Anxiety
From Drug Rehab Wiki
Anxiety is a normal psychological and physiological reaction to stress that serves as a coping mechanism. But when anxiety becomes excessive, overwhelming, and irrational, or when it interferes with everyday activities and behaviors, it can become a disabling mental disorder. Anxiety sometimes occurs without an identifiable stimulus, often arising not from an observable threat but during daily activities, or due to a perceived or anticipated threat.
Anxiety disorders come in various forms and extremes, and can even occur simultaneously with other anxiety disorders, depending on the level of the disorder’s progression. Each disorder has a distinct method of treatment that has effectively improved with modern research and therapeutic studies, which have continually refined the taxonomy of symptoms and these disorders over the last century.
The most recent classifications of anxiety disorders and their treatment are identified in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV, American Psychological Association, 1994) and the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICS-10, World Health Organization, 1993). The most common forms of anxiety disorders are:
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Specific phobias are the most common forms of anxiety, but panic disorder is most comorbid with another anxiety disorder, and PTSD is most frequently comorbid with multiple anxiety disorders. Other anxiety disorders include acute stress disorder, separation anxiety, and expectation anxiety (anticipatory anxiety). People who suffer from anxiety often suffer from forms of depression and can easily develop problems with substance abuse. Anxiety disorders are very treatable with psychotherapy, prescribed medications, or a combination of both clinical and medicated treatment.
