Anxiety is defined by an excessive and irrational fear or worry of something bad happening. A feeling of anxiety includes heart palpitations, high blood pressure, numbness, atypical worry, and even paranoia. The characteristic of anxiety that distinguishes it from worry is it’s irrationality. As hard as it may be to believe, there are actually quite a few different kinds of anxiety. Many of them are typical to the average person, but some people deal with an anxiety disorder. These are the worst kinds of anxiety.
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All of the anxieties exhibit fear differently, as well as what they fear, given the situation. Anxiety is not a end all and be all, but the general feeling is that of fear, believe it or not. This is when the anxiety is so bad that it ends up interfering with their daily life. It’s not the same as nervousness or that butterfly feeling in your stomach. Although, these conditions should be considered when talking about anxiety in general. When talking about anxiety, it’s one more reason for everyone to understand their mental state better. Many people struggle with stability because they never had the chance to get a grip on what is bothering them. The same can be said for any other negative affective state, as lack of much needed help can lead to confusion.
1. Health Anxiety
Health anxiety actually comes in many forms, i.e., obsessive compulsive fear of germs, conversion disorder, somatoform disorders, and general hypochondria. Most of them fall under an obsessive or somatoform spectrum, but there are differences. It does not mean that it has to be a clinical fear, as average people deal with health anxiety all of time. The dread stems from a fear of having something bad happening to your health, whatever it may be. Strong emotional reactions and rumination are common when fears of injury or sickness are involved. This can end up causing significant distress and depression that are hard to shake. The fears can range from germs to being diagnosed with a terminal illness or disease.
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It becomes clinically significant when it begins to become an obsession that interferes with quality of life. The anxiety can become so bad that a person may end up needing some kind of professional intervention. Someone struggling can end up closing themselves off as they seclude themselves from the outside world. The person may mistrust themselves and fear disease so much, they end up avoiding the doctor all together. A condition called white coat syndrome (a fear of hospitals and doctors) is common among those with health anxiety. This is a way of shutting off the bad news in their life, but it can be dangerous if something were to happen. The opposite can be said for others, as many hypochondriacs will go to the doctor all of the time. Both are destructive, as they create a distrust in the own person’s ability to understand their own health.
2. Panic Attacks (Disorder)
Panic attacks are an entirely different level of fear that involves the body redirecting your fight or flight. This is where the adrenaline really kicks in and causes some significant changes in your ability to cope. A panic attack is a sudden period of intense fear and discomfort that may include include all of the typical symptoms. Symptoms include palpitations, sweating, chest pain, shaking, shortness of breath, and numbness. There is also a strong feeling of impending doom or of losing control. The reason for this fear is because of the trigger causing changes in your body composition.
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A person having a panic attack will sense fear from a physiological perspective. This is because of blood being rushed out of the limbs to help preserve the brain, heart, and adrenals. The cycle becomes worse as the person constantly struggles with the other symptoms during the episode. This excessive fear can also be a disorder where a person deals with panic attacks all of the time. They generally require a trigger, and it’s usually unbeknownst to the sufferer. The best way to deal with panic attacks is said to be medication, but therapy helps as well. The best kind of therapy is exposure therapy that requires you to understand and face your fears.
3. Generalized Anxiety
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about events or activities. Worry often interferes with daily functioning, and sufferers are often overly concerned about everyday matters such as health, finances, death, family, relationship concerns, or work difficulties. Symptoms may include excessive worry, restlessness, trouble sleeping, exhaustion, irritability, sweating, and trembling. GAD may seem like it encompasses almost everything on this list, but it does not. It’s an anxiety disorder, and it can share symptoms with more specific forms of anxiety, but it is it’s own thing.
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People with GAD or any form of generalized anxiety can display extensive symptoms of fear. The thing with GAD is it’s extreme, as it bleeds into almost everything. Because of the disorder, the anxiety distinguishes itself from typical anxiety in intensity and longevity. In this sense, unless you have the disorder, you do not have what makes the disorder so hard to deal with. The generalized anxiety is usually caused by predisposition and a person’s upbringing. If someone struggled with a lot of stressful experiences as a child, they are more likely to grow up with this disorder. The best treatment for this or any kind of anxiety is not medication, as therapy gives the best results. The only situation where medication is necessary is when there is literally no other option.
4. Post Traumatic Stress
Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder involving excessive fear of reexperiencing a past trauma. This trauma can include rape, sudden death of a loved one, war trauma, childhood separation and abuse, and more. Those who struggle with PTSD have had extremely traumatic experiences. These traumas are what caused their problem, as it overrides a person’s sense of safety and sense of self. If your preexisting beliefs are in more contrast to what has happened to you, it can be the determining factor in a diagnosis. Not everyone who struggles with this disorder has dealt with something that directly impacted their well-being. All it usually requires is a person fearing for their life to the point of hypervigilance. It’s essentially an exacerbation of the fight or flight response in particular situations, and it can cause panic attacks.
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Flashbacks are common, as a person is constantly being reminded of a past trauma when a trigger occurs. There are people who do not get PTSD when exposed to traumatic events, as PTSD is rather uncommon. C-PTSD is another disorder or subtype of PTSD and describes someone dealing with long-term and repeated trauma. The result is more shame and anxiety rather than the pure and unadulterated fear of typical PTSD. The feelings of exposure and vulnerability play a role, as people with a weaker sense of self are more prone. The best way to deal with this anxiety, again, is by having yourself be exposed to trauma and facing it head on. Drug-induced states caused by ketamine and MDMA have been tested to help; however, it’s best to try therapy first.
5. Social Anxiety (Selective Mutism)
Social anxiety is an anxiety that involves fear of social interaction and revolves around making mistakes. Those who struggle with social anxiety may at least feel like they are being awkward. The disorder is often the source of this feeling, although, being awkward is not so much a problem. Having the disorder is the only cause for any strangeness a person is putting off; however, social anxiety is extremely common. Public speaking is a particular fear for those struggling with social anxiety, but the same can be said for many others. Feeling like you look or sound stupid can be symptoms, but someone who has social anxiety is capable of being around people.
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Even if social anxiety is a common condition, it becomes more severe when someone is dealing with an anxiety disorder. This is where you begin to see signs of clinical significance that can be excessive. A person dealing with an anxiety disorder will often avoid people outright, and this is often seen in people dealing with personality disorders, i.e., avoidant personality disorder, as well. You often see social anxiety disorders in those already struggling with generalized anxiety and even OCD. They generally present themselves differently, but they are essentially the same, albeit a different cause.
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There’s also a social anxiety disorder where other forms of anxiety are not present except for the fear of socializing. There’s even a very specific form of social anxiety that involves a person being mute (does not talk) around certain people. This is mostly a learned habit a person displays through anxiety, as the anxiety is not necessarily any worse. It should be something
6. Obsessive Compulsive
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder that can involve an excessive fear of germs. Although, it’s not the only fear that comes from the disorder. Many people who have OCD have irrational fears that involve every day things. A person with OCD can be worried that if they do not check a lock or wash their hands, they can end up dead. If they do not turn in a circle three times, their worst fears will end up true. If they step on that crack, it may in fact break their mother’s back, and thus the sick cycle continues They are escaping what they fear to be true by creating compulsive habits based on their obsessive fears. It’s really just how the disorder presents itself that makes the anxiety involved so unique.
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It’s not to say that an obsession cannot plague the average person, but it’s obviously not as abrasive. There are subsets of OCD and even OCPD (obsessive-compulsive personality disorder) which involves the personality being affected. It’s typically less distressing than OCD because it’s not affecting the person to their core in the same way the anxiety disorder does. A personality disorder is who they are, so they end up being willing to accept the more mild forms of obsession; they are concerned with cleaning mostly. Obsessive thinking like this may seem delusional, but most people who deal with it are aware of their behaviors and emotions. Other disorders like BDD (body dysmorphic disorder) are on the OCD spectrum and can yield similar or worse results. This is unlike psychotic anxiety that generally involves a person being in an entirely different world.
7. Psychotic Anxiety
Those who struggle with hallucinations or delusions will end up struggling with anxiety based on psychotic symptoms. The problem with this anxiety in particular is the vortex it is caused by and creates. A person with this has pre-existing fears that are exacerbated when they are having an episode. This creates more fear and delusional thinking that keeps spiraling out of control. If someone is susceptible to delusions and anxiety, drugs can induce this as well.
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It’s a common feature of delusional disorders that includes schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Someone struggling with a psychotic episode is typically not entirely aware of what’s going on around them. This can create more fear as many of their true fears are realized. At this point, it generally requires professional help, because it can lead to a person harming themselves or someone else. This is the one anxiety where medications may be the only solution, as trying to help psychosis is a losing battle.
8. Drug Induced Anxiety
Everyone has probably felt some kind of anxiety from a drug, but every drug can cause something a little different. Things like alcohol can cause regret and paranoia, as they can create a sense of impending doom. It can induce states similar to psychotic anxiety, but the big difference is the drug-induced part. Every drug has it’s own way of screwing with a person’s brain, and this can even include “harmless” supplements. Even drugs that a doctor give you can have similar effects, especially anti-depressants and anti-psychotics.
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Stimulants can cause stimulant psychosis, and it can affect everyone differently. Those struggling with heroine addiction can end up having severe withdrawal symptoms akin to panic attacks. Benzodiazepines can affectively cause anxiety themselves by removing a person’s ability to cope with stress. As you can see, there are plenty of ways a drug can effect a person’s emotions and fear reactions. This is where a physiological reaction is more relevant than other anxieties, as drugs affect neurology.
9. Severe Phobias (Claustrophobia, Agoraphobia)
A phobia is a excessive fear of a particular thing that can lead a person having anxiety. For some people it can involve spiders and snakes, and for the next, it can be a fear of flying. These particular fears are common among the general population, as the fear is often specific and ubiquitous. A fear like this can even lead to someone having a panic attack, which can create further problems. There are even people who fear having panic attacks that can lead them to having panic attacks. Fears like claustrophobia, acrophobia, and agoraphobia are among the most common and talked about. Claustrophobia is a fear of being in a tight and cramped space that feels like the walls surrounding you will move in on and crush you.
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It’s typically the fear of being trapped, as well as a very specific fear of flying, which can be caused by this and agoraphobia. This particular fear is concerning a dread of a lack of escape if things were to go sour. As you can see, many of these fears are caused by themselves, which in turn, creates a sick cycle that endlessly loops. While phobias are not disorders, it does not take away from their severity.
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The best way to view a phobia is by understanding it as a very particular anxiety disorder. Some phobias — like some anxiety — can have rational roots to the worry, but it is taken to the extreme. Phobic thinking can lead to problems with daily functioning, especially if the fear surrounds their work or schooling. Phobias are easy to understand and resolve because of their specific nature. All it requires is exposure response therapy, and if done correctly, the phobia should disappear.
10. Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety is an anxiety that involves someone experiencing fear by separation from a loved one. This fear is common in children, especially ones who were separated from their parents at a young age. This can create problems for the child that can lead to anxiety issues later on in life. It can also create detachment disorders if the child’s relationship with the parent created stress. In affects adults as well, as it is a key feature of grief or bereavement so common in adults. While separation anxiety is probably the least clinically significant anxiety on this list, it is still important.
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Separation anxiety is the precursor to many of the items listed here, and it’s important to keep in mind what causes it. It can have significant ramifications, especially if a child is involved. There are more extreme versions of this anxiety, but it cannot really be understood as a disorder. It’s rather a state of great disease resulting in varying degrees of anxiety that depends on person and situation. The best way to remedy this problem is by not causing it to begin with and establishing trust with others. If this cannot be accomplished, the best route is by learning to expose yourself to the stressful situation enough to overcome it.
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