Herbal Medicine Center

Archive for May 17th, 2010

Do you sometimes worry that you feel too much anxiety, fear or nervousness? If your worry actually interferes with your quality of life, you are probably suffering from symptoms of clinical anxiety.

Clinical anxiety often manifests itself through both physical and emotional symptoms. It is easily treatable through counseling or psychotherapy. Being able to identify its specific signs will help you get the psychological treatment that is best for you.

Emotional Symptoms

If you are reading this, you are probably experiencing so much fear or apprehension that it significantly impairs the quality of your life. There is a wide variety of symptoms that may be troubling you.

These can include uneasiness, restlessness,fearfulness, foreboding, or torturous obsessions, which seem to be triggered by even the most ordinary things. You may also have problems concentrating, problem solving or you may even avoid doing important things out of fear.

You may also experience an uncomfortable fidgetiness, edginess, irritability, self consciousness or nervousness. Also, people who are dealing with the clinical form of anxiety may obsess on the thought that they are going to die or go crazy. Remember, it does not have to be only one of these signs, but can be a combination of many of them.

Physical Symptoms

Clinical anxiety also can display physical signs. You may be experiencing back pain, worrisome heart palpitations, cold hands,shortness or shallowness of breath, indigestion, bowel dysfunctions or skin problems.

Some of these may be familiar to you if you have had panic attacks. The intensity of symptoms often vary as well. If you experience any number of the above signs or symptoms, call a physician or psychologist for an initial consultation to discuss the possibility of treatment.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

There is not just one type of anxiety disorder; there are actually five main ones. The first type can feature a vague chronic apprehension accompanied by an ever-present tension and worry which often seems provoked by nothing in particular. This is known as Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder is another type; it features recurrent, repetitive, sometimes odd behaviors following the occurrence of irrational fear-laden and unwanted thoughts. The compulsions or symptomatic behaviors can include excessive hand washing and/or frequent ritualistic forms of checking or counting.

These wasteful and odd behaviors are triggered by a severe, though irrational fear of harm and the desperate hope that the sufferer is going to prevent it from happening.

Another type of anxiety disorder is panic disorder which is characterized by discrete, repeated and unexpected episodes of intense fear that one is going to collapse, die or go crazy. These episodes manifest themselves unexpectedly, for no rational reasons and display many of the above anxiety-manifesting symptoms.

PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is triggered by a traumatic incident which took place in the patients life. These traumas can include the occurrence of life-threatening motor vehicle accidents, episodes of military combat, natural or human-engendered disasters and violent physical assaults.

The last main type of anxiety disorder is Social Anxiety Disorder. It manifests itself by the presence of overwhelming apprehension, worry and extreme feelings of self consciousness in typical social situations.

Millions of people in America are afflicted with various types of anxiety disorders, ranging from lesser to almost catastrophic intensity. The good news is that if you are one of them, counseling, psychotherapy and other drug-free approaches can be very effective in relieving your symptoms.

Get an initial consultation with a counselor or psychologist today.

Dr Shery is in Cary, IL, near Algonquin, Crystal Lake, Marengo and Lake-in-the-Hills. He’s an expert psychologist. Call 1 847 516 0899 and make an appt orlearn more about counseling at: http://www.carypsychology.com