Anxiety

Types of anxiety disorders

Anxiety disorders are the most common group of mental health conditions in Australia. In 2020-21, 3.3 million Australians experienced a 12-month anxiety disorder. It is estimated that anxiety disorders will affect 1 in 4 Australians at some stage of their life.

The common types of anxiety disorders are:

• Generalised anxiety disorder: Usually lasts for more than six months. The person is experiencing an unusually high level of anxiety due to being excessively worried about different ordinary aspects of their life, such as their health, well-being, safety, finances, relationships, school or work.
• Panic disorder: People with panic disorder regularly experience unexpected and repeated panic attacks and are terrified that they might experience even more panic attacks and that the panic attacks could cause something bad to happen (such as they worry that they will faint, lose control over themselves or even die). A panic attack can last a few seconds or several minutes but can take longer for the symptoms to subside. During a panic attack, the person experiences a sudden rush of intense fear, plus other symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of beath and can ‘hear’ their heart pounding. It’s important to note that panic attacks are fairly common and that not everyone who has panic attacks has panic disorder. For example, if the person is afraid of snakes, they might have a panic attack whenever they are near a snake, and they expect to have a panic attack whenever they see a snake. They are not thinking about what the panic attack could do to them, they are afraid of what the snake and what it could do. In panic disorder, the panic attacks are unexpected, unpredictable, and the person is afraid of what could happen due to the panic attack.
• Agoraphobia (often goes with panic disorder): The person fears they might have a panic attack in a certain place or situation, such as going out alone, being on public transport, being in an enclosed space, an open space (where they feel vulnerable) or being in busy areas, crowds or queues. They might feel anxious and experience panic attacks in these situations because feel it would be difficult to escape if they needed to and fear they would have a panic attack. In severe agoraphobia cases, the person becomes housebound.
• Specific phobias (sometimes called simple phobias): The person experiences extreme fears of a certain thing, object or situation, and so do their best to avoid it. In some cases, they may develop an inability to function normally when put in that situation. Common specific phobias include fear of dogs (cynophobia), fear of snakes (ophidiophobia), fear of spiders (arachnophobia), fear of blood (hemophobia, AKA blood phobia), fear of water (aquaphobia), fear of heights (acrophobia), fear of flying (aerophobia), and fear of being in small or enclosed spaces (claustrophobia).
• Post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD): The person was part of or witnessed one or more traumatic life events that negatively impacted their mental health. Perhaps they experienced war, an assault, other crime, an accident or natural disaster and are reliving these events through memories, flashbacks and nightmares, and these original memories, flashbacks and nightmares may also be triggered if the person goes through similar experiences or hears about other people’s experiences.
• Social anxiety disorder (also known as social phobia): The person is very self-conscious and has a chronic fear of being in social settings, even if it’s not a large crowd. This can happen at work, school, parties, anywhere. And it can happen before and during the social experience. They believe other people will pay attention to them and will judge what they wear, say or do, and so they become anxious on how they would be perceived and fear they could say or do something to humiliate or embarrass themself. So while not wanting to go out into social settings may come across as being an introvert, it could be the person is experiencing social anxiety disorder.
• Separation anxiety disorder: While many people think separation anxiety only to only occur in young children, it is common for older youths and adults to experience the condition. A person can become extremely anxious, afraid, worried and distressed before and during separation from someone, a place or their pet, and this fear can affect how they function in life, including socially, and in their relationships, jobs and education.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): The person is experiencing intrusive obsessive thoughts (such as “my home is always dirty”) that make them do repetitive, compulsive mental and/or physical acts (compulsions, such as look for flaws in their home and clean their home several times a day). These behaviours are their coping mechanism to try and reduce anxiety or distress, but often significantly affect their well-being and their quality of life.