Anxiety Disorders Symptoms and Treatment

There are many symptoms of anxiety disorder, which can be understood from the literal meaning. The most important one is anxiety and tension. Anxiety and tension may lead to some autonomic nervous system dysfunction and cause some physical symptoms, such as pain, irritability, muscle tension and tightness, etc. For patients with anxiety disorder, they can be treated under the guidance of a doctor. The most commonly used treatments are drug therapy, psychotherapy and self-psychological counseling.

What are the main symptoms of anxiety disorders?

1. The personality before the disease is often characterized by being easily nervous, anxious, overestimating difficulties, having a sense of insecurity, and lacking self-confidence.

2. Psychotic anxiety is the core symptom of this disease, which manifests itself as varying degrees of anxiety such as worry, tension, uneasiness and fear.

3. Physical anxiety is mainly manifested by sympathetic nervous system hyperfunction. Symptoms involve many systems, such as dry mouth, chest tightness, hyperventilation, palpitations, frequent urination, tinnitus, etc. Sometimes it is the patient's initial complaint when they see a doctor.

4. Irritable, difficulty concentrating, and sensitive to sound and light. Due to the inability to concentrate, the patient feels that his memory is impaired.

5. Muscle tension can cause a feeling of tension throughout the body, even pain and stiffness. Some patients experience tremors and are unable to perform fine movements, affecting work efficiency.

6. Anxiety is free-floating, that is, uneasiness and fear without a definite object or specific content. It may be a recurring feeling of foreboding or anticipatory anxiety. The worry may have some connection to reality, but it far exceeds the normal range in content and severity.

7. The patient's expression is tense, his brows are furrowed, and his posture is stiff and unnatural. There are varying degrees of motor restlessness: increased small movements, inability to sit still, repetitive wandering, rubbing hands and stamping feet.

8. Often have sleep disorders, mostly difficulty falling asleep, or even nightmares or sleepless nights. During nightmares, patients often wake up suddenly, sweating profusely and feeling extremely frightened.

There are three common methods of treating anxiety disorders:

1) Drug treatment: Anti-anxiety drugs are the most commonly used method for treating anxiety disorders.

2) Cognitive behavioral therapy: Depending on the patient's specific symptoms, doctors using behavioral therapy have two different methods to treat anxiety disorders. If the patient's anxiety symptoms are related to certain situations, the doctor uses "situational analysis", a behavioral therapy technique, to find out which key factors in the situation cause the patient's anxiety symptoms. The doctor then uses a technique called "systematic desensitization" to reduce the patient's anxiety about these specific factors. If the patient's anxiety symptoms are isolated from any specific situation, that is, not specifically related to a particular environment, the doctor will use "relaxation training" to reduce the patient's overall tension level.

3) Psychoanalytic treatment: Psychoanalysis attributes the cause of anxiety disorders to repressed unconscious conflicts. Therefore, psychoanalytic treatment of anxiety disorders is to help patients understand their inner psychological conflicts.