Anxiety: Symptoms And Signs

Symptoms and Signs of Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder can make you fear or avoid:

- Meeting new people
- Talking to your boss, or anyone in charge
- Speaking in front of groups
- Drawing any attention to yourself

If you have to do these kinds of things, you might:

- Blush
- Sweat
- Tremble
- Have a fast heartbeat

If you think you or someone you know might suffer from social anxiety disorder, fill out the checklist on this site. Your answers can help your doctor determine if you might have social anxiety disorder. Only a doctor or other qualified healthcare professional can diagnose social anxiety disorder.

Symptoms and Signs of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect people who have lived through an extreme trauma. A traumatic event is an event in which both of the following were present:

- The person experienced, witnessed or was confronted with an event or events
   that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to their
   physical self or others.
- The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

For someone to be diagnosed with PTSD, the traumatic event must be persistently re-experienced in one or more of the following ways:

- Frequent, sudden, and upsetting memories about the event
- Repeated nightmares about the event
- Acting or feeling as if the event were happening again
- Strong mental and emotional pain when seeing people, places, or other
   reminders of the event
- Physical reactions (such as shakiness, chills, heart beating fast) when seeing
   people, places, or other reminders of the event

The person must also be constantly avoiding aspects associated with the trauma and have a numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

- Trying to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations about the event
- Trying to avoid activities, places, or people that are reminders of the event
- Not being able to remember important details about the event
- Not enjoying or taking part in activities once enjoyed
- Feeling disconnected from family and friends
- Feelings of emotional numbness that others might notice
- Believing that certain important life goals (such as getting married, having
  children or growing older) will not happen

Also, the person must show persistent symptoms or increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following:

- Trouble falling or staying asleep
- Irritability or outbursts of anger
- Trouble concentrating
- Feeling "overly alert"
- Being "overly startled"

The symptoms in each of these categories must last for more than one month and serious enough to cause worry and get in the way of the person's work, social life, or daily life.

If you think you or someone you know might suffer from panic disorder, fill out the checklist on this site. Your answers can help your doctor determine if you might have panic disorder. Only a doctor or other qualified healthcare professional can diagnose panic disorder.

Symptoms and Signs of Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear, called panic attacks.

These attacks are accompanied by physical symptoms that might include:

- Chest pain/discomfort
- Heart palpitations
- Shortness of breath
- Dizziness
- Nausea or abdominal distress*

What is agoraphobia?

Some panic disorder sufferers also have "agoraphobia."

Agoraphobia is an anxiety - or a fear - of being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or in which help might not be available in the event of having a panic attack or panic-like symptoms (for example, fear of having a sudden attack of dizziness or a sudden attack of diarrhea). Some people with agoraphobia might fear being outside the home alone; being in a crowd or
standing in a line; being on a bridge; or traveling in a bus, train, or car.

Situations like these might be avoided, or else they're dreaded - and then endured. Typically, this means staying away from places or circumstances where previous fearful experiences have happened. Obviously, having such a "fear of the fear" can make normal everyday life impossible.

*These symptoms can be signs of another underlying condition; make sure to follow-up with your physician and get regular check ups.

If you think you or someone you know might suffer from panic disorder, fill out the checklist on this site. Your answers can help your doctor determine if you might have panic disorder. Only a doctor or other qualified healthcare professional can diagnose panic disorder.

Symptoms and Signs of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Doctors diagnose OCD when obsessions (thoughts you can't control) or compulsions (actions you can't control) start to:

- Take up more than one hour a day
- Cause the person to become very upset
- Get in the way of activities of daily life

Some common OCD symptoms include:

Obsessions
- Thoughts about contamination or germs
- Doubts about safety, doing harm, or being harmed
- A need for order/tidiness, to have things "just right"
- Fear of making mistakes
- Fear of acting in a socially improper way

Compulsions
- Repeating actions, such as hand-washing
- Checking and rechecking that something has been done
- Arranging objects over and over
- Counting/repeating
- Collecting objects and feeling unable to throw them away

If you think you or someone you know might suffer from OCD, fill out the checklist on this site. These answers can help a doctor diagnose OCD. Only a doctor or other qualified healthcare professional can diagnose OCD.