For some people like me, there are days that are completely overwhelming just from worrying about things that honestly, sometimes, don't need to be worried about, and then some days where I can seem to keep it under control, and not show that I'm worrying. Yet, for some people there is ABSOLUTELY no way of escaping it all.
Not only does worrying effect people like me mentally, it takes over a lot of different things physically. Some physical symptoms of an anxiety disorder is, "fatigue, headaches, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, trembling, twitching, irritability, sweating, nausea, lightheadedness, having to go to the bathroom frequently, feeling out of breath, and hot flashes". So, not only do I constantly worry about the little things, it makes it even harder to stay calm when I'm clearly nervous and sweating, and I start to worry that everyone can notice that I'm nervous, and because I think everyone can notice I worry even more, and it becomes even more clearer, and a viscous cycle begins!
Not only do the visible symptoms weigh us down, but so do the physical symptoms people don't see. Ever since I was little I would get huge headaches, I would go to so many specialist to find out the cause of them, and nobody could find out. That in itself was stressful because I felt as though I was being a hypochondriac. Not only that, but I would randomly not be able to take a deep breath, and would have to yawn to actually feel like I was getting enough air. Sometimes this would only last a couple days, sometimes it would last weeks. So I even went to specialists for that, thinking I could have asthma. My freshmen year of college I started really paying attention to my symptoms, and really paid attention to my phycology class and realized I had a LOT of symptoms for anxiety. So, I talked to my mom and my doctor and it was clear that all this time I had been suffering from anxiety. To tie it all in even more, I found out my mom has it pretty bad, but like me, in most cases, she does a pretty good job at hiding it.
Even though for the most part I can keep my worrying to myself, sometimes it will come out in other forms. One problem with anxiety for me is the fact that I do not like to talk about things to people, so I keep it all to myself. The upside to it is that people don't think I'm a worrier, but the downside to it is if I keep too much in for too long I end up having a panic attack. These panic attacks for me come out of nowhere, or something really little to annoy me will trigger it, and because i'll have so much built up inside i'll just burst out! The symptoms of a panic attack include- rapid heart rate, sweating, trembling, shotness of breath, hyperventilation, chills, hot flashes, nausea, abdominal cramping,chest pain, headache, dizziness, faiting, tightness in your throat, trouble swallowing, a sense of impending death. When looking at this list it doesn't really look that bad. But, in reality it is, because it is ALL or most of these symptoms occur all at once out of nowhere.
Fortunately, if things get to out of control they do have ways to treat this disease. Since anxiety is a form of depression, anti-depressants are used in treating it, but not used in the same dosage of people who have depression. The reason why these work is because they influence the activity of neurotransmitters in the brain. Another popular form of treating anxiety is with Benzodiazepines. These are sedatives used for short term use for anxiety. Some examples of these are Ativan, Valium, and Xanax.
So, especially in college, it is important that if you have overwhelming symptoms related to anxiety to get them checked out. Stress and anxiety, if left untreated, can do harm to your body, and make it much harder to be successful in school!
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/panic-attacks/DS00338
No comments:
Post a Comment