You hear the term anxiety used a lot, but you may not know what it means. It is the body's natural response to stress, and it may manifest itself as anxiety or fear of the future. When it happens, people think of events that may happen and cause harm. Some of this occurs as a natural result of living, such as a job interview, your first day of college or giving a speech. Things like this naturally cause people some level of apprehension. What isn't normal is when this lasts for over six months, or it starts to interfere with your daily life.

Intense and Sometimes Debilitating

Feelings of fear and anxiety may stick with you constantly. If that remains a constant state it can dramatically impact your quality of life. You may stop leaving your home, crossing the street or entering public spaces. Left untreated many people experience worsening symptoms. An anxiety disorder can strike a person at any age, but most begin in childhood, adolescence or early adulthood. Millions of Americans suffer from anxiety and women can tend to have a higher risk of a diagnosis than men.

How Do You Treat Disorders?

After you receive a diagnosis, you should explore your treatment options. For some, simple lifestyle changes will prove effective enough, but moderate and severe cases may require more extensive treatment. Treatment will fall under two categories. You can treat it with psychotherapy and medication. In some cases, people use a combination of the two. Taking advantage of prescription propranolol for anxiety has often been prescribed to help those suffering from a rapid heartbeat, shaking hands and other symptoms of nerves. This prevents the more severe symptoms of this disorder, and it can help people to function normally.

What are the Causes?

Whenever the amygdala in the brain notices danger, it sends a signal to the hypothalamus. That triggers a fight or flight response common to those who have anxiety. The amygdala can become hypersensitive, which causes extreme feelings of anxiety. Many times, it comes from false alarms. What might seem small to others causes a high amount in the other person. Anxiety often occurs alongside other mental health problems like obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, panic disorder and generalized stress disorder. Important to note, there are many causes of anxiety and research remains ongoing in this field of mental health.

What are Attacks?

An attack happens when you feel an intense and unreasonable amount of fear or anxiety. Usually, this happens without warning, but triggers can also cause the anxiety to worsen. Most attacks will last for 10 minutes, but they can stretch on for more than 30 minutes. In that time, people may experience an intense feeling like they may die or they feel like they could lose total control of themselves. An attack may appear like a short time, but someone going through one will feel like it goes on forever. The symptoms will typically peak and go away, but upcoming events can contribute to them happening more often.

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