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Health

When Anxiety Attacks

Anika Hossain

Ever get that jittery feeling in your stomach right before a big presentation at school or at work? You know, the one that makes you feel like there are a thousand butterflies flapping their wings wildly inside your gut. It's that strange mixture of intense, irrational fear and worry. You break into a sweat, your palms get slippery and you feel like just when you're about to launch into speech in front of a room full of people, that there's a good chance you may collapse from all that pressure. That feeling has a name and its called anxiety.

We all feel anxious at some point or the other in our lives, the night before a final exam, before a music recital, a meeting with the boss regarding a promotion or a raise, a huge family argument, barely meeting a deadline, the list goes on. But if your fears are preventing you from leading your life the way you want to, you may have a clinical condition, known as anxiety disorder.

Anxiety is not necessarily a bad thing. It's quite normal to feel anxious when you are under pressure, infact it can help you stay alert, focused and motivated. When it becomes a clinically significant, you should definitely consider getting some help.

You'll know you have an anxiety disorder when you are constantly worried or tensed about every little thing in your life. When you know that even though your fears are irrational you just can't shake them. You avoid day-to-day situations and activities because you know they will trigger your anxiety. You have a strong conviction that something bad will happen if you don't do things according to a set routine. You experience sudden, inexplicable, severe panic. You feel like you are in constant danger and when all these feelings interfere with your work, school and home life.

Anxiety disorders come in all colours, shapes and sizes. If you have Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), you'll be identified as the worrywart in your crowd, the one who always has a 'feeling' that something bad will happen (you cancel a perfectly planned outing because you have a strong feeling it might rain, or the roads might be bad, or you might get sick etc) Sometimes you won't even know why you feel this way. You will also suffer from physical symptoms like insomnia, upset stomach, fatigue or restlessness.

If you have continuous unwanted thoughts and behave in ways beyond your control, you have Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). You will have a recurring worry that you forgot to turn off your hair straightener before leaving your house. Or you may worry that you will stab your neighbour if you go near her (for no good reason). You will also find yourself trying to avoid these obsessions by performing certain rituals such as constant cleaning, arranging everything in your refrigerator in alphabetical order, people come up with the strangest things.

If you suffer from Panic disorder you will have repeated and unexpected panic attacks. This involves an intense feeling of losing control and of losing your sanity. A feeling that you will lose consciousness, overwhelming heart palpitations and/or chest pains, hyperventilation, sudden hot or cold flashes, uncontrollable shaking, nausea or stomach cramps, trouble breathing or feeling that you are choking, and a sense of detachment from your surroundings. Panic disorder is often accompanied by agoraphobia, which is the fear of crowded public places that you might perceive as difficult to escape from in the event of a panic attack (such as a plane or a bus).

People suffering from anxiety may also develop phobias or irrational fears directed at specific objects, activities, living things and situations that in reality do not pose any danger. Examples include fear of spiders or arachnophobia, fear of closed spaces or claustrophobia, fear of heights or acrophobia, fear of foreigners or xenophobia etc. If you have a severe phobia, you may go to great lengths and inconveniences to avoid what you fear. This intensifies your fear.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also a form of anxiety. Symptoms for PTSD will show up in the aftermath of an extremely distressing, possibly life threatening event. If you have PTSD you will experience nightmares and flashbacks of the incident, you will be hypervigilent and distrustful, you will withdraw from those around you and avoid situations or people that remind you of the incident. You will also startle very easily.

If you have an incapacitating fear of being publicly humiliated or seen in a negative light by others, you may have social anxiety disorder or social phobia. This can also be described as extreme shyness. Stage fright or fear of public speaking are good examples of this.

Challenging your irrational beliefs and fears is one way of dealing with anxiety, but in severe cases this is not always possible. Don't worry though, there are many treatment options for anxiety disorders. Medication is one of them. Antidepressants and benzodiazepines are commonly used to treat this illness. However, these drugs are most effective when you see your shrink and get behaviour therapy for your anxiety.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is often effective for anxiety. This focuses on the thought process behind your fears and relates this to your behaviour. Exposure therapy is also a good way to go. This involves confronting your fears in a controlled setting. As you face your fears without being harmed in any way, your anxiety slowly diminishes. Other treatments are exercise, relaxation therapy or hypnosis, which is often used alongside CBT.

Having an anxiety disorder sounds like a lot of baggage to carry around doesn't it? So if you feel like there will be an earthquake, if you don't sleep with all your shoes aligned against the left wall of the second room on the first floor of your house, every single night and afterwards, wash your hands exactly one thousand six hundred and seventy two and half times and avoid stepping on all the black lines on your striped carpet when you walk to your bed before you can get a good night's sleep, you might want to consider getting professional help. Really.