Types of Anxiety

Types of Anxiety

Americans are no strangers to anxiety. In fact, nearly 30% of adults in the United States are affected by an anxiety disorder at some point during their lives. While most everyone gets anxious from time to time, a true anxiety disorder can be much more serious and longer-lasting. Making matters more complicated, anxiety disorders can present themselves in a number of ways.
 

At Choulet Wellness in Scottsdale, Arizona, Dr. Brook Choulet and our highly experienced mental health team have considerable experience helping people manage and overcome anxiety disorders of all kinds, from phobias to panic disorders.
 

In this month’s blog, we want to focus on anxiety disorders and review a few of the more common ones.
 

Generalized anxiety disorder

As the name suggests, a generalized anxiety disorder is just that — general — and it’s often constant and persistent. The hallmark of a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an ongoing and heightened sense of dread, fear, or worry that overshadows your life. 

As a result, you apply this worry, fear, or feeling of helplessness to situations both large and small, and the effect can keep you from functioning your best.
 

Specific phobias

Of the primary anxiety disorders, specific phobias are the most common and affect 8-12% of adults in the United States.

Specific phobias refer to excessive fear of something, such as spiders, snakes, heights, flying, speaking in public, and more. This fear can cause you to avoid certain situations, and it may also lead to a panic attack when confronted by the object of your phobia.
 

Agoraphobia

While agoraphobia is a specific phobia, we want to break this one out as it’s one of the more debilitating phobias. With agoraphobia, you develop a disproportionate fear of situations in which you feel you can’t escape. According to the American Psychiatric Association, to qualify as having agoraphobia, the condition should last more than six months and include a fear of at least two of these situations:

  • Using public transportation
  • Being in open spaces or, conversely, being in enclosed spaces
  • Being in a crowd
  • Leaving your home alone
 

This type of anxiety disorder can be quite serious and lead to never leaving one’s house.
 

Panic disorder

A panic disorder leads to acute attacks, during which you’re overwhelmed by physical and psychological distress.These attacks can cause:

  • Heart palpitations
  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
  • Sweating
  • Trembling
  • Nausea
  • Chest pain or tightness
 

Unfortunately, many of these symptoms mimic a heart attack, yet a panic attack is, physically speaking, mostly harmless. The frequency of these attacks varies considerably. Some people have only one or two a year, while others have panic attacks several times a week.
 

Social anxiety disorder

This type of anxiety disorder describes a condition in which you’re terrified or excessively worried about social situations. You may avoid social events because you’re afraid that you’ll embarrass yourself or that people won’t like you.
 

Separation anxiety disorder

As the name implies, this type of anxiety disorder occurs when you become overly attached to someone and you dislike being away from them. When you’re away from them, you might obsess about their safety and whether you’ll see them again.
 

Treating anxiety disorders

As you can see, anxiety can crop up in many forms, and each can affect your life in very serious and meaningful ways. The good news is that anxiety disorders are very treatable, and we work with you until your anxiety no longer controls your life.

To do this, we take a multi-pronged approach that might include one or more of the following:

 

If you’re tired of feeling like a prisoner to your anxiety, call 480-448-6571 or book an appointment online with Choulet Wellness. We’re based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and we also serve the Paradise Valley area.

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