Anxiety disorders – are they damaging our bodies?

Anxiety is a spontaneous and natural reaction of the body which includes the brain (psychological) and the body (physical).


Anxiety is a mechanism that sets the "siren" off or like an alarm system that turns on when our bodies discover we are about to be harmed. In the course of this time, we feel scared, panicky, our heart rate goes up, our respiration sequence becomes rapid and labored, our muscles become rigid and we start being tremulous, we may perhaps feel like throwing up and may be covered in sweat. All of these symptoms are due to the adrenalin charge and other chemical substances (hormones) that are being unleashed by our bodies during stressful situations. That's when we feel the urge to get ready for combat and defend

ourselves or to flee the situation. This is called the "fight or flight" response.

All of us experience anxiety symptoms at one moment or another. Persons who suffer anxiety habitually experience all kinds of predicaments like panic attacks which is a form of extreme anxiety called panic disorder. Through these types of events folks feel like they are going crazy, feel helpless and have no control of the circumstances. According to Charles Goodstein, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University Langone Medical Center, "The classic panic disorder presentation is the patient arriving to the emergency room with chest pain". This is because they are having symptoms of a heart attack; difficulty breathing, diaphoresis, and nausea.

Besides panic disorders, the NIH lists other anxiety disorders as obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social phobia or social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and generalized anxiety disorder(GAD).

If you are having symptoms of anxiety please seek medical help as soon as you can. With the proper anxiety management, your anxiety will be under control which means you will be able to sleep and function better. If you have severe anxiety, it can be treated! So, go to the Doctor and get anxiety treatment without delay if you are not doing something about it.