Anxiety is a normal sensation. It is present in all human beings. Depending on the circumstances, it can take different forms, from simple anxiety to anguish and even terror. Sometimes it is abnormal and becomes an illness in its own right. Phobias, panic, obsessive-compulsive disorders: learn to recognize the different forms of pathological anxiety.
Anxiety has a useful role in our lives: it is because we are concerned about the safety of our children that we are watching them closely, because we think about our own safety that we avoid taking thoughtless risks. it is because we are afraid that we will flee when it is necessary in the face of dangers that we can not face: a fire, an armed malefactor for example.
This anxiety occurs as a result of clearly identifiable events, helps us cope with it, and disappears along with its cause.
anxiety
But it happens in some people that anxiety manifests abnormally: either because it occurs without reason, or because its intensity and the responses it entails are incommensurate with the triggering event. This is called pathological anxiety.
This pathological anxiety can take on many aspects, of which it is customary to distinguish schematically five main main tables:
Generalized anxiety;
Phobias;
Obsessive-compulsive disorders;
The panic crisis;
Post-traumatic stress.
These tables are quite common since it is estimated that 3 to 5% of the population presented one of them at one time or another of his life.
Multiple causes
The causes of pathological anxiety are poorly understood. It is clear that some people are more prone to anxiety than average. We also know that social factors play an important role: hyper-anxious parents tend to pass on their own concerns to their children. Families where children are neglected or even abused are obviously sources of anxiety disorders. Psychological traumas in childhood or adulthood are often a triggering event. Some diseases are regularly accompanied by anxiety: hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism, some heart failure, some deficits in vitamins. The weaning periods (alcohol, tobacco ...) have the same effect.
Finally, women are about twice as likely as men to experience episodes of pathological anxiety, without anyone knowing why.
Phobias, OCD, panic attacks ...
There are several types of pathological anxiety, the manifestations of which vary.
Generalized anxiety syndrome
It manifests itself in a state of tension, of permanent anxiety without any external event that explains it. People who suffer from it worry about everything all the time. They can not relax, often struggle to fall asleep, are irritable, impatient, have difficulty concentrating.
These sensations are often accompanied by physical disorders: excessive sweating, stomach pains, diarrhea, frequent urination, cold hands, dry mouth, dizziness, headaches ... This pathology is disabling because it causes permanent difficulties in the body. daily life, both at work where it makes relationships difficult and in private life that is gradually being restricted. It is estimated that about 3% of the population is confronted with this disorder.
Phobias
In this case anxiety is no longer permanent and general, but it crystallizes on particular situations that make it occur. The subject does not feel any particular anxiety in his daily life, but the anxiety arises as soon as he is confronted with the situation that triggers the phobia. The advantage is that anxiety is easily avoided: just avoid the situation that creates it. The disadvantage is that many phobias correspond to situations that are often encountered throughout one's life and can become very disabling. The fear of snakes in our modern world is not very serious and does not spoil the lives of those who experience it. But other phobias are much more difficult to manage. The most common are: agoraphobia, fear of public places and crowds; claustrophobia: fear of enclosed areas, elevators, planes, closed rooms for example; zoophobia: fear of certain animals, mice, dogs, cats in particular.
There are two main types of phobias: on the one hand, social phobias, fear of situations in which one is confronted with relationships with others (fear of speaking in public, exaggerated fear of one's superiors, abnormal shyness in one's personal relationships ...) and on the other hand phobias of objects or situations that do not involve social relations (claustrophobia, fear of animals ...).
Obsessive-compulsive disorders
In this case anxiety is not the most obvious sign, it is underlying. Obsession leads the subject who is a victim to constantly feel thoughts that are repeated identically, to feel the need to constantly repeat the same gestures as a kind of ritual. Some people wash their hands dozens of times during the day, others are forced to follow an identical and complicated route to go from one place to another, while others can not do anything without doing so. to precede complicated and incomprehensible rituals for the entourage. We understand how this pathology can hinder everyday life. It is usually accompanied by particular traits: obsession with order, greed, excessive cleanliness for fear of germs ...
This disorder, which often begins in childhood or adolescence, affects approximately 2% of the population.
The panic crisis
Its description is fairly easy to understand because almost everyone has felt one day or another a panic attack in front of a terrifying event. But here these crises are renewed frequently and without triggering cause. Gradually the picture worsens because the person who is prone to this disorder will be obsessed by the fear of seeing the crisis come back, since it can happen at any time. All the psychic and physical signs of anxiety are then present in an exacerbated form, causing major discomfort, an unbearable feeling of oppression that sometimes gives the impression that one will die or go crazy.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
It follows a particularly distressing event resulting in a major psychological trauma: catastrophe, aggression, loss of a loved one ... At the moment the subject reacts with a chart of acute stress: strong anxiety, despair or the impossibility of any reaction.
Afterwards, the memory of the event will haunt the one who lived it. This memory will manifest itself in the form of nightmares sometimes daily, which can lead to severe insomnia for fear of falling asleep. The images can also occur unexpectedly during the day, preventing the concentration on what one has to do, causing irritability, leakage of social contacts, hyperexcitability to the least stimulus, loss of self-confidence, avoid situations or people who recall the traumatic event.
This syndrome is often found in soldiers during wars, but also in children victims of violence or sexual abuse.
Sometimes very long treatments
Detailed treatments for each form of pathological anxiety vary. They are established according to a part of the nature of the disorder (phobia, obsession, panic ...), on the other hand of the personality of the subject who suffers from it. Psychotherapies (behavioral, analytical, etc.) have an important place. In some cases, we associate drug treatments (anxiolytics, antidepressants).
Many of the pathological anxieties are curable, others are susceptible of considerable improvement, which generally allow patients to resume a near-normal daily life. But the duration of treatment is extremely variable, from a few weeks to several years.
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