Anxiety Symptoms and Anxiety Attack Symptoms

Everyone experiences anxiety, or a feeling of nervousness or fear, at some point in his or her life. Anxiety disorders differ from normal anxiety in that they result in incapacitating fear or worry, which is out of proportion to the given situation, and interferes with everyday life.

Generalised Anxiety Disorder

People with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) experience both physical and psychological symptoms. Symptoms can vary in intensity and different combinations of symptoms may occur at different times. In people with GAD psychological symptoms tend to persist while physical symptoms occur intermittently.

Anxiety Attack / Panic Attack

It is estimated that between 1 and 2% of the population have regular panic attacks (at least 4 attacks in a 4 week period) around 10% have intermittent panic attacks and one study revealed that as many as 35% of people have had at least one panic or anxiety attack. The sensations are caused by a sudden release of adrenalin into the bloodstream which produces a variety of physical and psychological symptoms.

Psychological symptoms of anxiety

Generalised Anxiety Disorder can result in behaviour changes as well as changes in the way that you think and feel. Psychological symptoms include:

• A sense of nameless foreboding with no apparent cause
• Excessive worry, inability to relax
• Restlessness, a feeling of being on edge
• Difficulty concentrating, easy distractibility
• Irritability, impatience
• Poor sleep and sometimes nightmares
• Symptoms of depression, early waking and or a general sense of hopelessness.

Physical symptoms of anxiety

As well as affecting you psychologically anxiety can cause physical symptoms. In themselves symptoms are often normal physical responses, but may set of a chain reaction that is inappropriate or 'out of proportion' to the cause.

• Fatigue
• Muscle tension, twitching, and trembling
• Headache, dizziness, light headedness
• Dry mouth, grinding of teeth
• Excessive sweating
• Chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations
• Stomach ache with nausea and/or diarrhoea
• Frequent urination
• A feeling of something stuck in the throat

Anxiety Attack Symptoms / Panic Attack Symptoms

• Shortness of breath
• Sweating trembling and nausea
• Palpitations or abnormally fast heartbeat
• Dizziness and or fainting
• Fear of choking or imminent death
• A sense of unreality or fears about loss of sanity

Many symptoms may be misinterpreted as signs of a serious physical illness and this can exacerbate symptoms in a downward spiral.

In most cases the earlier anxiety is treated, the quicker it's effects can be controlled.

Diagnosis of Anxiety

A comprehensive psychological evaluation by a psychiatrist or a psychologist is required before a diagnosis of anxiety disorder can be made. Details pertaining to your worries, fears, emotional well-being and obsessions, if any, are generally required. A general physical examination may be carried out, to exclude underlying physical causes of anxiety. Some medical conditions such as thyroid disease, diabetes, and migraine may produce symptoms mimicking anxiety states. No laboratory tests are available to conduct a diagnosis of anxiety disorder.

A diagnosis of GAD is based on the severity and duration of symptoms, and whether these interfere with daily life. Extreme anxiety that causes significant impairment in everyday life for a period of at least six months is treated as the basis for a diagnosis of GAD.

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was created by Dr. Aaron T. Beck and is a 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory that is used for measuring the severity of a person's anxiety.

The test usually takes around five to ten minutes and was primarily designed to discriminate anxiety from depression.

The BAI consists of twenty-one questions about how a person has been feeling in the last week. The questions look at common symptoms of anxiety for example, hot and cold sweats, feelings of dread, numbness.

Each question has four possible answer choices:

• NOT AT ALL
• MILDLY: It did not bother me much.
• MODERATELY: It was very unpleasant, but I could stand it.
• SEVERELY: I could barely stand it.

The Beck Anxiety Inventory has a maximum score of 63.

• 0-7: minimal level of anxiety 8-15:
• mild anxiety 16-25:
• moderate anxiety 26-63:
• severe anxiety

Note: women with anxiety disorders tend to score 4 points higher than men with anxiety disorders