DO YOU HAVE AN ANXIETY DISORDER? // What is Anxiety?

What's going on? Welcome back to my channel. We're going to talk today about anxiety disorders. And we're not going to get into the nitty gritty and everything that's needed for me as a professional to diagnose an anxiety disorder. But because there are a lot of resources online and it seems fairly easy to diagnose yourself with an anxiety disorder, I figured we'd talk a little bit about it. Let me lay down some basics so that you can understand what an anxiety disorder is and maybe if you should pursue a formal diagnosis, therapy if you're wondering more about it, if you need to educate yourself further and everything that goes into treatment and education with anxiety disorders. Now, like I said, you'll find a lot of resources that will tell you it's fairly easy to self diagnose an anxiety disorder. And I think we talk about anxiety a lot society. A lot of people struggle with anxiety, a lot of people are speaking out about it, and a lot of professionals like myself are educating people and the public on what they are. But a professional opinion is obviously always the best thing when we're looking to truly diagnose an anxiety disorder. Now, there are five types of anxiety disorders in the dsm. And the DSM is just this big thick book of all of the mental health disorders. And under each mental health disorder are all these criteria that, that we as mental health professionals use to diagnose a disorder. But under anxiety, there are actually five types of anxiety disorders that we go through and think about when we're meeting with a client, when we're doing an intake, when we're getting to know them so that we can see if their symptoms fit the criteria of a formal anxiety disorder diagnosis. Now, those five types are generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety or social phobia, Obsessive Compulsive disorder, and ptsd. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Under anxiety disorders, those are the five anxiety disorders that we are looking for, the criteria, the symptoms, to see if what you're struggling with fits any of those diagnoses. Now again, we're not going to get into all of that nitty gritty and how we diagnose diagnose it. I just want to give you the basics. If you're thinking to yourself, do I have an anxiety disorder based on my life and what I'm experiencing or what I've experienced in the past or what is going on currently in my life right now. So when we talk about anxiety, anxiety is kind of a natural state. We're wired to survive. Your brain is There to keep you alive. These fight or flight response that we experience, when your brain perceives a threat, that is a natural thing designed so that your body knows if you're in danger, whether you need to fight or run away from that threat. Now what happens is because we used to live in a time where we were trying to survive and find food, or run away from the saber tooth tiger that was trying to eat us, the problem now is this brain that is designed to keep us alive. Keep your heart beating, keep your blood flowing, keep your muscles moving, all of that stuff, because your brain is designed to keep you alive. What happens is we perceive a threat like an email from a boss at 8 o' clock at night, or a text message from a friend that says, hey, let's talk. And then your brain says, oh my gosh, Threat, threat, threat, alert, alert, alert. And then you might start to experience symptoms of anxiety. Heart starts racing or your palms get sweaty, or your face might get flushed and, or your mind might start racing and you might start thinking of, worst case scenario, you won't be able to sleep, you're worried about the next conversation or when you go into work the next day. So what happens is your brain perceives a threat and then depending on your experiences, your level of tolerance to anxiety, and your ability to cope with anxiety or just feelings in general in life, you might perceive that email or that text message as a threat. Your brain goes into overdrive and then your body and your mind respond, you start thinking and you have physical symptoms, possibly because your brain is thinking, oh my gosh, alert, alert, alert. We're in danger. Even though it is just an email or a text message. So your brain's ability to keep you alive and its job to keep you alive sometimes gets in the way. And then people experience anxiety in situations when it's not a life or death situation. So because your brain is designed to keep you alive, what happens is this anxiety or this stress response or your feelings about a perceived threat or warning might impair your functioning. And that's what causes us as professionals to diagnose an anxiety disorder. Because now you're struggling day to with something that's not a life or death situation. But you're struggling to go to work or go to school or have relationships, or you struggle in social situations or you can't sleep at night or you're not eating or you're making yourself sick or all of these things, all of these symptoms, all of these manifestations that can happen if somebody is struggling with an anxiety disorder. The Big thing. I think, again, without getting into all of the details and all of the symptoms and all of criteria that we as professionals look for, when somebody comes in and they say, do I have an anxiety disorder? Without going into all of that, something for you to think about is, have you experienced disruption in sleep, irritability, an intense feeling of, like, ongoing dread, feeling on edge, or always anticipating the worst thing possible? You. If that's something that you've been experiencing for more than six months, I would probably encourage you to go seek professional help. Sometimes things are situational and they can heighten our anxiety or freak us out or cause a response or cause us to worry more than we usually would. But when something is going on for several months, we as professionals are thinking there's something bigger going on, a situation where probably would have subsided by now. So if you've been experiencing symptoms or something shifted several months, six months, a year ago, and you haven't felt right since, or you haven't felt like yourself since that event, or since whatever happened, or since your symptoms have kind of shifted, whether or not there's a formal diagnosis there, you can still get help and guidance and support and treatment for the symptoms that you might be experiencing, depending on whatever triggered it or whatever is going on in your life at this time. But if you've been experiencing something for a while, it's probably a good sign that you should feel encouraged to seek some professional help. The flip side to this is that you do not have to wait to seek help or assistance or guidance or support or treatment. If you've only felt off, or you've only felt like you've been struggling for a couple weeks or a month, or you feel like it hasn't been, quote, unquote, long enough, anytime that you've been experiencing something longer than you wish you were, or you're thinking about something more often than you'd rather be, it's a good sign that you could probably, probably use some assistance, some guidance, some support, or maybe some professional help and treatment. So regardless of how long you've been experiencing whatever your symptoms are, don't feel like you have to wait. I'm a big fan of erring on the side of caution and seeking help sooner than later. Because then it becomes a slippery slope of not seeking help, something getting worse or something else happening, and then people start to struggle even more. And it might have been something we could have started to work with a few weeks ago, or a couple months ago, or even a year ago, or even longer. For some people, always Just err on the side of caution. If you're experiencing something longer than you think it should be going on, or something feels off, or you've been feeling a certain way, or you've been thinking about something more often than you wish you were. Always, always, always seek help, reach out, ask for support. And we're always here to provide support for you. No matter what's going on, how long it's been going on, what your symptoms are, how bad you think things are, or even if you don't think things are that bad, it's always okay to ask for help. So especially if you're asking yourself, do I have an anxiety disorder? If you've been thinking about that or. Or if your ability to cope with the anxious feelings or sensations or thoughts that are happening in your mind and in your body, if it is just too much or it's bothering you, we're always here. You don't have to sit on your couch or in your bed. Laying there at night, not being able to sleep and wondering, do I have an anxiety disorder? If you have any questions, it's always okay to reach out for some extra support.