...Anxiety, it can either make you or break you. It has made me into the person that has made me today. I was never the "happy" teenage girl I am today. I've had my difficult moments, but it has made me who I am today. I always kept myself isolated in my room, i thought of myself like I was never "good enough". I had no friends which made it difficult to be around people. My life wasn't "perfect" as everyone thought it was. The older I got the more difficult it was for me to be whom I really wanted to be. I was stressed at a young age it was never easy. Everyone says middle school isn't nothing to stress about. But my parents had very high hopes for me at a young age. The stress was getting to me. I had trouble asking questions, I felt invisible. Having random panic attacks was becoming a habit. Trying my best to get out of my shell and becoming who I really am, I felt so lost with no guide getting me anywhere. My parents, teachers nor my family knew what was going on with my life. I would overthink things, cry myself to sleep....
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...to stand still as I waited in my seat. My turn was soon to come, and my hands were drenched in sweat. My mind was racing as I was so nervous about what my other students would think of my speech. I tried desperately to keep my paper from rattling while trying to remember it one last time, My heart dropped as I heard the dreadful words “next”. Now every nerve in my body seemed like a strained harp-string ready to snap at a touch.Every, and or any change in my behavior, and movement was being closely watched by my peers. The upset feeling started to cloud my thoughts, as I tried to scramble the next words to convey. This was one of the hardest things for me to do, but in my case, anxiety disorders happened to be more than limited concern or panic. Many often mistaken mental disorders for weakness or self-indulgence, and because of the serious interior functional impairment social phobia can cause, help is usually not amiable. For many people Infrequent anxiety happens to be a average part of their life, and may not go away. Basically, all phobias are anxiety disorders, clumped in the same catagory as post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder. Anxiety disorders are, essentially, based on fear(Winnerman6). Social Anxiety Disorder (social phobia) “is the world’s third biggest mental health care problem today”(Richards1). Despite the brief anxiety, people with social phobia are typically introverts, silent, and not in favor of being the life of the party(Stein,Gorman1). Researchers...
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...especially the lives of college students. Anxiety is among the most common mental illnesses that a person will encounter throughout their life, either because they were born with it, develop it, or meet someone who has it. One thing that people struggle with, though, is the difference between being nervous and having anxiety; the two are completely different levels. It’s normal and healthy for people to experience and cope with nervousness- you can experience nervousness over a test, over texting the person you like to see if they want to grab dinner, or anything else that creates those butterflies on our stomachs. Anxiety is nervousness times ten- there’s a physical component....
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...What is Stress and Anxiety? Stress and anxiety are not one in the same, but they do work hand in hand with one another. Stress allows one to notice alarming or problematic situations in which one would have to counteract the situation to lower their stress levels. Without stress in our lives, we would have no motivation to do anything or go anywhere. Stress helps motivate people to act on certain feelings and emotions. When one cannot adapt to their stress levels, it will start to take over their daily lives. Once this happens, one can recognize symptoms of being ill, having increased anxiety levels, or even start feeling unhappy or fatigued. When these symptoms are noticed, you have a bigger problem. Some can think of anxiety as long term stress. Anxiety is not something that is specific to any given situation. Anxiety is a fear gone wild; a generalized send of dread about something that is out there that seems menacing – but that in truth is not menacing, and may not even be out there [ (Grohol Psy. D., 2013) ]. The Link between Stress and Anxiety Stress can cause many changes within the body of someone where their anxiety and stress have taken over. Stress can reduce hormone function, damage organs, weaken your immune system, put you at greater risk of cancer, can cause memory loss and concentrations issues, and increase your risk of developing mental health disorders [ (Stress and Anxiety, 2013) ]. One of the most important issues stress can cause is mental health disorders...
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...Dealing with anxiety is like going through a whirlwind of your own thoughts. They crowd your mind leaving little or no room for rationalized focused thoughts. It creates unwanted behaviors that take over our lives. Making you uncommunicative, antsy, controlling, or just nervous all of the time. Everything is Worst Case Scenario even if your rational brain knows everything will be fine. It can feel like a huge cluster of negativity hanging over you. No matter how severe or what part of your life anxiety controls it takes a toll on your everyday life. The two S’s or Social interactions and your school life are all controlled by over analyzation and thoughts of ‘what ifs’ creating stresses and struggles throughout life whether at home, school,...
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...may just be shy or have social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety could be mistaken for shyness very easily and the way people behave towards each other. Shyness has many different faces and different meanings to other people. Shyness can be known for a personality trait (Smith). Some people tend to think that shyness is just a phase and it only occurs during early childhood years. Others may mistake shyness as social anxiety or vice versa. Shyness and social phobia do have similar qualities; however shyness is not as extreme as social anxiety (Smith). As a parent, my mother was concerned about me when I was younger and went through the shyness phase. She was concerned that I may have social anxiety because I was so shy. After going to my pediatrician for any annual checkups, they discovered that it was just me being shy. My mom was one of the people who thought being shy was a good quality. Many people...
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...Anxiety disorder is a mental illness that causes people to be scared and distress in certain situations. Anxiety disorders can cause depression, low self esteem, alcohol abuse; drug abuse and isolation from love ones. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in America: they affect around 20 percent of the population at any given time. Fortunately, there are many good treatments for anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, some people do not seek treatment for their illness because they do not realize how severe their symptoms are or are too ashamed to seek help. Furthermore, these disorders are often difficult to recognize for friends, family and even some doctors (Nami, 2012). I am sure everyone has experienced some form of anxiety. In my anxiety assessment, I was asked questions such as: Am I troubled by excessive worrying about events at work, school or home. It also asked was I bothered by at least three of the following, being easily tired, restlessness, and irritability. Do I feel sad, depress or worthless about anything. My responses to all of these questions was no. I only had one question that I answered that was yes. I do have problems concentrating at times. My results of my assessment were a score of a seventeen. Zero through twenty results was that there were no presents of anxiety. Twenty one through forty meant low anxiety. Forty-one through sixty resulted that is some form of anxiety related systems. Sixty-one through eighty, you should go to a medical...
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...Generalized Anxiety Disorder: What it is, how it works, and what treatments are available My mother is the only person who always understands how I’m feeling, and she knows just what to say to ease my suffering. As a kid it seemed like I was just a little more sensitive and cautious than the other kids, but either way I still would tend to feel like I didn’t belong some days. When I was fourteen I visited a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD); at the time I had no idea what the words she was saying to me even meant. That was the day that my mother revealed to me that she also suffers from GAD. It is difficult for people without anxiety disorders to understand how constant the anxious feelings really are and that they can escalate to become much more severe than any normal anxiety. I’ve been knowingly living with GAD for four years now and I have many questions about it that have yet to be answered. Considering my mother and I both suffer from this disorder, I want to know if it could possibly be genetic or if I was simple conditioned to it from observing her. I also am curious about what happens in the brain of someone who suffers from generalized anxiety disorder and how it causes the symptoms. Most importantly I want to find information on possible treatments that would not only allow me to deal with my anxiety in a way that will better my life, but also I need to know how I can help my mother because seeing her deal with this disorder and...
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...My anxiety started when I was in the fourth grade. I would sit in class with my heart beating and my hands sweating for no reason, and I didn’t understand why. I began obsessing over whether my homework was done, my mother was driving safely or what my friends thought about me. In the beginning, it almost made me a better person because procrastination could not happen with all the worries running through my mind. I always did my homework, put my things away and I was never late. However, my worries and anxiousness followed me throughout elementary school and into middle school. My parents brought me to doctors and counselors, but by high school my anxiety was controlling my life. There was no longer a positive side, it always made me doubt...
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...General Anxiety Disorder Andrea Murphy HCA 240 May 6, 2012 Fozia Ferozali General Anxiety Disorder I have decided to write my paper on General Anxiety Disorder because I myself have it, so I am more familiar with it. GAD (general anxiety disorder) is when an individual suffers from a psychological state where they have persisting thoughts of anticipation and fears that are overwhelming their mind and intern it affects the body as well. It is a disorder that is characterized by excessive, exaggerated worry about everyday life with really no reason to worry. There are many types of anxiety disorders which are panic, general anxiety disorder, phobias, and obsessive compulsive (OCD). Every one experiences anxiety at certain times in their lives, it is a normal part of the human emotion. Even though everyone experiences anxiety at one point or another in their lives, the individuals who suffer with an anxiety disorder suffer because the disorder interferes with their daily life. In this paper I will be discussing the history of the illness, the signs and symptoms, how it is diagnosed, the treatments, and how the diagnosis and treatments compare to the diagnosis and treatments of the past. Anxiety disorders is a term that was developed approximately around the end of the 19th century since that was when the psychiatric practice began to become more popular and increased. Even though there is no one cause to GAD, researches in the psychiatric field tend to believe genetics...
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...Spark, because I was intrigued to understand how physical activity could change my brain and all its neural circuits to live a long healthy life. One of my goals is to live well into old age with the people that I love and in good cognitive function. I read how important is to keep good mental activity by implementing the use of puzzles, word games, reading, writing, music, etc. But I had a vague understanding how my brain continued shaping its neurons with the combination of exercises. Moreover, by conditioning my body; my brain boost new perceptions on how to control external factors like stress and anxiety. To better understand the concepts, the book Spark, was written by John J. Ratey, MD, and professor of Psychiatry....
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...Facing The Ice “There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it” teaches Ovid. ( Andy 24) This means that one cannot achieve pleasure easily; he needs anxiety to push himself to the limits and overcome fear. Collier, a freelance writer with more than six hundred articles to his credit, published an article, “Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name “. He uses his personal experience and proves that we can overcome anxiety. Personally I do agree with Collier since I had to face anxiety in a way I never expected. In the article "Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name," Collier explains that anxiety is a very common part in our life and overcoming it instead of backing away is the only way we grow. Collier uses personal experiences, and shows his audience how he faced his anxiety which taught him lessons for the future .He was given a chance to travel with his roommate to Argentina, to work on a ranch. Collier had turned down the offer, since he already had made plans to teach his brother to sail. Turning down this opportunity, Collier learned a valuable lesson and developed a rule for himself: “do what makes you anxious; don’t do what makes you depressed”. ( Collier 95) When Collier was at graduate school, he began writing magazines articles and interviewing big names. Before each interview, he would get butterflies and his hands would start shaking (Collier 95). At one time, Collier had an interview with a musician that he admired, Duke Ellington. During...
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...ease their pain and struggles. Antidepressants are drugs which were initially used for the treatment of depression, but knowingly proved to be effective for other types of diagnosis, such as anxiety. Divulging his own enduring fight with anxiety, Scott Stossel presents a moving and fascinating account of a condition that affects some 40 million Americans. Stossel offers a personal and reliable history of efforts by scientists, philosophers, family members and writers to understand anxiety and the toll it has on our souls. Revealing anxiety's myriad manifestations and the anguish it causes, he also surveys the countless psychotherapies, medications, and often outlandish treatments that have been developed to relieve it. Scott Stossel first saw a psychiatrist at age 10. Since then, he has tried 27 medications and many different kinds of therapy in an attempt to assuage his anxiety-related problems. This book is an account of his own experiences and the history of anxiety-related disorders that stretch back as far as Hippocrates in the fourth-century BC, and takes in Plato, Spinoza, Kierkegaard, Darwin, Freud, and many eminent 20th-century authorities on presenting this issue in present times. In Stossels book the reader schemes through the various concepts about the cause of extreme anxiety which often hypothesizes about innate inheritance of the tendency, and modeling based on the behavior of family members. Stossel keeps the audience involved as he associates his first-hand account...
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...somewhere in the near future. How do I know this? Through my public speaking course this semester, I completed an anxiety survey. Although I was already aware that I have a slight fear of public communication, this self-examination revealed to me my speaking apprehension score that was labeled with a specific level of anxiety. Not only, though, was I faced with a given intensity of anxiety, I was learning things about myself that I never thought I would obtain such an insight to. Moderate: the level at which my public speaking apprehension score happened to fall. I recognized right away that I wasn’t necessarily in the higher or lower range. This assisted me in looking at the glass as half full, which happens to be an obligation if I plan to eliminate this category of anxiety from my life. As I sat and thought about my score, it hit me that I over emphasized my partial fear of publicly speaking in front of large groups of people. What I thought was going to be the end of the world was really just normal amounts of tension, stress, and anxiety that I was way too easily letting get to me. Seeing these results brought to my attention strengths that can assist my in kicking public speaking anxiety: I radiate optimism, am smart and energetic, and I have confidence with every other task I face in day-to-day situations. Confidence seems to occur naturally day, but it is only present nearly half of the time when it comes to my presenting of a public speech. I am a firm believer in...
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...I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks that I can only sort of control. I try and get enough sleep, do yoga, take meds, the whole thing. But still, my brain gets ahead of me and wants to do a pity spiral dance of disaster and worry and I can’t really stop it. It’s a handicap in a sense, where I want to be working or going out with friends or doing laundry but instead I’m curled up in bed with the lights off waiting for my benzos to kick in. (Pretty, pretty.) Sometimes people tell me it will help my anxiety to “be grateful.” That’s one piece of advice I get a lot. If I were more grateful, I wouldn’t be so anxious. I’m only anxious because I lack perspective. Because I need to take the time to look outside myself and my own problems. If I were...
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