Have you felt anxious at any point recently?
That feeling of butterflies in your stomach is quite common. This is the body’s natural response to situations perceived as challenging or threatening. At moderate levels, it can even be beneficial, as it increases vigilance and prepares us for stressful events.
Therefore, being anxious under some circumstances is something common that, in most cases, is not related to an anxiety disorder. Before presenting our work or when experiencing a very important event such as the birth of a child, for example, it is very natural for us to feel some degree of anxiety.
“We have difficulty accepting anxiety as a normal symptom of life. A good strategy to overcome such moments is not to think about it. When we try to control anxiety rationally and keep thinking about it, the tendency is for the symptoms to intensify,” explains Rodrigo Bressan, psychiatrist and president of Instituto Ame sua Mente, in an interview with Dr. Drauzio Varella.
What is anxiety disorder?
But when anxiety is intense and long-lasting, interfering with daily activities, it becomes harmful to mental health. In these cases, it can lead to uncomfortable emotional, physical and behavioral symptoms, such as difficulty concentrating, insomnia, irritability, palpitations and excessive worry.
According to the definition of the Ministry of Health, anxiety disorders are illnesses related to the functioning of the body and life experiences.
What are the causes that lead to anxiety disorders?
There is no specific cause for anxiety disorders. Among the factors that can contribute to the occurrence of a disorder of this type are:
- Genetic predisposition;
- Occurrence of traumatic events;
- Chronic stress;
- Troubled family environment;
From the point of view of neuroscience, it is interesting to mention that the brain structure itself influences our response to situations, while our life experiences can alter our brain and its functioning. This concerns a group of neurons that are part of the limbic system and are responsible for processing emotions. Research has shown that people with a larger brain amygdala are more predisposed to developing mood disorders, which can progress to anxiety disorders.
How prevalent is anxiety in Brazil and around the world? How does this disorder impact the population?
Anxiety disorders affect around 300 million individuals worldwide and data show that Brazil leads the global ranking in prevalence.
26.8% of Brazilians received a medical diagnosis of anxiety. When we consider the younger population, between 18 and 24 years old, the prevalence of the disease is almost a third (31.6%) and exceeds this mark when we consider the female population (34.2%).
Source: Covitel – Study conducted in Brazil in 2023 to monitor risk factors for chronic diseases.
What are the main symptoms and behaviors associated with anxiety disorders?
People who live with some type of anxiety disorder often experience:
- difficulty relaxing due to exaggerated worries, tensions or fears;
- a continuous feeling that something very bad will happen;
- exaggerated worries about health, money, family or work;
- extreme fear of some particular object or situation;
- exaggerated fear of being publicly humiliated;
- lack of control over thoughts or attitudes, which are repeated independently of the will;
- dread after a very difficult situation.
What are the main types of anxiety disorders?
There are different anxiety disorders, which can be diagnosed by a psychiatrist. Here are some characteristics and patterns:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): general and permanent feeling that something bad is going to happen. GAD constantly generates worry, a lot of fear, agitation and difficulty concentrating, which negatively impacts personal and professional relationships.
Panic Disorder (PD): also known as “panic syndrome,” is characterized by acute anxiety attacks, with a strong feeling of fear or discomfort, accompanied by physical symptoms, such as chills or hot flashes, fainting, vomiting or chest pain at the peak of the crisis.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): appears after a very intense mental and emotional event, which generates very significant and persistent anxiety that extends beyond the duration of that event.
Social Anxiety Disorder: characterized by a disabling fear of any situation that involves being in public. Little by little, it generates isolation that can lead to depression.
Specific phobias: include specific fears, such as animals, heights, thunder, among others.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): relates to thoughts that lead the person to act compulsively, to obsessions – thoughts, images or impulses that occur frequently, against the person’s will. In many cases, OCD is linked to cleaning and organization.
How to identify an anxiety attack?
An anxiety crisis is a mental state in which the body has different symptoms, such as shortness of breath, tremors, tachycardia and sweating. However, you need to see certain details to identify it.
Those who have recurring episodes of anxiety always experience physical symptoms, such as tremors, hair standing on end and rapid breathing. In more extreme cases, when the symptoms are strong and there is also chest pain, it is important to go to an emergency room to check whether it is a cardiac episode.
To differentiate anxiety attacks from panic attacks, we can observe that in the latter case, the attacks tend to be more severe with a shorter duration and often have no apparent or logical reason. An anxiety crisis is usually related to a specific fact that acts as a trigger and leads to excessive worry.
How to discover the factors that increase anxiety?
Even people who are not diagnosed with an anxiety disorder can have triggers that make them more anxious. Identification is very private and requires self-knowledge.
“One way is to try to map the history of the times when you had the most anxiety and what happened before that. For example, a seemingly ordinary event can cause a person to have very negative thoughts. The ideal is to observe this cause and effect relationship”, explains Bressan.
What are the risks or consequences?
When left untreated, anxiety disorders can harm a patient’s life by affecting routine activities and personal relationships.
Physical health can also be affected to different degrees; among the possible consequences are: heart disease, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal disorders, chronic headaches and suppression of the immune system.
Another mental illness associated with anxiety is depression, which can appear as anxiety develops without the correct treatment. The emotional exhaustion caused by the damage that anxiety disorders bring to a person’s daily life contributes to the emergence of depressive symptoms. Furthermore, genetic and environmental causes can influence the emergence of more than one mental disorder.
How to treat different anxiety disorders?
Early diagnosis is decisive for the patient’s successful recovery. It helps prevent complications, reduces suffering and improves the quality of life of the person and those who live with him, in addition to favoring a more effective treatment intervention.
Anxiety disorders can be approached in different ways to improve symptoms. There are three main types of treatment:
- Psychotherapy with regular sessions with a psychologist or psychiatrist;
- Medication – which should always be done by a psychiatrist with medical supervision and prescriptions;
- Combination of two treatments, medication and psychotherapy.
In most cases, people start to feel better day by day. Assessment by a specialist is essential, both to direct treatment in the most appropriate way and to enable an early and accurate diagnosis.
It is necessary to talk about anxiety disorders and mental health
Anxiety disorders affect millions of people and impact many Brazilians, with various social and economic consequences in addition to the low quality of life of these individuals. In order for us to see this reality and change it, we need to prevent it and treat it correctly.
To achieve this, an essential step is to reduce stigma and prejudice through debate in different social groups. Valuing mental health, facing it naturally and taking care of it every day are attitudes that we can and should all cultivate.
At Instituto Ame sua Mente, we have different projects that help promote mental health in the school environment and seek to encourage debate throughout society. See our content menu to try different formats and find out more about various topics related to mental health. Get free access at this link.
