Anxiety disorders and Mental health disorders are a widespread problem today and have affected millions of people through stress in the body. In addition, there was a huge 25% increase in mental health disorders after the pandemic. These mental health disorders have affected people from all walks of life. However, talking about your mental health is frustrating. As a result, many people avoid discussing it in public.

Mental illness endangers a person’s mental health and causes massive levels of stress in the body, resulting in a variety of physical side effects. They cause a variety of problems ranging from simple dermatitis to life-threatening conditions such as cardiovascular disease. Therefore, it makes sense to understand and address these issues.

Anxiety Disorders:

Stress is the body is an unpleasant situation that one experiences in response to expected events. Unlike fear, there is no immediate risk in case of stress. However, our minds create false conditions and perceive them as threats. Our mind makes us believe that we are not ready for the exam or that it may have all the questions we are not sure to answer.

It is natural to feel anxious occasionally, but persistent and incompetent stress can indicate that you have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are common, disabling conditions that begin primarily in childhood or adolescence.

They reduce the individual’s daily function and, if left untreated, become chronic. Chronic anxiety disorders cause a variety of physical and personality disorders. In other words, stress becomes a situation as soon as it begins to interfere with your daily work.

Anxiety Disorders and Neurohormonal Cause:

According to research, stress is the leading cause of stress in the body. Furthermore, constant and chronic stress leads to some serious mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. Before understanding stress, we need to know the neurohormonal basis of stress.

Are You Fighting or Skipping:

According to a study, certain hormones help in the fight or flight response, which is a fundamental mechanism behind stress reactions. When an animal faces a threat in the form of a predator, there are two ways to deal with it, escape or fight. Therefore, both of these options require our body to function at its peak. Physical stress stimulates the HPA axis and the sympathetic nervous system, connecting the brain and pituitary gland.

The pituitary gland stimulates certain hormones such as adrenaline, epinephrine, and cortisol, which signal your body to increase your heart rate. Increased heart rate sends more blood to the muscles, allowing them to function more efficiently.

At this point, your body is in full offensive equipment, which makes you feel a kind of adrenaline rush during particularly stressful situations, called an adrenaline rush.

Not all mechanisms that help fight or escape the response count the amount of stress in the body. So when you are in this phase, the body does not feel pain or fatigue. Once this function is completed, all the fatigue begins to accumulate. Suppression causes hormones to burst, and when stimulant hormones predominate, people suffer from anxiety disorders.

Diagnosis:

In most cases, it is possible to self-diagnose the problem. However, it is best to seek professional help. In addition, the Dass-21, the most widely used self-assessment questionnaire for anxiety disorders, can be used.

The anxiety disorder scale measures physical and occasional stress when therapists use a combination of questionnaires and interviews to diagnose you. You can also choose biomedical tests. However, because they are expensive and rarely reliable, they are not commonly used for diagnosis.

Conditions Related to Anxiety Disorder:

Anxiety disorders occur in combination with substance abuse disorders, major depressive disorders, and personality disorders. They are related to the withdrawal of certain drugs such as benzodiazepines (sleeping pills) and alcohol. It is also present in cases of chronic pain and irritable bowel syndrome. Studies show that stress has been linked to hyperthyroidism and pheochromocytoma.

Classification of Anxiety Disorders:

Stress comes in many forms. However, phobic disorder and panic disorder are the two most important classifiers.

Phobias:

Phobia is an anxiety disorder in which the person has a strong and irrational fear of something that carries little or no risk.

Agoraphobia:

It is the fear of places or situations where removal would be difficult. This fear can include confined spaces, crowded areas, and airplanes and is associated with panic disorder, although it can also occur independently of generalized anxiety disorder. This phobia is diagnosed differently in the DSM-5.

Social Phobia:

The situation where the individual constantly believes that he will be deceived in social circles is social phobia. The person with this phobia suffers a lot and has constant doubts and suspicions. Their situation prevents them from taking the compliments of others seriously and having a social life. People suffering from this condition constantly believe that others are examining them and this affects their ability to find work or make friends. They can also sweat excessively, stutter, and shiver. Resulting in low self-esteem.

Special Phobias:

Fear of specific objects and situations. Some common phobias include.

• Arachnophobia: Arachnophobia is perhaps the best known of all phobias.
• Ophidiophobia: ophidiophobia is the fear of snakes.
• Acrophobia: acrophobia or fear of heights.
• Aerophobia: aerophobia is the fear of flying.

Other Anxiety Disorders:

Panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder are two other anxiety disorders.

Panic Disorders:

This happens when you have multiple panic attacks in a short amount of time. It is an acute form of anxiety throughout the body that includes physical effects such as increased heart rate, palpitations, tremors, tingling, and tingling. This is a potentially fatal disease if not treated immediately.

Generalized Anxiety Disorders:

This is a condition characterized by extreme anxiety and feelings of fear, horror, and discomfort that lasts for six months or more. Other symptoms of gad include restlessness, fatigue or irritability, muscle tension, inability to concentrate, insomnia, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, sweating, and dizziness.

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder:

We often use OCD to describe the need to keep things clean or tidy. However, the “Real” doc is not so simple. People with these disorders are plagued by repetitive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.

They have ritualistic behavior and can perform simple tasks such as washing hands, checking, and cleaning multiple times. OCD also causes horrendous conditions such as Trichotillomania, which is an obsessive need to pull out hair from the root, resulting in baldness of the scalp.

Response to Severe Stress and Adjustment Disorders:

These disorders are a response to acute stress and separation problems. Therefore, you can further classify them into acute stress reactions, post-traumatic stress disorder, and adjustment disorders.

Acute stress reactions and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder):

Axtell stress reaction is an ecstasy-like anxiety disorder that lasts for more than a month after a serious injury. Also, if it persists for more than a month, it is referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder. This disorder is characterized by traumatic symptoms, strong memories of the traumatic event, excessive agitation, and dreams associated with the traumatic event. It is mainly common among victims of sexual assault and soldiers.

Adjustment Disorders:

A condition in which a person reacts to a stressful event, such as an illness, job loss, or divorce, with extreme emotions and behaviors that cause problems at work and at home. Symptoms of an adjustment disorder usually last less than six months. As a result, the person suffers from significant anxiety and may have panic attacks.

Stress: Short-term Health Consequences

Pulse Feeling:

The pulse is a state in which we can feel our heartbeat. The heart beats fast, which increases blood flow to the muscles. Due to this accumulation, blood does not reach the brain, which leads to fainting or fainting. If you are in a situation where your heart rate is accelerating, try to breathe deeply. If the person is already unconscious, lie on your back and lift your legs to restore blood flow to the brain.

Hyperventilation:

According to research, during a panic attack, a person takes many short breaths that resemble breathing. This increases the supply of oxygen to the lungs and significantly reduces the level of carbon dioxide, which is a problem as the balance must be maintained. This leads to the contraction of the blood vessels that supply blood to the brain, resulting in dizziness and lightheadedness.

Decreased Appetite:

We lose our appetite when stress in the body suppresses the body’s natural parasympathetic processes, which include digestion, excretion, and secretion of body fluids. This results in unhealthy weight loss. Other common short-term effects on the body during stress are tremors, excessive sweating, loss of concentration, and fatigue.

Stress: Long-term Effects on the Body

Heart Disease:

According to the world health organization, depression and anxiety are the leading causes of disability and illness. According to a meta-analytic study, people with anxiety disorders tend to be at higher risk for cardiovascular death, coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. Additionally, another meta-analytic study indicates that people with anxiety disorders have a 52% increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Substance Abuse:

People often use alcohol to ease their anxiety, which leads to hard drugs like cocaine, LSD, and morphine. It’s a complex cycle that we have to get out of. It also affects the social, personal and professional life of the individual. Additionally, substance use alters the body along with stress.

Head and Neck Disorders:

Temporomandibular joint disorders are problems with the jaws. Studies show that they are also associated with stress and anxiety. For example, my peritoneal dysfunction syndrome can cause severe, persistent pain in the face. According to another study, stress is the main cause of this condition. Also, mouth sores, called foot ulcers, mainly occur due to stress.

Self-harm:

Data shows that stress often leads to self-harm. This behavior may be present in Trichotillomania, which is hair pulling. They also tend to cut and burn.

Food Problems:

Eating disorders resulting in certain conditions are also common in these people, according to one study. Bulimia nervosa is a condition in which people deliberately consume food and vomit to maintain weight. Anorexia is a condition in which a person is overly concerned about their weight and has body image issues that lead to not eating and muscle wasting.

Natural Ways to Manage Stress:

Conscious Meditation:

Mindful meditation involves focusing on your current feelings and paying attention to your senses without judgment. It allows the body to get out of autopilot mode and focus on the emotions that help the body deal with stress.

Yoga:

A study has also shown that yoga is a great way to manage stress and anxiety in the body. It significantly improves mood and helps to pay attention to emotions. Therefore, you can use it as a complementary management method. It also helps to reduce the cost of treatment and drug consumption.

Stop Smoking:

According to research, smoking significantly increases anxiety symptoms. Although not yet confirmed, it is very plausible, given the underlying mechanisms. Therefore, smoking can be the first step toward improving the quality of life.