Anxiety is one of the most common mental health disorders affecting Americans. More children and teens report anxiety symptoms than in the past, and co-occurring addiction and anxiety disorders are evident at ever-younger ages. There is a Denver, Colorado, anxiety treatment center in the heart of the mile-high city.
We are Mile High Recovery Center, and we offer superb, evidence-based treatment for anxiety, addiction, and both combined. Knowing the signs of anxiety and understanding the different types of anxiety that can manifest empowers you to seek help for yourself or someone you love. What is anxiety, you may ask? We can help you sort through your questions about anxiety and how substance use may be affecting your mental health and vice versa. Reach out to Mile High Recovery Center by calling 303-268-2144 or submitting our online form.
Five Types of Anxiety
What is anxiety? Though there is a great deal of commonality among the types of anxiety, each anxiety disorder has its own unique signs and challenges:
1. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Someone with GAD lives with daily anxiety, seemingly unprompted or provoked, that eats away at peace of mind and confidence. The fact that others deem someone’s anxiety to be about something silly or not worthy of concern can keep someone with GAD from reaching out for help.
GAD can keep someone from living fully and reaching their potential because it prevents them from trying things. For example, a college student may have excessive anxiety about travel and pass up a semester abroad opportunity. Or a promising young salesperson may choose not to put in for a promotion to store manager due to anxiety and associated self-doubt.
2. Social anxiety disorder
Perhaps the most common of the types of anxiety, this disorder presents as overwhelming anxiety and crippling self-consciousness in everyday situations people without social anxiety can navigate with ease. This can be specific. For example, an overwhelming fear of public speaking — or more comprehensive.
Social anxiety can make it impossible for someone to speak up in class or a meeting or ask questions of anyone, which may include doctors, professors, customer support professionals or supervisors. Going to a small party, engaging in a pick-up soccer game, or joining a museum tour — simple everyday things like these are devastatingly hard for someone with severe social anxiety.
3. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
This disorder is characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors. Someone with OCD may find their mind filled with horrifying thoughts of falling off a balcony or fear that they caused an accident when they drove to the store. They have no control over these haunting thoughts. Compulsive behaviors like hand washing for a specific number of minutes, counting everything in view, flicking the lights on and off a set number of times — these can become overwhelming and take over the life of someone with this disorder.
4. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
This anxiety disorder develops in certain people after traumatic events — one or many. It can affect people who have been assaulted or raped, witnessed their family die violently, experienced natural or human-caused disasters, or been in combat.
PTSD comes with physical symptoms of extreme fear like chest pain, dizziness, or shortness of breath. It often is accompanied by flashbacks to the traumatic event. As a result, people with PTSD often live in a heightened state of fight-or-flight nearly all the time.
5. Panic disorder
This disorder can accompany other forms of anxiety or can exist on its own. People with panic disorder are overcome by unexpected episodes of panic. This includes intense fear as if under imminent threat, with physical symptoms including racing pulse, hyperventilation, dizziness, stomach upset, and chest pain. Panic can arise any time out of nowhere and utterly disrupt the person’s ability to function. In fact, it doesn’t matter where they are or what they are doing.
If you or someone you love suffers from any of these anxiety types, help is available.
Signs of Anxiety
If you recognize any aspect of the disorders above or find that you or someone you love is living a curtailed life due to signs of anxiety, reach out for help. Signs that you have an anxiety disorder may include:
- Episodes of fear or panic
- General uneasiness and inability to relax
- Feelings of doom or danger
- Extreme restlessness
- Cold, tingling, numb, or sweaty hands or feet
- Heart palpitations
- Hyperventilation or shortness of breath
- Rumination about things you cannot control
- Avoidance of events or situations that you wish you could enjoy
- Racing thoughts and inability to concentrate
- Constant worry about the past, present, and future
Mile High Recovery Center’s Anxiety Treatment Center
At our anxiety treatment center, we can help you manage your anxiety, and if you have a co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD), we will address that in a coordinated therapy plan that treats both your anxiety and SUD simultaneously. Find out how our team of professionals can support your mental health. Call 303-268-2144 or use our online form.
