Anxiety

Anxiety can affect both your body and mind.

The effect on your mind can include:

• a feeling of dread or fearing the worst

• feeling on edge or panicky

• difficulty concentrating

• irritability

• feeling detached from yourself or the world around you

Physical feelings can include:

• restlessness

• feeling dizzy or light-headed

• wobbly legs or pins and needles in your hands and feet

• shortness of breath or hyperventilating

• heart palpitations (a noticeably strong, fast heartbeat)

• nausea (feeling sick)

• needing the toilet more or less often

• sweating

• sleep problems

• panic attacks

Anxiety can also affect your behaviour:

• You may withdraw from friends and family

• Feel unable to go to work

• Avoid certain places

(While avoiding situations can give you short-term relief, the anxiety often returns the next time you’re in the situation. Avoiding it only reinforces the feeling of danger and never gives you a chance to find out whether your fears are true or not)

Some people with anxiety may appear to be fine on the outside while still having some of the symptoms listed above. You may have developed ways of hiding your anxiety so that other people don’t notice it.

Anxiety can be experienced in lots of different ways. If your experiences meet certain criteria your doctor might diagnose you with a specific anxiety disorder.

Some commonly diagnosed anxiety disorders are:

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) 

this means having regular or uncontrollable worries about many different things in your everyday life. Because there are lots of possible symptoms of anxiety this can be quite a broad diagnosis, meaning that the problems you experience with GAD might be quite different from another person's experiences.

______________________________

Social anxiety disorder 

this diagnosis means you experience extreme fear or anxiety triggered by social situations (such as parties, workplaces, or any situation in which you have to talk to another person). It is also known as social phobia. (See our page on types of phobia for more information.)

______________________________

Panic disorder 

this means having regular or frequent panic attacks without a clear cause or trigger. Experiencing panic disorder can mean that you feel constantly afraid of having another panic attack, to the point that this fear itself can trigger your panic attacks. (See our page on panic attacks for more information.)

______________________________

Phobias 

a phobia is an extreme fear or anxiety triggered by a particular situation (such as social situations) or a particular object (such as spiders). (More  page on phobias for more information.)

______________________________

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 

this is a diagnosis you may be given if you develop anxiety problems after going through something you found traumatic. PTSD can cause flashbacks or nightmares which can feel like you’re re-living all the fear and anxiety you experienced during the actual event. (See our pages on PTSD for more information.)

______________________________

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

you may be given this diagnosis if your anxiety problems involve having repetitive thoughts, behaviours or urges. (See our pages on OCD for more information.)

______________________________

Health anxiety 

this means you experience obsessions and compulsions relating to illness, including researching symptoms or checking to see if you have them. It is related to OCD. (You can find out more about health anxiety on the Anxiety UK website.)

______________________________

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) 

this means you experience obsessions and compulsions relating to your physical appearance. (See our pages on BDD for more information.)

______________________________