The most common psychological symptoms of anxiety disorders are: tension, worry, panic, a sense of unreality, fear of going crazy, fear of dying, fear of losing control, difficulty concentrating (“thoughts in bursts ”), the surrounding world seems unreal.
The most common physical symptoms are: tremor; sweating; palpitations and tachycardia; the stunning; the sense of dizziness; muscle tension; nausea; numbness; stomach pain; tingling in the extremities of the body; tremor of the hands; dry mouth; limp legs; the loss of balance; a frequent need to urinate; stiffness in the neck
The first task for the psychotherapist is to help the person keep their anxiety under control, bringing it back into a normal psychological and physiological reaction. To do this, there are very specific strategies, which the patient can learn and implement.
What can trigger an anxiety disorder?
Anxiety can be caused by a slight hyperventilation that is prolonged over time. In fact, breathing too quickly decreases carbon dioxide levels and causes respiratory alkalosis, thus leading to a lower amount of oxygen in the brain and throughout the body and consequently to the physical symptoms of anxiety.
Thinking in a negative way worsens the state of anxiety: you can think of an unpleasant situation and make it worse by continuing to ruminate; or you can spend a lot of time worrying about something that will never happen anyway; other people’s behaviors and thoughts can be misunderstood.
Tips for those dealing with a person who manifests more or less strong fears:
When dealing with a person who is suffering from some fear, you should not force them to face the source of the fear to show them that they can do it.
A person who is afraid of something, so as to get stuck and avoid certain situations, does not have “problems of will”: he simply has a very strong fear, and at that moment he cannot see things in any other way. Still, it may seem like a solution to take care of the person in all his needs for protection, accompaniment and unjustified assistance.
Tips for those who are experiencing strong anxiety:
Anxiety influences our thinking in 2 ways:
it leads to overestimating the probability of a danger and its severity, and it leads to underestimating one’s ability to overcome difficult situations. Also, some things you do to eliminate risk and safeguard yourself can actually bring more discomfort and discomfort than necessary.
When you suffer from any anxiety problem, you spend a lot of time worrying about bad things that could happen to you or our loved ones. The more you focus your attention on negative events and worry that they may happen, the more you are likely to believe that they will happen in earnest.
Extreme thoughts lead to extreme emotional reactions.
- Anxiety can be a rather intense experience, which causes very strong physical and mental sensations.
- Some anxious people misinterpret intense physical symptoms and judge them as dangerous, as signs of an impending threat.
Understanding and accepting the most common physical sensations related to anxiety, without thinking that they are dangerous, prevents you from adding other reasons for concern.
Summary
Drug treatment is effective, but anxiety disorders often recur when stopped. Among the psychological treatments, cognitive-behavioral therapy has proved to be the most effective in the treatment of anxiety disorders. The therapist will help the patient to know and recognize anxiety and its physical symptoms, to interrupt the cycle of growing tension by identifying anxious thoughts and teaching cognitive-behavioral techniques to counter them.