It is an anxiety disorder with which hundreds of millions of the earth's population share-it is quite very mentally and emotionally charged. It is because of the uncertainty of the outcome that the threat develops and comes up at any given time, like during a major life choice, public speaking, etc. But in some, it may become chronic due to the worry, fear, or even the uneasiness that hampers their daily living routines. So, in this following blog, it will describe the nature of anxiety, symptoms, causes, its effects on everyday life, and also some ways of effective coping.

What is Anxiety?

anxiety is termed to be an emotional response to stress or fear. It often comprises emotions of fear, distress, or even anxiety pertaining to situations or events which are most likely to happen or not in the future. Mild levels of anxiety translate to a normal response to stress. It makes the body activate what people call the "fight or flight" response. That is, preparation for if there is a threat or challenge perceived. If anxiety becomes chronic and extreme, it then begins to progressively disrupt ordinary functioning for anybody.

the anxiety disorder is the most common diagnosis in the globe in the mental illnesses. for example, an estimation that in the United States alone about 40 million adults acquire an anxiety disorder yearly. this ranges from the wide scope of general anxiety disorders, panic disorders, social anxiety disorder, and specific phobias.

the Causes of Anxiety

Causes of anxiety are multi-factoral, cutting across psychological, biological, as well as environmental factors. Some fall victims to the condition due to the genetic backgrounds they have had while others develop the problem through life experiences or other various causes. Of the common causes and factors that predispose one into developing this condition are as described below:

1. Genetics and Family History

The other fact is that anxiety disorders are also determined to possess a tendency of inheritance. In short, an anxious person possesses the chance of getting infected if he or she had affected family members. There are genetic factors determining how a brain would behave during the process of stress or fearful condition therefore making some people vulnerable to anxious disorders.

2. Brain Chemistry

Serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid, and dopamine, amongst others. This controls the mechanism by which that feeling is based on an imbalance of such chemicals. The being of this person has an extreme nervousness more than it is justified for such actions. For, their brains simply become hypersensitive to all possible responses created by fears, which happen to appear from their amygdalas. Every time anxiety-disorder patients show this above-responsive brain section, found specifically in the amygdalas.

3. Severe Stressful or Traumatic Events

it is very often in the sense of stressful or traumatic life events like for instance abuse, losing a loved member of the family or any other change that might be very hurtful like divorce or being retrenched to enable triggering of the anxiety disorder. Some other chronic diseases like economic stress and even poisonous relationships fall together as this condition. That is to say, the brain could be trained to increase danger sensitivity and apprehension every time it catches or even detects danger or insecurity.

4. Medical Conditions

Medical conditions cause anxiety. Living with pulmonary disease or coronary disease or being under the control of thyroid conditions can simply keep such patients feeling anxious, more or less, due to fear of potential associated physical symptoms or simply due to health.
It might be an extension of other drugs or even alcohol, caffeine, and drugs

5. Personality and Temperament

Some personality puts one into this kind of anxiety disorder. The more sensitive and perfectionistic a person is in his or her nature, the more anxious the individual may be in his or her attitude to being worrisome. Other determinants that characterize a response to stress include the fact that a person has had during his or her childhood under a highly controlling environment that may also end up turning out to be overprotective of its child during his or her growth.

6. Social and Environmental Factors

Other relevant contributory factors may include the living condition of people that may evoke the degree of anxiety. Social problems may be an offshoot of bullying, peer pressure, or social support that may attribute to reasons why children and teens have been rising in high anxious levels. Finance problems and pressures brought by the big world, plus work stress are also other contributions to anxiety.

Symptoms of Anxiety

One might experience extremely low levels of anxiety but some symptoms are highly acute. Most typical symptoms and signs of anxiety are the following:

1. Physical Symptoms

Some of the physical feeling of anxiety are

Racing Heartbeat:

The heart begins to beat fast because the body has entered the "fight or flight" response.

Difficulty Breathing:

One starts feeling that he cannot breathe or that one can't catch their breath when somebody is afflicted by anxiety.

Shivering or shakings:

The tight body muscles cause twitching or even shivering.

Hyper salivation:

stimulating the salivary gland will cause hyper salivation,

Headache or dizziness:

The tight muscle brings headaches, dizzy, may cause other complications

Tummy problems or nausea:

this upsets the digestive mechanism that causes problems from stomach, and also nausea conditions or similar conditions that are caused on the tummy.

Fatigue:

Anxiety is really very tiresome and could even give someone sleeplessness.

2. Emotional Symptoms

Excessive worry:

This symptom occurs in anxiousness about more issues going to happen although nothing to make them really concern is actually present at their surrounding.

Restlessness:

These with anxiety are, above all restlessness and uneasy or tensed cannot seat and sits easily.

Fear of losing control:

Lack of ego boundaries over thoughts or self. The anxieties could be present in the form of predictions made of catastrophic potentialities or as potential lack of control over brain machinery and emotional functioning

Emotional reactivity:

irritation and frustration could be relatively at a high level similar to chronic anxiety.

Lack of concentration:

the brain is abuzz with something that is feared or worried over; such things are what truly cause a lack of ability to focus on activities or the proper choices.

3. Behavioral Symptoms

Avoidance:

people with the disorder of anxiety commonly seek to avoid anything that will provoke the fears existing inside of them. This may even include social functions or other speaking types of events.

Obsessive Behaviors:

Even some will become obsessive behaviors like checking or ritualistic performance solely for a momentary alleviation of the pain of their anxiety.

4. Panic Attacks

Other people experience panic attacks. Panic attacks are extreme feelings of fear or discomfort. Such attacks may last for a few minutes. Some of the symptoms include chest pain, inability to breathe, dizziness, shivering, and disconnection from reality. Panic attacks may just attack one, and one may feel powerless while experiencing them.

Consequences of Anxiety in Daily Life

Even worse, anxieties can become chronic or even worse-case scenarios since, for one, the person with an anxiety disorder cannot easily go to work, school, maintain relationships, and any form of social activity. Because of this, constant and constant fear and anxiety affect that ability to enjoy everyday tasks or even life as the person might be.

A concerned person is vulnerable to other psychological illnesses. This means, for this reason, anxiety would lead to depression. Part of the poor thinking with stress and anxiety makes them hard to cope with other issues. For instance, the worried individual learns some of the worst negative coping that exaggerates issues. Among the worst coping strategies which will perpetuate their problem; such as eating too much, taking substance or avoiding people.

Mechanisms for Coping Anxiety

Despite the fact that anxiety symptoms may be either mild or severe, there is an avenue of coping with it and mitigating its impact. In reality, ways of coping with anxiety can be broadly divided into three categories: lifestyle changes, psychological techniques, and medical treatments.

1. Lifestyle Changes

Exercise:

The constant performance of physical activities would reduce anxiety because endorphins are chemicals that improve mood and induce relaxation.

Sleep:

This is very fundamental in the regulation of emotions which necessarily includes some night rest of about 7-9 hours.

Healthy diet:

This keeps the proper nutrition-diet rich in full nutritional intake; hence the brain is healthy, it minimizes all the anxiety disorders related to physical anxiety.

intake of the excess amounts of alcohol and caffeine should be stopped by one in order to abstain from high levels of physical anxieties.

Mindfulness and relaxation techniques:

 deep breathing, and yoga in engaging the parasympathetic nervous system in order to activate relaxation and decrease anxiety.

2. Psychological Techniques

the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT):

this is one of the most effective forms of therapies through which an individual becomes capable of the identifying and changing those negative thought patterns that contribute to her or his anxiety. a person learns to change the irrational thoughts leading to low levels of anxiety.

Exposure therapy:

It refers to the exposure of an individual to his detested situation or object in a controlled environment. Gradually, it helps to desensitize an individual to his fears and reduces anxiety.

Mindfulness-based therapy:

Mindfulness practice, ability to focus attention on the present, and cultivation of acceptance might allow clients to work with anxious thoughts with no judgment or avoidance.

3. Medical Treatments

Medication:

They can be on medication to help minimize or reduce the severity of some symptoms that a patient might expect to feel about during anxiety attacks. Included are antidepressants, benzodiazepines or SSRIs. All such medications should only be undertaken under prescription by a healthcare provider.

Therapy:

It is not CBT alone that is used to reduce anxiety disorders. Other therapies include psychodynamic therapy, or acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).

Conclusion

Anxiety is one of the most common disabling conditions, which affects everybody, regardless of the walk of life he or she belongs to. Anxiety is a normal response to stress, but is viewed as pathological when it impairs functioning. It is such a grip on what causes it to appear, and what its impact does that makes someone figure out when to ask for help. It is just that the people will eventually learn to cope with the anxiety levels by adopting the healthiest coping mechanisms as they seek professional help in a state where it becomes inevitable. If anyone from your close circle or probably you is suffering from anxiety, then there is help available and that is why you need to reach for it when it is in need.