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	Related Subjects Bipolar Disorder Depression Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Schizophrenia

An anxiety disorder is a mental illness. It produces symptoms of overwhelming anxiety and fear that last for a long time and can grow worse over time. Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental illnesses in our country.

There are several types of common anxiety disorders.

• A generalized anxiety disorder may cause constant, exaggerated worrisome thoughts and tension about everyday routine life events and activities, lasting at least six months. This disorder may include physical symptoms such as fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, headache, or nausea.
• A panic disorder is characterized by repeated episodes of intense fear that strike often and without warning. Physical symptoms include chest or stomach pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, feelings of unreality, and fear of dying.
• An obsessive-compulsive disorder causes repeated, unwanted thoughts or compulsive behaviors that seem impossible to stop or control.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder includes persistent symptoms that occur after experiencing a traumatic event such as rape or other criminal assault, war, child abuse, natural disasters, or crashes. Nightmares, flashbacks, numbing of emotions, depression, and feeling angry, irritable or distracted and being easily startled are common.
• People with social phobia can experience an overwhelming and disabling fear of scrutiny, embarrassment, or humiliation in social situations, which may cause someone to avoid activities that are usually pleasurable or meaningful.
• People with specific phobia experience extreme, disabling, and irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger; the fear leads to avoidance of objects or situations and can cause people to limit their lives unnecessarily.

Often, an anxiety disorder accompanies another form of mental illness, such as depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, or another anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders can also co-exist with physical disorders. Treatments often include medication and specific types of psychotherapy.