Human Health: What Does Anxiety Mean

Published: 2021-05-18
Views: 547
Author: Editorial
Published in: Human Health

Anxiety is a feeling of unease that can range from mild to severe, such as worry or fear. Anxiety affects everyone at some point in their lives.

You might be worried and anxious for example about taking an exam, a medical test, or a job interview. It's perfectly normal to feel anxious at times like these.

Factors contributing to anxiety disorders

Anxiety disorders are similar to other types of mental illness in that they are characterized by a lack of control over one's emotions.

They are not the result of personal flaws, character flaws, or upbringing issues. However, no one knows for sure what causes anxiety disorders. They believe a number of factors are at play:

Environmental factors

A traumatic event may set off an anxiety disorder, especially in someone who has a genetic predisposition to develop one.

Hereditary

Anxiety disorders are more likely to run in families. Like eye color, you may inherit them from one or both parents.

Chemical imbalance

Prolonged or severe stress can alter the chemical balance that regulates your mood. An anxiety disorder can develop when a person is exposed to a lot of stress over a long period of time.

Signs and symptoms of anxiety

The symptoms of anxiety disorders differ depending on the type. Anxiety disorder symptoms in general include:

• Palpitations in the heart
• Nausea
• Tension in the muscles
• Cold or sweaty hands
• Dry mouth
• Hands and feet are numb or tingling.
• Breathing problems

Mental symptoms

• Panic
• Fear
• uneasiness
• Nightmares
• Recurrent memories or flashbacks of traumatic events
• Thoughts that are uncontrollable and obsessive

Behavioral symptoms

• inability to remain calm and still
• Sleeping problems.

Effects of Anxiety on the body

Some people find it difficult to manage their worries. Their anxiety is more persistent, and it can have a significant impact on their daily lives.

1. Anxiety Floods Your Brain with Stress Hormones.

When you're worried, your body goes into alert mode, signaling your brain to prepare for flight or fight.

Your brain floods your central nervous system with adrenaline and cortisol in an attempt to help you fight whatever has made you anxious.

These hormones alert your body that something frightening is about to occur.

Their job is to assist you in dealing with danger. They do this by sharpening your senses and quickening your reflexes.

2.  Anxiety Causes Your Brain to Be Overly Sensitive to Threats

Anxiety can cause your brain to become hypersensitive to threats. Your amygdala expands when you deal with anxiety on a regular basis.

The amygdala is a small almond-shaped structure in the limbic system, which is the part of your brain that controls emotions and moods.

The amygdala acts as a watchdog in your brain, constantly scanning for danger or threats.

When the amygdala detects a threat, it sends a signal to the hypothalamus, triggering the fight or flight response.

The amygdala is a large and hypersensitive structure in the anxious brain. As a result, the amygdala generates a lot of false alarms.

3. Anxiety can make it difficult for your brain to make rational decisions

The connections between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex are weakened by anxiety (PFC).

The prefrontal cortex should kick in and help you come up with a rational, logical response when the amygdala alerts the brain to danger.

The PFC ensures that you can process data analytically and make well-informed decisions, as well as assisting you in problem-solving. It can be thought of as your brain's wise counselor.

4. Anxiety can train your brain to remember bad things

Your body is under a lot of stress when you're anxious. The hippocampus, the part of the brain that processes long-term and contextual memory, shrinks as a result of stress.

To put it another way, anxiety reprograms your brain to remember failure, threat, and danger. Memories of success, achievement, and safety, for example, are buried deep in the basement of your brain.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

There are several types of anxiety disorders, which are divided into three categories:

1. Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders

Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders are characterized by intrusive, obsessive thoughts (for example, worrying constantly about staying clean or about one's body size) that lead to compulsive behaviours (e.g. repeated hand-washing, or excessive exercise). These behaviors are carried out to relieve the anxiety brought on by obsessive thoughts.

2. Disorders linked to traumatic events and stressors

Anxiety disorders caused by trauma (e.g., the unexpected death of a loved one, a car accident, or a violent incident such as war) or a stressor are known as trauma- and stressor-related anxiety disorders (e.g., divorce, beginning college, moving).

3. Fear-induced anxiety disorders

 Anxiety disorders characterized by excessive fear (emotional response to a perceived or real threat) and/or anxiety (worrying about a future threat) and can have negative behavioural and emotional consequences.

What Are the Different Anxiety Levels?

When you're under a lot of pressure, you're bound to feel anxious. Anxiety is your body's way of letting you know that something is making you feel unsafe or stressed.

Mild Anxiety

In everyday life, mild anxiety is common. You're probably open-minded, but stressed at this point. You might feel this way while waiting for a job performance review, or when you're lost in a new city.

Fidgeting, irritability, sweaty palms, and heightened senses are all possible symptoms.

Moderate Anxiety

When you're experiencing moderate anxiety, you're more likely to concentrate solely on the stressful situation in front of you and ignore other tasks. A faster heartbeat, dry mouth, sweating, and stomach pain or nausea are all possible symptoms.

Severe Anxiety Disorder

A pounding heartbeat, chest pain, headache, vomiting or diarrhoea, trembling, scattered thoughts, erratic behaviour, and a sense of dread are common symptoms of severe anxiety.

Your ability to focus and solve problems is impaired when you have severe anxiety, which can lead to even more anxiety.

Panic Level Anxiety

The most disruptive and difficult type of anxiety is panic, which overwhelms your ability to function normally. It's possible that you won't be able to move or speak, but it's also possible that the opposite will occur.

Stressors such as being a victim of a crime or experiencing a natural disaster can cause these types of reactions.

Your body reacts to anxiety in a variety of ways, with more symptoms and intensity as the level of anxiety rises.