Anxiety
Anxiety is fear. Experiencing anxiety in a stressful situation is normal. However, when the anxiety is disproportional to the problem and becomes excessive, it interferes with everyday life.
Anxiety erodes you emotionally and physically. Emotionally, you may feel on-edge, unable to concentrate, moody, irritable, and restless. A sense of impending doom can feel overwhelming. Physically, anxiety can provoke tense muscles, rapid breathing, racing heartbeat, sweating, trembling, and fatigue. You may avoid situations that trigger worry; however, this does not resolve the cause and interrupts academic and social activities. In time, you may become depressed from the state of distress.
Anxiety and sleep problems are bi-directionally connected. Worry makes it harder to fall and stay asleep through the night. Sleep problems, in turn, can worsen anxiety, spurring a negative cycle involving insomnia and anxiety. The bidirectional relationship self-reinforces anxiety and sleep problems. Understanding and addressing the link between anxiety and sleep is fundamental to physical and emotional wellness.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stems from an extreme anxiety response to a life-threatening situation. It manifests as a tendency to avoid places or events that could remind you of the traumatic experience, impairing your life quality and functioning. PTSD can occur in children, adolescents, and adults. Although the disorder is often associated with combat veterans, it is not unique to them. Besides combat exposure, rape, child abuse, traffic accidents, and any event involving a threat to human life may trigger PTSD.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is manifest by a combination of anxiety-inducing thoughts and behavior. OCD can be time-consuming, create significant distress and take a toll on family, friends, and colleagues. OCD's two main components are ruminative thoughts ("obsessions") and the actions meant to soothe them ("compulsions").
The compulsive, ritualistic behaviors to suppress the stressful thought content (e.g., excessive hand washing) reduce anxiety, but, in time, they are incorporated into the obsessive OCD patterns until they begin inducing stress themselves. This cycle of thoughts and actions exhaust the individual experiencing them, causing them much despair.
The highest anxiety level is paranoia.
