Do I have Anxiety or Panic Disorder?
While Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder share many symptoms in common, they are two separate mental health conditions. This blog post will help you learn the potential causes of each, understand the differences between them, and explore treatment options for both anxiety and panic disorder.
What is Anxiety or Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)?
Experiencing anxiety is a normal part of being a human. For some, it’s a fleeting moment when they have to do something that is new, difficult, or exciting. For others, it is a more intense, draining, and persistent experience. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is described as chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms:
Feeling nervous, restless, or tense
Having a sense of impending danger, panic, or doom
Having an increased heart rate
Breathing rapidly
Sweating
Trembling
Feeling weak or tired
Trouble concentrating
Irritability
Sleep disturbance
Headaches
Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
Having difficulty controlling worry
Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety
Approximately 6% of people living in the United States suffer from Anxiety at some point in their lives, and according to Our World In Data, the prevalence of anxiety disorders across the world varies from 2.5-7% by country. Globally, an estimated 284 million people experienced an anxiety disorder in 2017, making it the most prevalent mental health disorder. Around 63 percent (179 million) of those diagnosed with anxiety disorders were female, relative to 105 million males. This goes to show that anxiety disorders are NOT uncommon, especially considering that these statistics continue to rise.
Major life events that can lead to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) include:
Losing a job
The loss of a loved one
Ending a relationship
A life transition
Stressful financial circumstances
Stressful academic circumstances
Abuse
Trauma
Isolation
Certain health conditions
In order to be diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, symptoms must be affecting your daily life, making it difficult for you to work, socialize, study, etc. It is easier to diagnose if symptoms have persisted longer than six months. You may be trying to live as normally as possible despite your anxiety, and feeling exhausted by it. There may even be pressure to hide the experience from others, so as not to cause concern. People who suffer from anxiety tend to feel as though they are a burden to others around them, and might self-isolate even when they know it’s unhealthy and prevents adequate support. It is common to feel alone or misunderstood in your experience. This is why it’s typical to see only the tip of the iceberg regarding how much it is truly impacting someone when it comes to anxiety or GAD.
While the exact cause of GAD is complex and unique to each individual, research has suggested that there are a combination of certain factors that play a role in its development, including:
Genetic predisposition
A history of stressful or traumatic experiences such as domestic violence, bullying, etc.
A history of drug or alcohol misuse or addiction
Chronic health conditions
What is an anxiety attack?
Anxiety attacks are a common symptom of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. They follow a period of time of extensive worry or stress and serve as a response to a stressful moment or situation in life.
Anxiety attacks can begin with a few mild symptoms and then become more pronounced and hard to ignore over a few minutes or hours. The effects often last longer than the symptoms of a panic attack, maybe even persisting for days. Anxiety attacks are more common during major life transitions.
Symptoms leading up to an anxiety attack might include:
Headaches
Feeling nervous or tense
Irritability
Feelings of weakness and fatigue
Feelings of sadness or experiencing a “low mood”
Chest pain
Sensory overload (your five senses - smell, touch, sight, hearing, and taste - take in more information than your brain can process, becoming overwhelmed and easily triggered).
How can I stop an anxiety attack?
There are some ways you can ease the symptoms of an anxiety attack and reduce them:
Therapy
Breathing exercises
Meditation
Yoga
Count steadily from 1 to 10 on each inhale and exhale.
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing
Have sour or salty foods handy (sour lollipops or salty chips). These stimulate saliva production, activating your vagus nerve and ventral vagal system, down-regulating activation of your sympathetic nervous system, and bringing you into a state of regulation and calm.
Cold exposure! Splash your face with cold water, submerge your face in cold water, run your wrists under cold water, or put ice cubes on your wrists and neck. Cold showers can also help calm your nervous system and reduce your fight/flight response.
Push against a wall for 10-15 seconds and then repeat this 2-3 times, resting in-between. This helps your body understand it’s surroundings and provides a calming and organizing effect on the brain.
Focus on calming the sensory overload by focusing on your senses while breathing slowly
5 things you can see and name
5 things you can touch
5 things you can hear
Ok, so then what is Panic Disorder?
Panic Disorder, according to The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders," (DSM-5), is the recurrence and sudden panic attacks that occur even when the person is not in actual danger.” They can be triggered by something - a smell, a noise, a memory - or occur without any trigger at all.
The main indicator of a panic attack is that it is usually unexpected and abrupt, while anxiety attacks are often triggered by very specific stressors and build gradually.
Panic attacks come on suddenly and involve intense and often overwhelming fear. They’re accompanied by challenging physical symptoms, like a racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, or nausea.
Panic attacks can happen to anyone, but having more than one may be a sign of panic disorder, a mental health condition characterized by sudden and repeated panic attacks.
Panic attacks:
Start suddenly and unexpectedly
Lasts between five to twenty minutes
They peak at a point in the duration of the attack, usually 10 minutes in or less
They subside, but the effects may last longer
Symptoms of panic attacks feel similar to other severe health conditions such as heart attacks, leading the person to believe they are going to die.
Other symptoms of panic attacks include:
Feelings of claustrophobia
Shortness of breath
Chest pain or discomfort
Articular pain
Hyperventilation
Nausea
Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate
Sweating
Trembling or shaking
Feelings of choking
Nausea or abdominal distress
Feeling dizzy, unsteady, light-headed, or faint
Chills or heat sensations
Paresthesia (numbness or tingling sensations)
Derealization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (being detached from oneself)
Fear of losing control or “going crazy”
Fear of dying
Is there anything I can do?
Acknowledge the situation, know the symptoms, and become able to recognize them.
Learn breathing techniques
Difficulty breathing is one of the most common and alarming symptoms. Learning techniques to control your breathing can ease the symptoms and the feelings of the attack.
Learn Relaxation techniques
Seek methods of relaxation such as meditation.
Practice mindfulness
The earlier you can get a diagnosis and start treatment, the better it will be for you and for your health.
Therapy for Anxiety in Raleigh, NC
The good news is that anxiety is very treatable. Many people don’t realize just how many treatment options there actually are for anxiety. We tailor our approach to the individual client because every presentation and underlying cause of anxiety is different.
We use a combination of Somatic Experiencing, CBT, DBT, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Exposure Response Prevention, and Mindfulness techniques to treat anxiety symptoms. We’ll also advocate for alternative therapies such as chiropractic, massage, yoga, and acupuncture, as we believe in the mind/body integration when it comes to overcoming anxiety.
Together we will explore your experiences, behaviors, and beliefs. With the benefit of fresh insight and nervous system regulation, you will be able to identify patterns that are holding you back from health and happiness while gaining the strength and coping strategies to overcome them. Sometimes the step of reaching out and talking to a professional is the hardest one of them all, but the happiness and good it will do for you will be much bigger.
We offer flexible scheduling and both in-person and virtual appointment availability, because we want therapy to be as accessible, convenient, and comfortable for you as possible.
