Is Anxiety a Mental Illness?

Anxiety disorders belong to a group of mental illnesses characterized by feelings of fear, worry, and discomfort. Anxiety is a natural response to supposed dangers. Although it is natural to feel worried or afraid from time to time, these feelings are quite different in an anxiety disorder.

The distinctive feature of anxiety disorder is the absence of a real reason for apprehension. Unlike normal feelings of worry or fear, anxiety disorders characterize these emotions' excessive or overwhelming amount. Also, these harmful feelings usually get worse over time, affecting your health and day-to-day life.

Anxiety impacts our feelings, thinking, and behavior, and it often manifests in real physical symptoms such as aches and pains, nausea, sweating, increased heart rate, etc.

How Many People are Affected by Anxiety?

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), anxiety disorders affect around 18 percent or 40 million adults each year. The ADAA data shows that 3.1 percent or 6.8 million adult population in the U.S. suffers from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Nevertheless, only around 43 percent of affected people receive treatment. Women are twice as likely to experience generalized anxiety disorder than men.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) affects around 2.7 percent or 15 million people 18 years or older. SAD has the same prevalence in both women and men.

Anxiety Symptoms

Anxiety symptoms typically include emotional and physical signs of distress that are of proportion with what is usually expected in a specific situation.

Some of the most common emotional symptoms of anxiety include:

• Inability to control worry and fear

• Feeling agitated

• Inability to rest and sleep problems

• A generalized fear of approaching trouble

• Fatigue

• Trouble concentrating

• Avoiding things, situations, or people that provoke anxiety.

Physical symptoms of anxiety usually include:

• Dizziness

• Sweating

• Shortness of breath

• Increased heart rate

• Pains and aches

• Nausea

• Legs and arms numbness

• Skin sensations like prickling or burning

• Feeling tired or weak.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

The term anxiety covers a spectrum of mental health illnesses. The most common forms of anxiety include:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Panic Disorder

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Phobias

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by a generalized fear and worry about broad-spectrum situations, objects, or events. These feelings are typically out of proportion with the expected emotional state in the same situation.

Social Anxiety Disorder

People with social anxiety are always afraid that other people will judge their behavior. This fear of being judged prevents the sufferer from engaging in social interactions. Also, persons with SAD are worried about being humiliated or embarrassed in public, which causes them to avoid social interactions.

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder involves sudden, unexpected attacks of intense and overwhelming fear. During a panic attack, a person experiences confusion, dizziness, nausea, difficulty breathing, feelings of control loss, and limb numbness. Typically, panic attacks usually don't last more than a few minutes. However, the experience may be very exhausting.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

repetitive and disturbing thoughts and actions characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD sufferers are usually aware of their actions and thoughts' irrationality, but they cannot stop them.

PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder is anxiety that stems from a traumatic experience.

Phobias

Phobias are irrational fears that lead to avoidance of an object or situation that causes them.