‘whether it is a last effort or a first step, it is the determined life that lives’

©Lives for Living 2011

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Counselling, Psychotherapy & Hypnotherapy

Private Practice, Bolton, Greater Manchester

Lives for Living

Anxiety disorders

Anxiety is a normal response to stress or danger. At times it's helpful because it can help prepare the body for action, and it can improve performance in a range of situations.

Anxiety becomes a problem when it's experienced intensely and it persistently interferes with a person's daily life.

Depression and anxiety commonly occur together. Not everybody who is anxious is depressed, but most depressed patients have some symptoms of anxiety.

What types of anxiety disorders are there?

There are a number of 'types' of anxiety disorders. They tend to overlap considerably and it is not uncommon for people to have features of several of the disorders.

Generalised anxiety disorder

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterised by anxiety symptoms that are present for much of the time and not restricted to specific situations.

Generalised anxiety often accompanies phobias and is extremely common in people who are depressed. It can also be caused by physical illness, such as an overactive thyroid gland, or result from the emotional response to a serious illness such as a heart attack.

Some 15 per cent of people with GAD have a brother, sister or parent with a similar problem. This may reflect an inherited tendency to the disorder or the effects of the family environment. Two thirds of sufferers are women.

Panic disorder

In panic disorder, repeated panic attacks occur unpredictably and often without obvious causes. The attacks consist of severe anxiety with physical and psychological symptoms.

Physical symptoms can include any of the general symptoms of anxiety described above and often the hyperventilation syndrome.

Psychological symptoms typically include dread (particularly of extreme events such as dying), having a seizure, losing control or 'going mad'.

To the sufferer, the attacks feel as if they are going on for a long time, but actually they tend to last only a few minutes, and at their longest they last around an hour. Panic disorder is common in depression, GAD or agoraphobia.