or work, stress in personal relationships or marriages, financial stress, stress from emotional trauma (death, victimization, abuse), stress from a medical illness, stress as a result of medication, stress due to drug or alcohol abuse, stress due to withdrawal from drugs, stress due to medical illness, stress due to a lack of oxygen.
Symptoms: This anxiety is typically caused by an exposure to death or near-death circumstances. Common behaviors resulting from this stress include re-experiencing the trauma when awake or when asleep, avoiding activities, situations, or the people that were associated with the triggering event, trouble concentrating during the day and sleeping during the night, acting in a hypervigilant manner, feeling depressed, moody, irritable, or gloomy. Symptoms like chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting and weakness can be present with stress disorders.
Seeking Medical Treatment
You should seek medical treatment if your signs and symptoms are severe and medication may be necessary. If the symptoms are interfering with your professional, social, or personal life, you should seek help. If you are experiencing any of the symptoms, such as dizziness, fainting, weakness, shortness of breath, chest pain, or headaches, speak to your doctor. If you feel depressed or suicidal, it is very important that you see a doctor or mental health specialist immediately.
The doctor will be taking a history of your symptoms, participate in a 
physical examination, and perform other laboratory tests as they are needed. Sometimes determining the cause of your anxiety disorder may require the help of a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, or other mental-health professional.
Sometimes, in less severe cases, anxiety can be treated at home without involving a doctor. These are likely related to an isolated incident in which the anxiety is short, will go away, and it can be eliminated after the event is over. Examples might include giving a speech, participating in a job interview, or taking a test. Sometimes you can relieve your symptoms with the following actions: positive visualization, talking with someone who can support you, meditating, taking a warm bath, watching tv, deep breathing, and resting in the dark.
The medical treatment of your anxiety will depend upon the cause of the anxiety. For example, if the cause is a physical problem, the treatment is geared towards eliminating the problem. If the cause is psychological, the cause needs to be discovered and then controlled or eliminated. When the cause cannot be determined, the treatment option is to control the symptoms. Often anxiety was treated with medicines called benzodiazepines. These medications are used less frequently due to the possibility that they cause addiction.
Some people also find that psychotherapy can be useful. This involves talking to a therapist about the causes and dealing with how to handle stressful situations.
