Understanding that extreme anxiety is not a clinical term or a diagnosis is crucial. Instead, it is a way that folks can explain the subjective experience of severe anxiety or an anxiety disorder, as said by anxiety therapist sheffield.
How people experience anxiety can differ from person to person. One person may have symptoms like butterflies in their stomach, while another might experience a full-blown panic attack.
Suppose you have life-limiting anxiety, making it difficult to function in different areas like work, school, and relationships. In that situation, there is a chance that you may have an anxiety disorder.
Normal Anxiety vs Anxiety Disorders
Not all anxiety is terrible. Certain anxiety levels can be adaptive because it helps prepare you for situations where you need to respond to stresses in the surrounding. The critical difference between normal anxiety and what would be characterized as extreme anxiety is how it affects your ability to function and the level of distress it generates.
When anxiety is extreme or severe, it makes it very difficult or next to impossible for the person to function normally in different situations. It may make it so they cannot work or socialize like they usually would. It can create such severe distress that they begin to avoid problems that are likely to trigger feelings of anxiety.
Recognize the Symptoms
If a person’s feelings of anxiety are severe in their duration, intensity, and impact on their life, they are likely to have some anxiety disorder. Only a doctor or mental health personnel can diagnose an anxiety disorder, but a few of the symptoms that may indicate a problem includes:
- Physical symptoms of anxiety like rapid heart rate, increased breathing rate, sweating, trembling, and shallow breathing
- Extreme feelings of fear or anxiety that are superficial to the actual threat
- Irrational fear or worry about different objects or conditions
- Avoiding the source of the fear or only enduring it with great anxiety
- Withdrawing from social situations or isolating from friends and family
- Feelings of irritability and agitation
- Sleep issues such as trouble falling or staying asleep, in other words, insomnia or hypersomnia
- Gastrointestinal problems like stomach aches or digestive problems
- Feeling uneasy and worried.
- Difficulty concentrating
- Problems with doing their typical everyday tasks
- Interpersonal and relationship issues
- Thoughts of suicide
Extreme anxiety can also surface as a panic attack. Panic attacks are characterized by an acute feeling of intense fear or discomfort accompanied by a variety of physical sensations that include rapid heart rate, choking sensations, nausea, trembling, chills, a sense of unreality, impending doom and a feeling of losing control, “going crazy” or dying.
It kinds of Extreme Anxiety
It is also essential to remember that many different kinds of anxiety disorders exist. The doctor or therapist can evaluate the patient’s symptoms and determine what condition the patient may have. The most common types are listed below:
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Panic disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
