General anxiety disorder Is Believed To Affect Three To Four Percent Of The US Population

Anxiety is a normal feeling that everyone feels at some point of time or the other, especially when there is a looming threat. You may feel anxious when appearing for a job interview, or when meeting your boss and feeling fear is normal in most instances. However, there are millions of Americans, which it is believed constitute as much as fifteen percent of the population that are sufferers of an anxiety disorders, which can cause many to live a highly restricted life. It is not normal however to experience phobia, extreme shyness as well as obsessive thoughts and more, which can even dominate a person enough to disrupt their lives.

A Common Manifestation Of Anxiety Disorders

General anxiety disorder is one manifestation of anxiety disorders that is quite common, and it is believed affects as many as three to four percent of the population of the United States. General anxiety disorder is a condition that can permeate a person’s life and cause them to worry and feel anxiety as well as fear beyond normal limits. If can cause a person to constantly be engaged in thinking about ‘what if’ situations, and they will feel like there is no way out of the anxiety that they are feeling. It can lead to a person feeling depressed about life and being unable to keep from worrying.

However, general anxiety disorders do not cause a sufferer to avoid situations and there also many not are any panic attacks as a consequence. However, a sufferer of general anxiety disorder may become incapacitated in that he or she will not be able to switch off the mind, and will also be overcome by worry as well as dread and there will also be feelings of fatigue, and a general loss of interest in life. Even though the sufferer may realize that such thoughts are irrational, the feelings will still be very real, and there may also be many mood swings during the day and even from hour to hour. The end result is that the quality of life is not only disrupted, but greatly degraded as well.

Some of the physical symptoms of general anxiety disorder include headaches, frustration, trembling, irritability, as well as an inability to keep up the concentration, and also experiencing disturbed sleep. In some instances, the sufferer of general anxiety disorder may also report having social phobia as well as panic disorders. It thus calls for getting appropriate treatment, which will help the sufferer feel better, though what the correct treatment is can often be hard to identify.

Possible Causes and Symptoms of Anxiety in Children

The physical symptoms of anxiety in children often appear as headaches, muscle tensions, sweating, restlessness and stomach aches. The feeling can cause fear and worry and lead to misapprehension of situations or events. It can lead to depression and an antipathy towards both school and family life. Anxiety in children can occur for any number of reasons; worrying about school work, fear of a phobia, bullying, pressure from home or even a secret weighing heavily on their conscience such as abuse. The symptoms are then reinforced by the child reiterating negative thoughts in their mind and by taking actions to avoid fearful situations which in turn give the fear strength to grow.

The responses of others to these fears can further increase the trauma and stress of the situation. The child can then suffer from feelings of guilt and shame and often resolves to never reveal their fears again. Children can easily feel worthless and inadequate if their fears are laughed at, scorned or worse, not even believed. The adult in this type of situation should listen to the reasons for anxiety and be supportive, releasing the power that the fear has over the child by expressing ways in which it can be overcome and made less important. The anxiety in children needs to be released before it can cause too much damage.

Problems Resulting From Anxiety in Children

Anxiety in children can cause a multitude of problems in later life if left unattended. Adults often make the fear and anxiety in their children worse by responding inappropriately to their needs and thus reinforcing the bad feelings that have occurred. The most basic problem that can result from anxiety in children is the fear and avoidance of every day and also difficult situations. The child suffers from so much anxiety that they will avoid this feeling at all costs and eventually run away from all of their problems, making choices based on their fears and in some cases using alcohol, food or drugs as a crutch. Numerous studies have shown how anxiety in children can lead to poor results in school and an entire lack of ambition in later life for fear of failure.

In a lot of cases, anxiety in children leads to the child avoiding anything involving pressure which can end up in them being isolated, skipping school or joining in with socially irresponsible groups. They may end up expressing their fear through anger and by blaming others. Those that blame themselves for their inadequacies can end up feeling depressed and unconfident. Anxiety in children is very common and can lead to other disorders in later life. It needs to be dealt with as soon as possible with the child left feeling secure and happy. More often than not, a number of situations will gather up the anxiety levels in a child and such ongoing feelings of anxiety can be very hard to dissuade and could need therapeutic or medicated treatment.