Anxiety Disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Social Anxiety Affect millions of people worldwide. Are you experiencing symptoms of anxiety? If you are, you may be experiencing symptoms such as palpitations, a racing heart, chest pains, nausea and feelings of fear. In all reality, anxiety is a normal response to a threat or fear.
Although symptoms of anxiety might seem frightening, they are really just the body’s way of coping with a threat. Experiencing these symptoms does not necessarily make you a sufferer of an anxiety disorder. This is because we all have experienced the stress response in some form or another.
The stress response is essentially what we believe as symptoms of anxiety. Fear, worry and anxiety are interpreted by the body in limited ways. The body’s release of adrenaline and other stress hormones is it’s way of dealing with a threat.
A real threat and a perceived threat are interpreted by the subconscious in the same way. The stress response can potentially save you from a dangerous situation. For example, you’re traveling in your car, when a car speeds out in front of you. In a matter of seconds your body fires up a chain of chemical responses.
Your pupils dilate, your heart pumps more blood into your muscles and your awareness increases. These changes could help save your life or prevent an accident from happening. When this stress response triggers, it is what is believed to be a panic attack.
Fears are unique and are different for each person, what one person might see as a threat another does not. For instance, a social anxiety disorder sufferer might frequently have felt embarrassed in front of others and now finds it unbearable to be in public. They fear that a similar incident is going to occur again.
Thinking about a repeat incident alone might cause symptoms of anxiety. The subconscious sees the threat to one’s ego and self esteem. Unfortunately the body doesn’t recognize if there is real danger and goes ahead and releases hormones and adrenaline to prepare you for danger.
Human biology has remained relatively unchanged over the thousands of years but our environment, has changed drastically. The days of hunting for food with spears and fending off wild predators are long gone. Yet our stress response is being triggered too frequently in times of stress, anxiety, fear and worry.
Stress is recognized to be a major cause in mental health problems. This stress response has become overly sensitive in sufferers of anxiety disorders. This in turn causes frequent symptoms of anxiety and feelings of uneasiness.
Symptoms of anxiety are triggered by a learned response. Because of this there are ways to unlearn it or replace bad habits with good habits.
1 http://whatarethesymptoms.com/other-resources
2 http://menopause.factsandnews.com/menopause-resources.php
3 http://www.alzheimerssymptom.org/others.html
4 http://www.healthfitnessexercise.org/others.html
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