If you or someone you love may be suffering from a problem with anxiety, it’s important to be able to recognize the symptoms of anxiety. People have often asked this question over the years and wondered how they can spot signs of anxiety for themsleves. Learning the signs is the first step to getting treatment.
Often people have a problem with anxiety and they’re not even fully aware of it. They may feel ashamed to tell anyone what they are going through and they fail to realize that thousands of other people are going through the exact same thing. This feeds into the anxiety so that people have panic over just the thought that they might have another anxiety attack. The problem then perpetuates itself.
Knowing about the problem is important to help you recognize it and treat it. There are quite a few different symptoms that can manifest themselves through anxiety but the official measurement scheme used by the medical community is called DSM-IV. This system says you are having an anxiety or panic attack if you have four or more of these following symptoms:
· Fear of dying
· Strange warping of reality
· Sounds are not normal; blurry vision
· Increase in heart rate
· Increase in breathing; deep breathing
· Chest pain or uncomfortable feeling
· Nausea
· Tingling sensation or numb sensations
· Fear that you are going crazy
· Fear of no control of yourself
· Lack or breath or feeling that you are being smothered
If you have four or more of these symptoms or recall having them at the last time you felt you might have had an anxiety attack, chances are you did. Since these feelings can be very scary, you associate them with what you’re doing at the time and the symptoms can return each time you face that situation again. Going back to other times, places or situations that created your anxiety in the past will often bring those feelings of panic back again.
This experience is both frightening and overwhelming. Your panic and fear increase even more when you feel like you have no control. To understand why this happens, you need to know that the body is preconceived to act a certain way when facing death or danger.
The brain sends blood from the muscles to get your body prepared to either run or fight. Our bodies automatically tell us to do this because it’s a defense mechanism. We react this way today because it’s become hard-wired into our brains.
If you have symptoms of anxiety, you need to talk to your doctor about your treatment options. If anxiety or panic attacks prevent you from enjoying the things you once did or from having a normal life, you should seek to make changes in your life to prevent this.
Popularity: 3% [?]
