Dealing With Anxiety Disorders

Most of us have something or the other to worry about or to cause us anxiety. Worry and anxiety are very natural parts of our life and you may find it difficult to understand why anxiety is being considered as a mental disorder. For this you have to first appreciate the difference between the kind of normal anxiety that we all feel and the kind of debilitating anxiety that a person with anxiety disorder feels.
When we are anxious or worried, we know what is causing us the anxiety and we learn to deal with it, till the situation is resolved. People with anxiety disorders are unable to state what exactly is causing them the fear or anxiety. As such they are not able to find a resolution to their problems and things only get worse for them. Also, even if we are worried and are under tremendous stress, we do manage to get on with life and go about our daily routine. For people with anxiety disorder, their fears start affecting their lives and even their relationships; so much so that doing even routine tasks becomes an ordeal and their relationships with their family, friends and colleagues begins to suffer.

Anxiety disorder also brings about with it some physical symptoms – at times, the person starts suffering from high blood pressure though it never reaches very high levels. However, hypertension is usually caused by extreme anxiety. If you or someone close to you has been diagnosed as suffering from anxiety disorder, here are a few practical steps that you can take.

1.    Go in for regular physical checkups – People suffering from anxiety disorder may be affected by high blood pressure. It is therefore important that they go to a doctor regularly to monitor their blood pressure and to keep it under check. This will also reduce the fear and anxiety caused due to the high blood pressure. Many a time, a person suffering from anxiety disorder may feel as though they are having serous physical problems. For instance, many complain time to time that they believe they are having a heart attack. Though the symptoms may not even be present, the fear is very real to that person. The doctor can examine them thoroughly and make them aware that their anxiety attacks can cause heart attack like symptoms to appear.
2.    Understand the symptoms – When a person is suffering from an anxiety attack, their adrenaline system is working overtime. The fast pumping of adrenaline through their body may make them feel as though they are having pain in the chest or that they are not able to swallow. As they calm down, the adrenaline pumps more normally and the person can sense that the symptoms were not those of a heart attack.

Anxiety attacks usually follow a vicious cycle – an anxiety attack is triggered in a person, leading to heavy pumping of the adrenaline, which causes the person to feel even more apprehensive and causing them to be more anxious. Any person suffering from anxiety disorder and looking for a way to deal with it should first break this cycle. They can do so by thinking of ways and devising means so that they try to stay calm when they sense an anxiety attack approaching. This will help keep their blood pressure under control and thereby bring the anxiety attacks under control.