Anxiety Disorders: Types, Symptoms and Treatment

Types of Anxiety Disorders

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), often referred to as simply "anxiety", is a medical condition in which a person experiences excessive levels of anxiety and worry on an ongoing basis. The anxious feelings usually appear unfounded and disproportionate to the situation. In some cases, these feelings of worry and dreads can become so severe that they impede a person's concentration, sleep, and the ability to carry out everyday tasks or have normal relationships.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD for short, is one of the top three most common mental disorders in Singapore (the other two being depression and alcohol abuse). The two core symptoms of OCD are obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours - for example, an irrational fear of having touched something dirty, accompanied by excessive hand-washing. These thoughts and behaviours can have a huge negative impact on mental health and quality of life.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful or distressing events. It can be triggered by any number of incidents for different people, from those who have held positions in the military or armed forces, to those who have been involved in car accidents, suffered during traumatic pregnancies and births, bereavement, or other traumatic experience. PTSD can develop immediately after a traumatic event, or months or years later.

A panic attack is an episode of sudden and intense fear, anxiety, and/or discomfort. Common symptoms of a panic attack include a racing heart, an upset stomach, excessive sweating, numbness or tingling, feeling weak or faint, and difficulty breathing. The terror experienced by someone having a panic attack is disproportionate to their actual level of danger. Panic attacks can strike without warning, at any time of day or night (even while sleeping), and generally last less than ten minutes.

Someone with a phobia has an intense and irrational fear of a certain situation, object, or living creature. While phobias can arise around just about anything, some typical examples are aerophobia (fear of flying), arachnophobia (fear or spiders), agoraphobia (fear of places or situations that might be difficult to escape), acrophobia (fear of heights), zoophobia (fear of animals), aquaphobia (fear of water), claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), and trypanophobia (fear of needles).

Treatments for Anxiety Disorders