Anxiety Disorders

Everyone faces the odd bout of anxiety from time to time, but an anxiety disorder can become nothing less than crippling to a person’s everyday life. Whilst normal anxiety may accompany a somewhat unsettling or unpleasant event in life, those with an anxiety disorder may find themselves feeling wholly terrified of situations and scenarios that, for others, would be no cause for concern at all. By speaking with a registered and highly experienced psychologist to help you deal with your anxiety, you will be able to understand how you developed a condition that may have robbed your freedom for such a long time and learn new, more functional ways to cope.

While many of the symptoms associated with anxiety disorders are both obvious and predictable, others have a tendency to go overlooked. Anxiety disorders manifest in many ways and no two cases are ever the same. However, there are certain types of anxiety disorders that present frequently, which include the following:

• Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – Feelings of worry and fear that manifest without any discernable trigger and can be overwhelming, often going on for many hours of the day. There may be worrying thoughts, physical symptoms of worry such as a racing heart beat or shallow breathing, sweating, stomach butterflies, a knot in one’s chest or just feeling muscular tension and on edge.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – Repetitive and distressing behaviours or thoughts are the key indicators of OCD. These thoughts or behaviours can be about hygiene, security, cleanliness, orderliness or just about anything.
• Panic Disorder – A panic attack can involve a rapid heartbeat, shallow fast breathing and often a deep sense of dread. Panic attacks can seem to come out of nowhere or to have no real triggers, and this may lead to feelings of panic about panicking, or Panic Disorder.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – When an individual suffers from chronic anxiety in the wake of a traumatic or distressing event/period in life. The individual may experience unwanted flashbacks about the event, wake up with nightmares, avoid situations that remind them of the trauma and be generally hypervigilant, always on edge.
• Phobias – an irrational fear of something that is generally considered to be relatively harmless.
• Generalised Anxiety Disorder – Feelings of worry and fear that manifest without any real trigger and can be overwhelming, often going on for many hours of the day. There may be worrying thoughts, physical symptoms of worry such as a fast heart beat or breathing, sweating, stomach butterflies, a knot in one’s chest or just feeling muscular tension and on edge.