Different Types of Anxiety Disorders - Video Transcript
Hey everyone. I'm Kristen, the anxiety therapist, thanks for checking out my vlog today. I'm going to be providing some psychoeducation about the various types of anxiety disorders because anxiety can manifest differently in different people. So it's helpful to kind of be able to differentiate between them.
So one of the most common anxiety disorders is generalized anxiety disorder, also known as g a. D. Uh this is super common and it's more of a constant and pervasive worry about just about everything. Um oftentimes these people can't necessarily pinpoint one thing that's making them anxious. Um but rather it's just sort of this, this general sense of worry, hence the name.
And this can come with some physical symptoms as well, you know, like a racing heart or pit in your stomach or getting flushed, things like that. So, um this is a lot of what I see as an outpatient therapist, a lot of clients are coming to me with these sorts of symptoms, symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.
Um then we have panic disorder. So this is when you experience actual panic attacks. Panic attacks are a little bit different than anxiety attacks. So panic attacks. Um you you literally feel like you're going to die or having a heart attack, um you have very fast breathing, um you have this sense of impending doom and it's really hard to kind of calm yourself down.
So, um usually these subside in 10 to 20 minutes, um but once you have hit that point of panic, um you kind of have to ride it out and obviously there are ways to cope with that, but this can come with agoraphobia, which is a fear of leaving your home because you're scared, you're going to have a panic attack in public. Um a lot of times people with panic disorder will make sure they know where the exits are, if they're going to a public place, they sort of always have an escape plan.
Social anxiety disorder is another one. This is different from being shy with social anxiety, there's this intense fear of judgment from others or a fear of embarrassing yourself in social situations. A lot of times it's, you know if you're going out and you think you're going to be talking to someone new who you've just met or you know, several people who have just met, this can create some intense anxiety that makes you want to avoid social situations.
Um a lot of what I see in my practice as well is adjustment disorder with anxiety. This is when there's been some sort of a major life change, so maybe you moved, maybe you got a new job and it's coming with some anxiety, so this is often more short term, about six months, it can turn chronic, but um more often than not, it's just somebody needing help kind of getting through a transitional phase um separation anxiety, this is pretty common with kids, so I don't see a lot of this in my practice, but um sometimes the separation anxiety can become um pretty um it can kind of impair the functioning of the child.
And so it's important to kind of seek outside help if that's the case. Um post-traumatic stress disorder, arises if someone has had a serious trauma. So we see this in a lot of war veterans, um somebody who's maybe been sexually assaulted um things like that, and it doesn't necessarily have to come from one specific traumatizing event.
It can also arise from sort of a series of um more covert traumas that sometimes we're not even aware our traumas. Um we also have obsessive-compulsive disorder. Um this can purely be obsessive thoughts about something, or it can be the obsessive thoughts accompanied by the compulsions, which is our attempt to alleviate the anxiety associated with the obsessive thoughts.
The problem is this just creates a vicious cycle and it actually exacerbates the problem. And then finally high functioning anxiety. So these are primarily the clients that I work with. This is not a true diagnosis if we're looking at, the DSM, the diagnostic and statistical manual, which is how therapists provide diagnoses.
Um but this is more high achievers perfectionists. Um people whose anxiety has actually probably made them pretty successful, but it's now crossed a threshold into um sort of impairing their functioning or not allowing them to live the quality of life that they would like to, so this, I think just in our society with social media with more technology, um I am seeing a lot more high functioning anxiety and these people appear to others.
Like they have it all together, right? They are successful. They're put together, and they seem to be able to kind of conquer the world, but in reality, they're kind of falling apart on the inside. So if any of this, if you have questions, if any of this resonates with you feel free to ask a question or leave a comment, and thanks for watching.
And I'll see you guys next week.
