Anxiety - where it is a feeling of illness

Anxiety - where it is a feeling of sickness, "I'm getting on the bus and suddenly my heart starts to race, I have to stifle the feeling that my hands get really sweaty, I feel dizzy, I'm afraid to be helpless at the next. I rush out of the bus station. Slowly the fear disappears. I walk on foot and come back again late for work. A vague unrest continues for hours. " (Report of a patient with agoraphobia with panic syndrome).

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in women, in men after the second most common disease of dependence, it is still before the depression. Estimated 3 million German suffering from an anxiety disorder. Anxiety is known to everyone and vital for a rapid response to dangerous situations. After the performance, presentation or evaluation of a situation as dangerous as soon as possible activation occurs as a result of hormonal secretion (particularly adrenaline) instead. Energy is provided to allow escape or fight. This is our ancient genetic program. If an anxiety disorder is afraid to formerly neutral in situations or in situations where fear is unreasonable, because the situation really is not (life-) threatening. There is an escape or avoidance behavior, ie, the anxiety-causing situation to leave. Additionally, formed over time from an anticipatory anxiety, a "fear of fear".

In the above example, patients appear two anxiety disorders, agoraphobia and panic disorder, in combination, which is very often the case.

In agoraphobia (literally, fear of wide squares) is a cogent and often overlapping group of fears of various everyday situations described. This includes the fear, bus, train or car ride to go to the cinema to enter transactions to stand in a queue to go to in a crowd to go to public places. The above situations are avoided in the course of the disease more and more, so that the management of everyday life is often possible only with the help of a spouse or other trusted person. Some people are completely tied up at her house. A panic disorder is characterized by recurrent anxiety attacks with physical symptoms such as trembling, palpitations, shortness of breath, hot flashes, cold chills, dizziness, nausea and fear of suffocation, to faint, die or lose control of yourself. Usually occur four to six of the symptoms described in a panic attack. The anxiety attack takes on average several minutes and is accompanied by intense anxiety. When anxiety attacks are not coupled with the typical situations in a agoraphobia, they connect to the person concerned to appear "out of the blue."

The anxiety disorder often begins in times of crisis, which result in a life of conflict, an internal crisis and difficult living conditions of increased tension and uncertainty. The anxiety symptoms are a "function", ie for example, someone can take care of himself due to his illness at last, or is considered by the partner with attention or affection. It may be that the person wants more independence, but at the same time is afraid of more autonomy, so that the existing family situation is maintained and is not a change (separation, extraction, etc.) with a fresh start made. In people with an anxiety disorder can be a problem is a result of abuse or develop a dependence on alcohol or drugs, because the substances are used to address the fears. Subsequent problems can be self-doubt, because his life is no longer "under control" has.

Hopelessness and despair can occur because one's profession or hobbies can not exercise and maintain no more contacts.

On the part of those affected by an anxiety disorder is therefore usually a strong psychological strain.The interested party goes then often due to its intense anxiety and / or physical symptoms that are at an anxiety disorder not due to an organic disease first in medical treatment. If the doctor is no organic change resistant, psychotherapeutic treatment should be recommended. Is often the "wrong track" to an appropriate psychotherapeutic treatment for several years. In a psychotherapeutic treatment, there are different therapeutic approaches.

In the described anxiety is a cognitive-behavioral approach has worked. Apart from the fact that each treatment is individually tailored to a person, the so-called exposure therapy has been found to be the best method within the research and clinical practice to overcome these fears. Here, after development of a comprehensive explanatory model of the disease and teaching the theoretical background (including the vicious circle of fear), the anxiety-causing situations are sought. The point is that the person concerned so long in fear of the situation remains until the anxiety has decreased significantly.The fear with regard to a particular situation is "deleted", that is forgotten. At the same time the self-esteem is enhanced through overcoming the situation. So-called exposure exercises - at least in part - carried out with support of the psychotherapist, either by degree of difficulty graded (graduated) or directly with the difficult prospect for fear situation (not graduated).

When panic syndrome should be revalued another important treatment content, physical symptoms, so that they no longer judged to be (vitally) interpreted threatening. The success rate is about 80% in comparison with other mental disorders is very high. The non-graded approach has the highest success rate!

To accompany or treatment to prevent new relapses can be very helpful self-help methods that can also be conveyed in an anxiety support group. The exchange with other stakeholders is also seen as very helpful.

In addition to the detail in this article shown anxiety disorders are social phobias (the person fears in social situations, being the center of attention or to embarrass himself, which leads to avoidance of social situations), specific or isolated phobias (eg dogs phobia, spider phobia, fear of heights etc.) and generalized anxiety disorders in which there are persistent fear of life that relate to at least two key areas of life, for example, losing the partner to fail in business.