The Three Types of Anxiety

When talking about anxiety the medical profession speak of three different types of anxiety disorder:

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

Panic Disorder

Whilst this may all sound a bit technical to you, the chances are that, as an anxiety sufferer, you may suffer from more than one of these at any time. Or perhaps they “overlap” with you at times. However you feel, it doesn’t particularly matter what name is given to your ‘disorder’ but just so that you can follow more easily what your doctor is referring to, here are the definitions of the three anxiety disorders, according to the medical profession:

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalised Anxiety Disorder does not usually cause people to avoid certain situations as happens with the two other types of anxiety.  It is a more general form of anxiety that focuses on things such as money, career, health, etc. but nevertheless it still brings with it distressing symptoms such as trembling, irritability, insomnia, feelings of unreality, and depression. Whilst some may say that it’s not as “bad” as Social Anxiety Disorder or Panic Disorder, it is the constant thinking about yourself all the time and not being able to shut off your mind at times that is so incapacitating in the long run.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder is where you find it hard to cope in social situations. Quite often you will have very low self confidence and are afraid of what other people might think of you. The anxiety may make you suffer excessive sweating, blushing, palpitations or even dizziness. As a result, it is often easier for you to avoid such social situations rather than risk further anxiety.

Panic Disorder

Panic Disorder is where you have severe attacks of panic, often producing such bad physical symptoms that you might feel as if you are having a heart attack or even dying. The overwhelming urge is for you to run away, to escape the awful situation you find yourself in. Such feelings can then lead you to be afraid of having a panic attack in a place that you would not easily be able to escape from  -  and so this fear merely fuels the anxiety further.

Panic attacks normally start very quickly and they last nowhere near as long as you feel that they do!

The reason that the attack seems so extreme to you is because the body’s normal response to fear has been exaggerated to the level where adrenalin (used for the “fight or flight” response) is flooding into your body and causing all of the dreadful symptoms. During an attack you may feel detached from your body and find your surroundings very unreal.