A - Anxiety #AtoZ #MentalHealthAwareness

"She is constantly worried about herself, her child, the world, the weather something or the other. She is restless always and never at ease, off late she fidgets a lot with her hair or clothes or keys. Anxiety?"

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in 13 globally suffers from anxiety. The WHO reports that anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders worldwide.

Anxiety can be normal and often healthy emotion and in certain stressful situations like a major life event, public speaking or taking an exam. But as a mental ailment it consists of extreme feelings that might interfere with daily living and this consistent experiencing of disproportionate levels of anxiety is termed as a medical disorder. Anxiety disorders form a category of mental health diagnoses that lead to excessive nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worry.

Anxiety disorders are the most common and pervasive mental disorders.

The term "anxiety disorder" pertains to specific psychiatric disorders that involve one or several of these types:-

• ·         Extreme fear or worry
• ·         Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
• ·         Panic disorder and panic attacks
• ·         Social anxiety disorder
• ·         Phobias

Some common symptoms include:

• ·         Intense, excessive and persistent worry
• ·         Fear about everyday situations
• ·         Fast heart rate
• ·         Rapid breathing
• ·         Sweating
• ·         Fatigue

At initial stages when anxiety begins to grow one can do some self-treatment like physical activity or exercise, a balanced healthy diet, regular sleep and relaxation exercises that may reduce anxious behavior. Joining a support group may also help.

But one must seek expert medical help if this behavior is affecting one’s ability to build and/or maintain relationships, is leading to alcohol or other substance abuse, one is constantly feeling sad and slowed down.

Emergency help must be sought in cases of suicidal thoughts and your daily activities are being impaired by it.

A new kind of anxiety disorder has lately been identified as Social media anxiety disorder. According to the experts, almost 20% of people with social media accounts cannot stay away without checking them for more than three hours. Just being away from their Facebook or Twitter account for a few minutes can cause severe anxiety.

Other common symptoms are:

• ·         Overwhelming need to share things with others via social media
• ·         Interrupting real life conversations to check social media accounts
• ·         Lying to others about how much time they spend on social media
• ·         Withdrawal from friends and family
• ·         Trying to stop or reduce your use of social media more than once before without being successful
• ·         Loss of interest in other activities
• ·         Neglecting work and life to be on Facebook or Twitter
• ·         Experiencing withdrawal symptoms access to social media is withdrawn
• ·         Spending over six hours per day on social networking

Anxiety is one of the most common forms of mental health challenges. It can affect your overall health and quality of living. Research suggests that those suffering from an anxiety disorder run a higher risk of experiencing physical health problems like hypertension too.

DISCLAIMER: All the information being provided her has been sourced from the internet and books and some also via personal experiences. It has no medical authentication per se so suggestions if followed must be done in consultation with a trained mental health professional.

For further information you can look up:

https://www.anxiety.org/

This post is a part of April Blogging from A To Z Challenge.

You can find all my posts here.