Everything You need to know about Anxiety

in StemSocial2 years ago

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In the last post, I wrote about the types of anxiety. We talked about general anxiety disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Phobias, and Social Anxiety. Yesterday we saw how social anxiety can comprise worry and avoidance of people. The people may be people at work or school or even new people you might see anywhere.

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In this post, I want to discuss everything we have covered so far in anxiety and developed the topic fully before we move to the next subject. According to the WHO website, I got to find out that one of the next most common mental disorders is Bipolar Affective Disorder. We will be moving down there next. In this post, I want to talk mainly about the diagnosis seeing as we have covered most of the other topics over the month.

This is the Medic Vibes blog, where we share information regarding mental health-related topics. I'm pleased you're here and I hope you're having a good day. The host of the blog, @ebingo, is a physician and an illustrator. We have not yet migrated to our main blog because we currently have only one writer and one illustrator on staff. Currently, we maintain a blog for the STEMsocial community.

Last month, we discussed depression, and this month we will focus on per cent according to a Nigerian study, we began last month, anxiety was prevalent in a youth camp at a rate of 50per centring the study, and we began analyzing tweets, just as we did a month ago.


An analysis of a study revealed that fifty per cent of campers at a youth camp in Northwestern Nigeria displayed anxiety symptoms and that at least three per cent of the global population suffers from anxiety. Approximately 1% of the Nigerian population suffers from anxiety.

Before important exams, presentations, or performances, everyone has experienced heart palpitations at some point in their lives. What if, however, I told you that some people experience this feeling daily? Social anxiety disorder patients are concerned about what others will think of them. They may have frequent interactions with one of these people, such as their supervisor or coworker. Therefoividuals will employ avoidance strategies. In one of our previous blog posts, we discussed the phone-related manifestations of social anxiety.

Physical, psychological, and reactive symptoms are all present in anxious individuals.

Chest pain, stomach pain, weakness, rapid respiration, and a rapid heartbeat are physical symptoms. Frequently, the sympathetic discharge of the autonomic nervous system is utilized.

Nightmares, flashbacks, and insomnia are anxiety-related psychological manifestations.

A sign and symptom of social anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder is avoidance. This applies to both people and locations.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the causes of anxiety vary from person to person and last for more than six months. Keeping it in check can be challenging. Children with anxiety frequently suffer from persistent pain, exhaustion, agitation, and sleep disturbances.
Risk Factors
A combination of genetics and the environment play a minor role in determining who can develop anxiety disorders.

An individual's risk for anxiety is increased by shyness, avoidance of social situations, and avoidance of specific locations.

Childhood exposure to traumatic or extremely stressful events increases the likelihood of developing anxiety.

An additional risk factor is having relatives with anxiety disorders.

Several medical conditions, including thyroid problems and heart conditions such as arrhythmias, increase the risk of developing anxiety disorders.

In general, women experience anxiety more frequently than men. Others believe higher testosterone levels may have a calming effect. Some individuals believe that women are less likely than men to seek therapy for anxiety.

Because depression and anxiety are related and because depression increases a person's risk of suicide, it is crucial to be on the lookout for any changes as soon as they appear.


Diagnosis of Anxiety Disorders

Woman illustrations by Storyset

Usually, when making a diagnosis for Anxiety disorders, it is done according to the DSM criteria, which we summarised above. There are also some other features a doctor may look at according to their experience and in the relationship with other mental health conditions. Sometimes anxiety can look like a normal condition that affects individuals but there may be more to it.

Some other criteria that a doctor may consider include how distressing the anxiety is. The interference with daily living, and how long it lasts with long-lasting anxiety increases the likely hood of a diagnosis, if a person has close relatives with anxiety it also increases the likelihood of anxiety.

Some physical examinations are important to do when suspecting a patient of anxiety disorder.

Your doctor may perform a physical exam and order a variety of tests to rule out medical conditions that mimic anxiety symptoms. Medical conditions with similar symptoms include:

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The doctor may perform a cardiovascular examination searching for features of cardiovascular problems that could lead to features of anxiety.

A person who is having angina (due to low blood flow to the heart) could be mistaken for a person suffering from anxiety because of the chest pain associated with them. A patient who has angina may be having coronary artery disease. The risk factors usually include old age as opposed to anxiety where younger people are more likely to be affected

The chest pain could also be mistaken for a mitral prolapse where there is associated rapid breathing and chest pain. But in a mitral prolapse, there are usually other associated syndromes like Ebstein anomaly, Graves disease, or Marfan syndrome. Find out more here

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In an asthmatic attract, there is also rapid breathing and chest tightness which can be similar to the physical features of anxiety, but in addition, there is also wheezing which is a musical sound heard during auscultation of the chest. The fingers of the patient may become blueish because of the reduced blood flow to the extremities.

In hyperthyroidism there are palpitations, and sweating similar to what you might find in anxiety, this is why investigations are done to distinguish between them.

Most investigations that are done for anxiety are done to rule out some medical conditions.

Some other investigations that can be done include abdominal ultrasounds to rule out adrenal tumours over the kidney because they may present with similar features of hyperthyroidism except the stimulation is coming directly from the sympathetic system.

Some drugs may mimic anxiety symptoms and it is important to ask for drug history. Drugs for diabetes, drugs for hypothyroidism.

It is also important to ask for previous drug use in addition to drug abuse. Alcohol and caffeine are two important "drugs" that can worsen symptoms of anxiety.

Treatment

Once the diagnosis of the particular cause of the anxiety is found, the next step in management is to deal with it. If you check above, we have already listed some of the types of anxiety.

The treatment usually starts with psychotherapy. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the most effective form of therapy which includes breaking out of some of the vicious thoughts and behavioural patterns that might be the cause of the anxiety in the first place.

The drugs are selected to fix the anxiety disorder as opposed to handling the symptoms. Some of the drugs that are effective include antidepressant medication, like SSRIs, beta-blockers to attack the sympathetic effects and antianxiety medication.

The pain symptoms may be so severe that the patient may need to be on Morphine.

Hive Stories

I'd like to join the Hive community as we welcome @whimsicalsoul posted her introduction 4 days ago. She was a medical laboratory scientist who turned into an interior designer student. Her post talks about the disappointment in finding out that America was not all it was advertised to be.

The American dream was not as dreamy after all. When the glitters had faded away and it turned to tears and anxiety

Let's give her a warm welcome in hopes that Hive can be all it was said to be.

Questions

  • What did you learn about anxiety?

Conclusion

Anxiety is a complex disorder, and even though this post talks about how you can learn everything you need to know about it. We hardly scratched the surface and there is still a lot to know. For all those that followed up with the topics, I am grateful for these interesting 4 weeks with you. I want to promise that the next month about Bipolar Affective Disorder is going to be even better.

I hope that you learned a lot from this post.

To book me for illustration gigs click Here

References

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Anxiety can indeed be a serious mental condition that requires the intervention of a therapist

Very true...I'm happy you stopped by. Hope you have a nice weeked

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