Discussion

Overview of Anxiety Disorders

It is part of our lives that we sometimes feel anxious. But some individuals frequently
feel anxiety; it is described as intense, persistent, and excessive. This anxiety is classified as
an anxiety disorder where it involved the feelings of terror that are reached within minutes.
The feelings of anxiety can interfere with the activities of daily living, which may be
uncontrollable.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

PTSD
Panic Disorder
Generalized

Anxiety
Disorder

Obsessive-
Compulsive
disorder

Figure 1: Types of Anxiety Disorders

Medical professionals described anxiety disorders as excessive worry that affects their
thoughts, feelings, and causes of problems that last at least 6 months in their lives. To fully
understand the different types of anxiety disorders, there are figures introduced here :

Figure 12: Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Source: Honeylake Clinic
 Figures above, a poster presentation by the Honeylake clinic, displays the types of anxiety
disorders. Please read the description of each anxiety disorder to better understand the symptoms.

Figure 2 Types of Anxiety Disorders (cont.)

Source: Honeylake Clinic
Causes, Signs, and Symptoms

Table 1 Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders

Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders

To capture the general manifestations of an anxiety disorder, figure 15 enumerated the signs and
symptoms.

Figure 3 Causes of Anxiety Disorders

Source: Arlin Cuncic (2019)

Moreover, to further understand this concept, it is vital to understand these causes

with the signs and symptoms of Anxiety Disorders. As presented in Figure 15, are the
common causes of anxiety disorder.

Medical Conditions can also be the cause:

We might think that anxiety is just linked to the traumatic events or causes mentioned earlier.
Table 2 Medical Conditions linked to anxiety
However, it has
something to do with
the physiologic or medical condition of a person. It may be the first indicator of medical illness. As
displayed in table 9 are the examples of medical problems and medical conditions.

You can see that there are several causes of anxiety disorders categorized due to medications
and medical conditions. It can also properly understand if those medical conditions are clearly
diagnosed by the physicians.
Issues on Risks and complications

Table 3 Risks for Anxiety Disorders

 Table 10 displays the different risk factors for anxiety disorders. Based on the table, the very
common risk factor is stress. Other than stress, it can also be due to traumatic events, mental
disorders, and may be genetic in nature.

Figure 16 Common Complications of anxiety disorder

Source: Essentials of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing(2014)

If there is no treatment given, the complications would likely develop. As you can
see in figure 16 are the list of complications, these involve not only the physiologic aspects
like headache or digestive problems but also include the psychological aspect of the well-
being of the person.

The knowledge of the causes, risks, and complications are not the only main points
to acquire. In the teaching profession, we might encounter our students manifesting those
signs and symptoms, or we may reflect on ourselves if we experience more than anxiety that
needs the help of a medical professional.

Anxiety disorder deals with the mental aspect of a person. There is a myth madness
that when an individual consulted a psychiatrist that means that person is a candidate
for being an insane. That is one of the psychiatry myth. When an individual gets sick
and addresses the main issue of the health, the appropriate person to approach is the
person who knows well about the health issue, the field of expertise or specialization in
order to receive appropriate medical advice and treatment. You will seek a treatment from
a licensed practitioner. Therefore, an expert is the right person to consult, an expert like the
psychiatrist. Seeking immediate medical help will prevent the occurrence of complications.
Another aspect to consider is the socialization or involvement in social interaction will boost
one's self-esteem and lessen the worries. Substances like alcohol and drugs may worsen
anxiety symptoms. This will develop a dependency on the substances when the occurrence
of anxiety is felt. So, it is the best advice from medical professionals to avoid those
substances.

Figure 4 Steps on the prevention of anxiety disorder

Source: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (2020)