What is Anxiety and Why is it Complicated?

Anxiety in a healthy form is the body’s natural response to stress. Anxiety is a physiological response to a real or perceived threat. It is an increased heart rate, tension in the body, and racing thoughts of the mind. Anxiety is activated by the body’s sympathetic nervous system and supported by the amygdala response to threat. Anxiety IS normal.

Anxiety becomes a disorder when the anxiety response is exaggerated, or prolonged over time. Some examples of anxiety manifesting in the body/brain as a disorder include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Phobias. In each of these cases, anxiety becomes problematic and disruptive to the human system in ways that cause distress. Let’s take each one one by one and break them down

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is an anxiety disorder defined by prolonged anxiety about every day life that rarely dissipates and in turn becomes chronic.
Panic Disorder is an anxiety disorder that comes on as sudden and intense terror, and is often accompanied by extreme body responses like loss of breath, dizziness, a racing heart, and chest pains. Social Anxiety Disorder is defined by an intense fear of being judged or rejected, and embarrassed in social situations, and also causes a variety of physical distress responses like sweating, blushing, and more. Phobias are an intense and often irrational fear or extreme anxiety about places, people, items, and often include generalized anxieties, panic disorder symptoms, and social anxiety disorder symptoms. Phobias often stem from childhood trauma.

As you can see from the above diagnoses, anxiety can be complicated. It can manifest in similar ways through disorders, with a lot of comorbidity and overlap. The body sensations can be mistaken for other non-psychological disorders, making it difficult to diagnose, and facing an increased possibility of misdiagnosis. Anxiety can grow or subside over time, depending on a variety of outside stress and internal regulation of the individual. Anxiety can be misdiagnosed as depression, or ADHD, or Autism, or a variety of heart and lung conditions. Anxiety in children can look different than anxiety in adults. Overall, there are so many variables to consider that Generalized Anxiety Disorder often becomes the diagnosis that patients are given while clinicians figure it out. With all of the possibilities of anxiety, it’s important to understand your own symptoms and to keep a running list of when and where they occur, as well as how long over time, so you can help your therapist understand your anxiety and make a correct diagnosis that will help you in your life.