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Recognizing Anxiety Attack Symptoms
What Are the Different Kinds of Anxiety Attack Symptoms?
Panic Attack - Disorder
- Repeated episodes of intense fear that strike often and without warning.
- Chest pain
- Heart palpitations
- Shortness of breath
- Dizziness
- Abdominal distress
- Feelings of unreality, and fear of dying
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Constant, exaggerated worrisome thoughts and tension about everyday routine life events and activities, lasting at least six months. Almost always anticipating the worst even though there is little reason to expect it; accompanied by physical symptoms, such as:
- Fatigue
- Trembling
- Muscle tension
- Headache
- Nausea
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Repeated, unwanted thoughts or compulsive behaviors that seem impossible to stop or control.
Obsessions are recurrent, intrusive thoughts, impulses, or images that are perceived as inappropriate, grotesque, or forbidden . The obsessions, which elicit anxiety and marked distress, are termed "ego-alien" or "ego-dystonic" because their content is quite unlike the thoughts that the person usually has. Obsessions are perceived as uncontrollable, and the sufferer often fears that he or she will lose control and act upon such thoughts or impulses. Common themes include contamination with germs or body fluids, doubts (i.e., the worry that something important has been overlooked or that the sufferer has unknowingly inflicted harm on someone), order or symmetry, or loss of control of violent or sexual impulses.
Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that reduce the anxiety that accompanies an obsession or "prevent" some dreaded event from happening . Compulsions include both overt behaviors, such as hand washing or checking, and mental acts including counting or praying. Not uncommonly, compulsive rituals take up long periods of time, even hours, to complete. For example, repeated hand washing, intended to remedy anxiety about contamination, is a common cause of contact dermatitis.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Persistent symptoms that occur after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event such as rape or other criminal assault, war, child abuse, natural or human-caused disasters, or crashes. Symptoms Include:
- Nightmares
- Flashbacks
- Numbing of emotions
- Depression
- Feeling angry
- Irritable or distracted
- Easily startled
- Family members of victims can also develop this disorder.
Phobias - Social Phobia and Specific Phobias
People with social phobia have an overwhelming and disabling fear of scrutiny, embarrassment, or humiliation in social situations, which leads to avoidance of many potentially pleasurable and meaningful activities. People with specific phobia experience extreme, disabling, and irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger; the fear leads to avoidance of objects or situations and can cause people to limit their lives unnecessarily.
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