Anxiety Disorders

There are many other types of mental health illnesses besides the types of depression. Often, a person who suffers from one mental health illness may have an increased chance of suffering from another one as well, so I thought it might be helpful to give a breakdown of some of the other common mental health illnesses that affect people in our society.

In this post, I’ll give a breakdown of the different types of anxiety disorders.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

People with GAD worry excessively and continuously and in cases where there is no need to worry. They worry about everyday things and so it causes a disruption to their daily functioning. These people usually expect the worst in most situations, even when there is no reason for concern. This persists for at least six months.

Social Anxiety Disorder

People who suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder have a fear of being negatively judged by others in a social setting. Some people are afraid of being humiliated, some suffer from stage fright and some have a fear of intimacy and so find it hard to carry on relationships or friendships or dealing with the public. Because of this fear, these people tend to isolate themselves so they can avoid dealing with other people and public situations which they find extremely uncomfortable.

Phobias

A phobia isn’t simply being afraid of something; it is having an irrational fear of and thus avoiding a certain object or situation. This avoidance causes a disruption to the person’s daily life because the phobia may keep the person from doing things that are necessary to do. Some common phobias are: heights, going to the dentist, elevators, flying and insects.

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks occur suddenly, out-of-the-blue. Since they come and go at random, a person who suffers from panic attacks often lives in fear of when the next one is going to occur. These attacks are characterized by intense apprehension that causes a person to experience a tight chest and difficulty breathing, hyperventilating, crying, dizziness, nausea, shaking and confusion.

Agoraphobia

People dealing with agoraphobia have a fear of not being able to get help or escape a situation if they start feeling anxious or have a panic attack. This causes some people suffering from this illness to stay at home and avoid public places so they don’t have to risk getting themselves into that type of situation.


Keep in mind that everyone deals with some level of anxiety at one time or another, so the purpose of recovery should be to learn how to manage your anxiety, not eliminate it all together. There are many different treatment options for anxiety, so speak with your doctor to figure out what works best for you.