Anxiety: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Coping Strategies
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You check your phone. You have fifteen new emails. There are three missed calls from the PTA, too. Also, you have a reminder for your daughter’s doctor appointment. You almost forgot! Your heart races. You think about your presentation deadline this afternoon. And there're the unfinished charity auction items in your car – the work you once loved is now beginning to feel like another chore.
You hurry between meetings. Your chest tightens with that familiar weight. Your breath grows shallow. You maintain a composed smile in morning meetings, all while worrying what the kids will eat for dinner.
After the day is done, you lay awake. Staring at the ceiling, your mind fills with tomorrow's impossible checklist. Sleep stays out of reach as your thoughts race. You feel exhausted but can’t stop worrying.
You’ve been telling yourself for weeks you’re just stressed. Now you’re starting to wonder if what you’re actually experiencing is anxiety…
What is Anxiety?
Stress is a natural part of life that everyone experiences in different ways. You may feel stressed, tired, or pressured when you have a lot to do. This can happen if you are facing work demands, money issues, or problems in your relationships. However, if stress becomes chronic and starts affecting your daily functioning, it could lead to an anxiety disorder.
Occasional anxiety is often a response to uncertainty about the future or worry about something that happened in the past.
Anxiety can show up as fear, tension, and worry. These feelings often come from real or imagined threats. Fear triggers the body's stress response. This is often called the "fight, flight, or freeze" reaction. This fight-or-flight state affects both the mind and body. It brings about changes in thinking, physical abilities, and behavior. For instance, you might notice an accelerated heart rate or more rapid breathing.
Anxiety triggers the body's fight-or-flight response. This causes several physical changes. These include a faster heart rate, better blood flow to muscles, deeper breathing, and tense muscles. Your body's reactions help you react quickly to danger. However, these reactions can be a problem if you have an anxiety disorder and many of our problems today are not physically dangerous. In these cases, the sensations can feel overwhelming and ever present. This may disrupt daily activities and lower your quality of life. The frequency and intensity of these experiences are what set normal stress apart from an anxiety disorder.
Understanding Stress and Anxiety
Stress is how our body or mind reacts to outside factors. These can include a big workload or a health problem. Stressors can be different. They might be one-time occurrences or short-term events. Sometimes, they can happen many times over a short period.
Anxiety is how your body reacts to stress. It can happen even when there’s no immediate danger. If anxiety doesn't go away and affects your daily life, it can be detrimental to your health and well-being.
Potential Health Impacts of Chronic Anxiety
Prolonged anxiety can affect various aspects of your health, including:
Sleep disturbances
Headaches
Weakened immune system
Digestive issues
Cardiovascular problems
Reproductive system complications
It’s understandable that you may feel anxiety about many of life’s challenges, such as:
Financial difficulties
Moving to a new home
Disagreeing with your boss
It's crucial to address chronic anxiety to maintain both physical and mental health. Ongoing stress can increase your risk of other health problems, such as heart issues or depression.
How Common are Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety disorders are some of the most common mental health issues in the United States. Approximately 40 million adults in the U.S. experience an anxiety disorder each year. This makes anxiety disorders the most common mental illnesses in the country.
Despite the high prevalence, treatment rates for anxiety disorders remain low. Only 36.9% of individuals suffering from anxiety disorders receive treatment. This significant treatment gap persists despite anxiety disorders being highly treatable.
The impact of anxiety disorders extends beyond mental health. People with anxiety disorders are three to five times more likely to seek medical care. People with anxiety disorders are six times more likely to need hospitalization for psychiatric issues than those without.
Anxiety disorders are a growing concern in the United States. In 2022, the Centers for Disease Control reported that around one in five U.S. adults, or 18.2%, had anxiety symptoms. This is an increase from 15.6% in 2019.
What increases the risks of anxiety?
Genetic Predisposition -- A family history of anxiety disorders or other mental health issues can raise your risk. Genetic factors may influence how the brain processes emotions and responds to stress.
Environmental Factors – Traumatic or very stressful events can cause anxiety disorders.
Examples include:
Childhood abuse or neglect
Being involved in a serious accident or natural disaster
Witnessing violence
Medical Conditions – Certain underlying health issues can contribute to the development of anxiety disorders.
Some may include:
Thyroid problems
Heart conditions
Respiratory disorders
Chronic pain
Knowing if these risk factors impact you gives you an edge in helping your healthcare providers further assess your risk. The earlier the intervention, the better.
Symptoms of Anxiety Disorder
If you are unable to manage stress or it seems to be prolonged, you may be at risk for an anxiety disorder. You may have an anxiety disorder if your symptoms:
Interfere with your everyday life
Cause you to avoid doing things
Seem to be always present
Physical Symptoms Everyone feels anxiety differently. You may have some physical symptoms such as:
rapid breathing
headaches
dizziness
shortness of breath
increased heart rate
Cognitive Symptoms You might experience cognitive symptoms like:
irritability
difficulty concentrating
feeling restless or unable to sit still
difficulty falling or staying asleep
persistent feeling of worry
Behavioral Symptoms Some people with anxiety change their behavior. They might avoid places, situations, or daily activities that make them anxious. Some examples might include:
Avoiding crowded places—Do you skip social events? Or grocery shop at odd hours to avoid people?
Changing daily routines – Do you take a longer route to avoid a certain location?
Avoiding work – Do you take time off to escape stressful situations at work?
Over-relying on safety behaviors – Do you often need a companion in certain situations?
Compulsively checking or seeking reassurance – Do you repeatedly check locks? Do you re-read messages to avoid misunderstandings?
Types of Anxiety Disorders
There are several types of anxiety disorders, including: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, panic disorder, specific phobia, agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder -- You may be experiencing Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) if you have persistent and widespread feelings of anxiety or apprehension. If these feelings don’t seem to have a specific trigger or focus, that also indicates GAD.
Unlike normal anxiety responses to stressful situations, those dealing with GAD have a constant state of worry that affects various aspects of daily life.
Other symptoms are difficulty relaxing and/or sleeping.
You may be experiencing GAD if the level of your worry is often out of proportion to the actual situation or likelihood of the feared outcomes.
Panic Disorder – People experiencing panic disorder have frequent, unexpected panic attacks. These attacks often have physical symptoms as well. Some of those may be a pounding heart (many fear they are having a heart attack), sweating, tunnel vision, changes in perception of sound, and difficulty breathing.
Triggers are usually unclear. However, some triggers may be stress, or intense physical exercise.
Specific phobia – Specific phobia is an intense, irrational fear of a particular object or situation.
Common phobias include fear of heights, spiders, or enclosed spaces. Despite understanding the irrationality of their fear, individuals with specific phobias struggle to control their reactions when confronted with the trigger.
Agoraphobia -- Agoraphobia is often mislabeled as a fear of open spaces or the outdoors. However, it is a fear of places, events, or situations that are hard to escape. It also involves avoiding places where help might not be available in emergencies.
Some common situations a person with agoraphobia may be scared of include:
using elevators
using public transport
leaving home, in some cases
Social anxiety disorder -- is an intense fear of social situations and negative judgement by others. Individuals with this disorder often experience:
persistent worry about being judged or scrutinized by others
fear of embarrassment or humiliation in social settings
avoidance of social interactions or specific types of social situations
If you experience any of these symptoms of social anxiety, you probably go to great lengths to avoid social situations, which can significantly impact your personal and professional life.
How are anxiety disorders diagnosed and treated?
Anxiety disorders can diminish your quality of life. They can harm social relationships, limit leisure activities, and disrupt daily tasks.
Seeking professional help is crucial for managing anxiety symptoms and improving well-being. To diagnose anxiety disorders, your healthcare provider will do a thorough evaluation. This includes asking about your symptoms and medical history. It may also involve a physical exam and may include tests to check for other medical issues. If doctors don't find a physical cause, they might send you to a mental health expert for evaluation.
Many people with anxiety disorders begin feeling better by seeing a therapist and, in some cases, taking medication. Some of these medications are antidepressants or beta blockers.
Talking to a therapist can be helpful. A therapist can help you understand what may be triggering and maintaining your anxiety. By understanding the triggers, a therapist can then help you learn tools and strategies to manage anxiety. Mindfulness practices, like meditation or deep breathing, can lower anxiety and boost well-being as well.
Therapy can give people tools to manage anxiety effectively. This helps improve their quality of life and reduces symptoms.
Self-Care and Coping Strategies for Anxiety
You can use some self-care strategies to manage your anxiety symptoms . Try:
Keeping a journal
Exercising and make sure you are eating healthy meals regularly
Sticking to a sleep routine and making sure you are getting at least 7 hours of sleep nightly
Identifying and challenging your negative and unhelpful thoughts (see previous blog post for strategies to do this here)
Reaching out to your friends or family members who help you cope in a positive way
Downloading an app for relaxation exercises like deep breathing or visualization
Remain connected to friends and family. Having a solid social support system is essential for managing anxiety. You can talk with friends and family or join a support group. Connecting with others gives you emotional support and encouragement. It helps you feel like you belong. This can greatly boost your overall well-being.
Getting Therapy for Anxiety
It's normal to feel anxious sometimes. But if your symptoms persist, worsen, or disrupt your daily life, you might have an anxiety disorder. If you or someone you know has these symptoms, seek help from a healthcare provider.
Support is available, you don't have to navigate anxiety alone. Getting professional help is the first step to managing your symptoms and improving your life. If you're struggling with ongoing stress or anxiety, seeking help can be a crucial step toward regaining control and finding relief.
Coral Rose Counseling in Alpharetta, Georgia, specializes in treating anxiety in women.
We conduct sessions online for women who live in Georgia or Virginia.
Click here to set up a consultation today.
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Resources
National Library of Medicine. (n.d.). Anxiety: What you need to know. MedlinePlus Magazine. https://magazine.medlineplus.gov/article/anxiety-what-you-need-to-know
National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). So stressed out: Fact sheet. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/so-stressed-out-fact-sheet
Medical News Today. (n.d.). What to know about anxiety. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323454
Anxiety and Depression Association of America. (n.d.). Incidence of anxiety in women. https://adaa.org/find-help-for/women/anxiety
National Center for Biotechnology Information. (n.d.). Psychotherapies for generalized anxiety disorder in adults. PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10585589/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). National Health Statistics Report No. 213. National Center for Health Statistics.
