Anxiety is normal. In fact, it is a healthy response that puts your body and mind on the alert to handle challenging and dangerous situations. It can make you run faster when a stray dog chases you. It can help you carry heavy loads during a fire or an accident. It can save your life or help you pass a test.

However, constantly feeling anxious, even when there is no justifiable reason, can have a negative effect on your life. When an anxiety disorder puts your chemically driven “fight or flight” response in high gear, it can wreak havoc on your health, isolate you, and make it difficult to focus on other things that matter in your life.

Although anxiety is a functional and fundamental element of the human mind, it can be damaging when it is too strong and uncontrolled. Fear and worry can make you or a loved one their prisoner as they disrupt focus and interfere with life.

The Roots of Anxiety

What causes anxiety? Medical News Today (MNT) says it “may be caused by environmental factors, medical factors, genetics, brain chemistry, substance abuse, or a combination of these,” and it can be triggered by any stressful event in your life. WebMD says the triggers are generally external factors, such as issues at work/school or in personal relationships, a medical condition or its medication, substance abuse, financial troubles, or traumatic events.

Since there are many possible contributors to this emotional condition, it is hard to pinpoint the cause of an uncontrolled or aggravated “fight or flight” response. This is why professional help is important for the proper assessment and diagnosis of anxiety symptoms and their treatment. It is even more complicated with children, who may be unable to accurately express their thoughts and feelings and left confused and lost. The post The Anxious Child: Understanding Anxiety in Children will help you understand what may lead to it and how it can be triggered by distressing life events or experiences.

Recognizing the Signs of Anxiety

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) says, “There are several different types of anxiety disorders. Examples include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder.” Knowing the signs is helpful; recognizing them can prompt you to seek professional help.

People with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) usually exhibit symptoms such as jitters and restlessness, difficulty focusing, irritability, feeling tired all the time, muscle tension, and difficulty sleeping.

If you experience frequent panic attacks, you may have panic disorder. A panic attack is characterized by “intense fear that may include palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate; sweating; trembling or shaking; sensations of shortness of breath, smothering, or choking; and feeling of impending doom.”

If you struggle with social anxiety disorder or social phobia, you are likely to stiffen at the mere thought of meeting people, performing, or talking before a crowd. You are likely to be overwhelmed with a lot of emotions. You may feel apprehensive, worrying what people will think of you or that you may say or do the wrong things. You may feel overly self-conscious, embarrassed, and fearful. You may feel nauseous or tremble uncontrollably in social situations.

Apart from these three, anxiety disorders may also take the forms of: (1) specific phobias, which entail extreme fear of particular situations or objects; (2) obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which involves having thoughts you can’t shake off and doing things compulsively to make you feel calm; and (3) post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is triggered by a traumatic experience.

Curbing Anxiety Symptoms

The symptoms of severe anxiety can overwhelmingly affect your life. If you have a fear of flying (aerophobia or aviophobia), you may have to turn down a long-awaited job promotion that entails traveling and meeting with clients or suppliers. If you are experiencing PTSD after serving a deployment order, you may have a hard time reconnecting with your family. If your child often bursts into tears or feels jittery all over for no reason, they may avoid people, denying them the joys of having fun with peers.

If there is one important thing you must know about anxiety, it is the fact that it is treatable. Don’t fall for the myths that it is just in your head or that you can snap out of it if you’re determined enough. Anxiety is not just in your head. It is an emotional condition and it has physical, biological components. If you are eager to enjoy your life once more with your loved ones and a promising job that you can keep, find the help you need from Carolina Counseling Services – Sanford, NC.

You may be able to try some natural remedies to help you relax or calm down, but the value of talking to a caring and experienced therapist independently contracted with Carolina Counseling Services – Sanford, NC, can’t be discounted. They will not only assess your symptoms and make an accurate diagnosis of your type of anxiety, but also offer treatment options and discuss them with you. Anxiety can make you feel overwrought and make it difficult to think of anything else. Rather than bear the brunt of them, curb those symptoms with the help of a therapist contracted with CCS. All you need to do is to make that call now.