What brings on anxiety: Anxiety disorders – Symptoms and causes
Anxiety Causes and Prevention
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
Medically Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on April 24, 2022
- How Can I Prevent Anxiety?
Anxiety may be caused by a mental condition, a physical condition, the effects of drugs, stressful life events, or a combination of these. The doctor’s initial task is to see if your anxiety is a symptom of another medical condition.
Anxiety disorders are different from normal anxiety. They are the most common form of mental illness in the United States, affecting nearly 1 in 5 adults. They can involve periods of excessive worrying or fear that is more than you would expect from everyday kinds of stressors.
Common causes of anxiety include these disorders:
- Panic disorder: In addition to anxiety, common symptoms of panic disorders are palpitations (feeling your heartbeat), dizziness, and shortness of breath. These same symptoms also can be caused by coffee (caffeine), amphetamines (“speed” is the street slang for amphetamines when they are not prescribed by a doctor), other stimulants such as cocaine, an overactive thyroid, abnormal heart rhythms, and other heart abnormalities (such as mitral valve prolapse).
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Phobic disorders
- Stress disorders
Life events that can cause anxiety:
- Stress at work
- Stress from school
- Stress in a personal relationship such as marriage
- Financial stress
- Stress from global occurrences or political issues
- Stress from unpredictable or uncertain world events, like a pandemic
- Stress from an emotional trauma such as the death of a loved one
- Stress from a serious medical illness
Other outside factors that can cause anxiety:
- Medication side effects
- Use of an illicit drug, such as cocaine
- Symptoms of a medical illness (such as heart attack, heat stroke, hypoglycemia)
- Lack of oxygen in circumstances as diverse as high altitude sickness, emphysema, or pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the vessels of the lung)
The doctor has the often-difficult task of determining which symptoms come from which causes.
For example, in a study of people with chest pain — a sign of heart disease — 43% were found to have a panic disorder, not a heart-related condition.
The United States Preventive Service Task Force recommends screening for anxiety in children and adolescents ages 8 to 18 years and recommends screening for major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescents ages 12 to 18 years.
Coping mechanisms may help you handle anxiety that comes from life’s stressors. Here are some things you can try:
- Exercise
- Meditation
- Relaxation exercises, including deep breathing
- Visualization
- Good sleep habits
- Healthy diet
- Learn interpersonal skills for dealing with difficult people and situations or get parenting skills training for help dealing with your children
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How Are Anxiety Disorders Treated?
There are a number of treatment approaches for anxiety disorders.
The type of treatment you receive will depend on your anxiety symptoms and type of disorder.
Not every treatment works for every person. You may need to try a number of treatments, or combinations of treatments, before finding what works for you.
The main treatments for anxiety disorders include:
- Psychotherapy (talk therapy with a trained mental health professional)
- Medications
- Exercise
- Complementary and alternative treatments
What Medications Are Prescribed for Anxiety Disorders?
A range of medications are available to treat anxiety disorders, and they’re often used in conjunction with therapy. You may also be prescribed a combination of medications.
The two general types of medications used to treat anxiety disorders are:
- Antidepressants (despite the name, they’re the first-line medication for anxiety)
- Anti-anxiety medications (sometimes called anxiolytics)
Although in the short-term, drugs may seem cheaper and less time-consuming than therapy, you may not be able to overcome your anxiety using medication alone.
RELATED: Which Medications Are Best for Anxiety Disorders?
What Kind of Therapy Is Best for Anxiety?
A form of psychotherapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is often used to treat anxiety disorders. CBT focuses on changing unhealthy thinking and behavior patterns through talk sessions with a trained therapist. Many studies have shown that it is very effective in the treatment of anxiety.
During CBT, you’ll work together with your therapist to develop positive techniques for coping with your anxiety symptoms. You’ll also learn to identify and manage factors that contribute to your anxiety.
CBT may involve learning how to change harmful thought patterns so that you experience less anxiety over time. You also may learn relaxation techniques — such as deep-breathing exercises — to help counteract your symptoms.
CBT is not a quick fix. A typical course of CBT takes about three or four months, but you may start to see benefits sooner than that, and the benefits may last much longer.
“One of the biggest strengths of CBT is that the improvement tends to be durable and long-lasting,” says Suma Chand, PhD, the director of the cognitive behavior therapy program at St. Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri. “By the end of the sessions, the person has learned strategies that can be used for the rest of his or her life. Most importantly, the treatment results in changes in the thinking patterns and beliefs that had maintained their anxiety.”
There are several different variations of CBT. One type of CBT is called exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is used to treat certain phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder, among other conditions. It involves gradually facing a feared situation or object, causing you to become less fearful over time.
Research on the efficacy of therapy administered through the internet is still developing, but some studies suggest it might be just as helpful as going into your therapist’s office, depending on the condition being treated.
Other forms of therapy, such as dynamic therapy (what you probably think of when you think of traditional talk therapy) can also be helpful, depending on the form of anxiety and the amount of time one is able to spend in therapy.
Does Exercise Reduce Anxiety?
Exercise may be used alongside medication and/or psychotherapy to treat anxiety disorders.
One review of multiple studies, published in 2015, found that exercise may be as helpful as medication or CBT to those with anxiety or anxiety disorders and may work better than a placebo (inactive pill).
The findings in another review of studies, published in 2017, underscore that exercise significantly reduced symptoms and is an important treatment option for people with anxiety disorders.
But experts recognize that exercise may be the last thing those struggling with anxiety want to put on their to-do list, and it can be hard to put those routines in place. “Some people have anxiety so extreme that a 10-minute walk can be hard to undertake,” says Beth Salcedo, MD, a past board president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of American (ADAA).
“Anxiety and depression, which often occur together, lead to lower motivation, so it may be that medication might help in this case to give patients enough energy to exercise,” says Ken Duckworth, MD, the chief medical officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
RELATED: Best Stress and Anxiety Relief Products
Natural Remedies for Anxiety — Do They Work?
- Meditation There’s some scientific evidence that meditation — especially a type of meditation training called mindfulness-based stress reduction — can help reduce anxiety and depression symptoms.
- Yoga Yoga combines physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation. Research suggests that practicing yoga can help reduce anxiety by reducing the body’s stress response.
- Acupuncture Some scientific evidence suggests that acupuncture — the Chinese practice of inserting thin needles into the body at certain points — can help reduce anxiety symptoms. But the research is variable and inconsistent.
- Kava This dietary supplement comes from the crushed root of a Polynesian shrub. A review of studies published in 2018 found that kava appeared to be an effective short-term (less than eight weeks) treatment for anxiety.Speak with your doctor before using kava; kava supplements have been linked to severe liver damage in some people.
- Lavender Lavender oil is commonly used in aromatherapy. Some people believe that this scent has a calming or soothing effect. A 2019 meta-analysis of evidence on the use of lavender to lower anxiety levels found that it may be effective but that more, high-quality studies are needed.
- St. John’s Wort Supplements made from the St. John’s wort plant have been used to treat depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders. But research hasn’t shown that it’s effective in treating anxiety, and it may be dangerous to take with certain drugs, including antidepressants, contraceptives, and HIV and cancer medications.
- Valerian This medicinal herb has been used to treat anxiety and depression for centuries.While research suggests it can help with insomnia, there isn’t enough scientific evidence to know whether valerian is an effective treatment for anxiety disorders.
But the research is variable and inconsistent.
Additional reporting by Carlene Bauer.
Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking
- Anxiety Disorders. National Alliance on Mental Illness. December 2017.
- Beyond Worry: How Psychologists Help With Anxiety Disorders. American Psychological Association. 2016.
- Kaczkurkin AN, Foa EB. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: An Update on the Empirical Evidence. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. September 2015.
- Frequently Asked Questions. Anxiety and Depression Association of America. August 4, 2021.
- Andersson G, Rozental A, Shafran R, Carlbring P. Long-Term Effects of Internet-Supported Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics. January 2018.
- Stonerock GL, Hoffman BM, Smith PJ, Blumenthal JA. Exercise as Treatment for Anxiety: Systematic Review and Analysis. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. August 2015.
- Stubbs B, Vancampfort D, Rosenbaum S, et al. An Examination of the Anxiolytic Effects of Exercise for People With Anxiety and Stress-Related Disorders: A Meta-Analysis. Psychiatry Research. March 2017.
- Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients With Panic Disorder, 2nd Edition [PDF]. American Psychiatric Association. January 2009.
- Anxiety at a Glance. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. December 2018.
- Saeed SA, Cunningham K, Bloch RM. Depression and Anxiety Disorders: Benefits of Exercise, Yoga, and Meditation. American Family Physician. May 15, 2019.
- Smith K, Leiras C. The Effectiveness and Safety of Kava Kava for Treating Anxiety Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. November 2018.
- Anxiety and Complementary Health Approaches: What the Science Says. NCCIH Clinical Digest for Health Professionals. August 2020.
- Donelli D, Antonelli M, Bellinazzi C, et al. Effects of Lavender on Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Phytomedicine. December 2019.
- St. John’s Wort. University of Michigan Health. February 16, 2015.
- Valerian. Mount Sinai.
January 2018.
Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. November 2018.Show Less
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How to distinguish anxiety from increased anxiety, to react sensibly to circumstances and get rid of constant anxiety?
The feeling of anxiety itself is natural for a person: experiencing it, our body tells us about an approaching danger or a probable risk to life or health. Anxiety, tension, fear – these emotions are absolutely normal in a stressful situation, but at the same time, they, experienced regularly, can talk about more serious mental problems, including mental disorders.
Anxiety — this word can describe a complex of negative emotions, including stress, panic, fear, concern, and more — is normal and not dangerous for a person. These emotions can go into a state of anxiety disorder with their regularity and constancy: anxiety itself becomes, as it were, “chronic” due to genetic factors or environmental conditions and can be expressed in several forms.
One form of “chronic” anxiety is adaptive anxiety disorder, in which a person experiences stress and tension while trying to adjust to a stressful situation. Here we are talking about adaptation to a new, unfamiliar environment or living conditions: the slightest changes cause feelings of panic, confusion, anxiety. Generalized anxiety disorder often accompanies diagnosed depression: a constant feeling of anxiety is inevitably associated with an irrational fear for one’s life, work, and future. Finally, experts single out an anxiety-phonic disorder accompanied by panic attacks: fear of a large crowd of people, fear of death, fear of a serious illness, the threat of which in reality may not even exist – only part of the anamnesis of people suffering from this form of disorder.
According to the American Anxiety and Depression Association, about 40 million American adults suffer from an anxiety disorder.
In Russia, there are 9 million such people. These are only diagnosed cases: the number of people who regularly experience anxiety, but do not turn to specialists, can be much higher not only in Russia, but throughout the world.
Increased Anxiety: Checklist and Problem Markers
American anxiety specialist Jill Weber in her book Be Calm divides the signs of anxiety into several criteria. They can be related to feelings, behavior or even thoughts of a person. The easiest way to define your own anxiety is precisely on the first point: emotions such as anger, irritability, sadness, feelings of hopelessness or despair can signal that you will experience anxiety. Feelings can be not only mental, but also physical: palpitations or indigestion, as well as dizziness are additional markers of anxiety that a person may experience.
Anxiety can also manifest itself in human behavior and negatively affect the quality of life.
Giving up favorite activities that used to bring pleasure, avoiding meetings with people or important work events are just some of the examples of how anxiety can affect a person’s daily routine. Because of anxiety, a person feels that he is no longer able to perform daily activities – go to groceries or drive a car, and even do things that are unusual for him, says Weber. For example, in a stressful situation, he may refuse to communicate with friends, even if he is in the same room with them.
Thoughts are also an important set of signals that a person is experiencing anxiety. They can manifest themselves in irrational attitudes – for example, the conviction that if you don’t return home now and don’t check the iron, then the apartment will certainly burn down, winding yourself up (constant concentration on the negative aspects of the probable future), self-abasement (diffidence in yourself and your own abilities) .
Accompanied by stress and fear, the listed symptoms directly indicate that a person experiences precisely an increased sense of anxiety – this condition can be dangerous, because it directly affects many areas of everyday life.
A sign of excessive anxiety can also be regular modeling of situations like “What if …”: a person tries to predict the worst scenario for the development of events, which may not even be related to reality, and, therefore, worsen his condition, because thoughts in this case are constantly focus only on a supposedly inevitable and bad future.
However, the mere fact that there is a feeling of anxiety does not indicate any problem: it is important that it is not only compatible with the criteria described by Weber, but that it is in itself distinguishable from fear. It, unlike anxiety, comes from “real threats from the outside world” and is rather momentary: a person understands what caused it, and realizes that, having found a way out of a stressful situation, fear will come to naught. Anxiety, on the other hand, is based on possible events, it is irrational and may have nothing to do with the surrounding reality, but it risks becoming a problem if a person overestimates the likely threats.
“Anxiety is natural and is an adequate response if provoked by fear of a real danger. But if anxiety negatively affects your life and health: it develops into constant tension, anxiety, or avoidance of certain contacts or situations, then it ceases to be justified, ”the psychologist writes.
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Causes of anxiety and ways to deal with it
Stanislav Raevsky, a psychoanalyst and creator of the Anti-Panic therapy app, shares feelings of anxiety and anxiety. So, according to him, anxiety informs a person about a danger or threat to life, health or property that must be avoided. Anxiety is more likely a character trait of people in whom this anxiety is more often manifested and more pronounced. “Anxiety can be stimulated by situations that only in fantasy are a danger, but in reality they do not carry such a threat,” Raevsky says.
It is useless to drive away anxiety from yourself: if you close the door to your consciousness, it will come through the window, in your dreams or other symptoms and will only develop relatives, health and property. “Anxiety triggers can be different, the fact of the threat of war and the fear of it can be very strong – this is how it is in all of us,” the psychoanalyst emphasizes.
The media not only increase anxiety, but also exploit it. “Our psyche is so arranged that it is something terrible, disturbing that attracts us most of all. We are automatically included in this stronger than in some kind of sexual stimulus or food. We are interested in what can scare, so people cannot take their eyes off the conditional accident, the modern news feed consists of what exploits anxiety, what makes your anxiety turn on, ”says Raevsky.
“It is useless to drive away anxiety from yourself: if you close the door to your consciousness, it will come through the window, in your dreams or other symptoms, and will only develop.
- When dealing with anxiety, you do not need to calm yourself down. This rarely works out, so it’s better, on the contrary, to imagine the worst thing that can happen, understand the consequences of this and accept them. If you are afraid that the current situation will hit your well-being, you need to think about how you can cope with this blow. By imagining a terrible situation and living it, we do not chase away anxiety, but, on the contrary, we accept it.
- We worry not only with the head, but also with the body, so it is important to learn to relax and be aware of your breathing. It determines how much we worry.
Raevsky and his fellow psychologists posted detailed instructions to help cope with anxiety in the Antipanika app. Breathwork will help you deal with panic, anxiety, and emotional stress, and experts suggest the following ways:0005
– through holding the breath: slow breath – delay for 7 seconds – slow exit;
— by counting: while inhaling, count to yourself from one to four, repeat the same count while holding your breath and exhaling;
– through slow breathing: inhale slowly, exhale slowly, then hold for 7 seconds and repeat the steps.
Panic attack during anxiety is an absolutely normal and safe reaction of the body: you should not be afraid of it.
Experts from the American psychological resource Mayo Clinic Health System also give their advice to those who suffer from anxiety.
- increase physical activity – create a new habit of playing sports on a daily basis;
- avoid cigarettes or caffeinated drinks, as they increase anxiety together with nicotine;
- identify triggers – study what situations and events become the starting point of experiences, and write them down along with the emotions that the person experienced. It is best to deal with stress itself together with a psychologist who will select an individual way for the client to deal with anxiety.
The American Depression and Anxiety Association has similar recommendations. So, psychologists suggest openly expressing your emotions to relatives and friends, and not hiding them.
How to deal with anxiety: ways to get rid of stress and fear
How to identify anxiety
Sometimes we get so used to the constant state of anxiety that we stop noticing it and take it for granted. Symptoms of anxiety mainly depend on the nature of a particular person. All people react differently to stressful situations. But two large groups of symptoms can be distinguished:
Physical. A person’s state of health changes, his hands begin to shake, his pulse accelerates. This condition often appears immediately after a situation that caused anxiety: the loss of a loved one, the breakup of a relationship, dismissal.
Emotional. In addition to physical manifestations, a person feels morally ill. He is either very agitated and cannot sit still, or depressed, feels depressed and unable to do his usual activities. There is constant anxiety, a panic attack may begin. It is very difficult to switch and stop thinking about the problem. It looks like something terrible is about to happen.
Emotional and sensitive people show more symptoms. They feel physically unwell and have a hard time coping with feelings of anxiety. A person does not always sensibly assess the situation and may not understand that he needs help. Manifestations of anxiety are often mistaken for health problems or ordinary overwork.
Causes of increased anxiety in an adult
Anxiety appears due to one or more factors: diseases of the endocrine system, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, constant lack of sleep, a side effect of certain medications, stressful situations, post-traumatic disorder.
Also, the reasons often lie in the characteristics of the character – emotionality, excessive susceptibility, perfectionism. A person attaches too much importance to trifles, tries to bring everything to perfection and sets the bar too high for himself.
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Species anxiety disorders
The following types of anxiety disorders are common:
Obsessive-compulsive — an obsessive state of constant anxiety. At the initial stage, a person constantly worries about his safety. He checks several times whether the iron is turned off, whether the front door is closed, etc. Self-distrust appears: “Have I really set the apartment on the alarm?”. The condition is so obsessive that it is impossible to do anything until you check yourself several times.
Phobia – constant anxiety about mundane and harmless things that
do not cause a serious threat: confined space, fear of the street, certain situations, etc. A person tries to avoid meeting with the object of his anxiety, because of this he worries and brings himself to a state of panic.Anxiety-depressive disorder (neurosis) — this type of anxiety is very common among modern people. In parallel, signs of depression and normal anxiety appear, as well as health problems – a feeling of a lump in the throat, frequent urination, tremors of the limbs, dizziness, etc.
Generalized anxiety disorder – anxiety for no apparent reason. Constant feeling of anxiety, unable to concentrate on the usual daily activities. But the patient cannot understand what exactly worries him so much.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe degree of anxiety that occurs after a certain traumatic situation (war, earthquake, etc.). A person is almost always anxious, it constantly seems to him that the stressful event will happen again.
It’s just pointless to drive her away – it’s best to go to a psychologist, ”the specialist notes. However, in some cases, a person can overcome anxiety on their own, and Raevsky offers some tips for those who want to cope with this feeling on their own.
We breathe often – anxiety is present, we breathe evenly and calmly – it becomes less.
It is important to remind yourself of this during such an attack: you need to say to yourself that the onset attack is not dangerous for your health, it will not last forever and will end in 20-30 minutes. When panicking, a person begins to breathe rapidly, so it will be effective to try to slow down breathing so that the blood is not oversaturated with oxygen and this does not lead to dizziness or numbness of the skin. After the attack, the psychologist recommends trying to analyze your emotions, trying to understand what exactly causes your fear, how rational it is, whether it can be realized right now – this will help you understand that what a person is afraid of will not happen at this very moment. It is important to write down the thoughts that are spinning in the victim’s head at this moment in order to analyze them again later.
So, in order to defeat the regular feeling of anxiety, or at least reduce its severity, experts suggest:
In addition, when feeling anxious, you need to try to accept the fact that a person cannot control absolutely everything, and the main thing that he can do is to focus on himself and his own emotions. Breathing practices or counting from 1 to 10 or 20 can help with this – it will also restore breathing and reduce the frequency of heart beats.
It becomes difficult to fall asleep, there is a constant weakness, headaches appear. Before an important exam or surgery, a person may constantly want to go to the toilet. Often there is a “bear disease” – sudden diarrhea.
