Types and symptoms of anxiety

Symptoms of anxiety can be divided into three main groups:

Panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder.

- Panic disorder is defined by panic attacks: high-grade physical agitation with palpitations, hyperventilation, dizziness, nausea and so on.

- Generalized anxiety disorder occurs when a person worries excessively about everyday things for six months or more, so that daily life is no longer enjoyable, attention is limited and a feeling of fear and being threatened predominates. We often see this disorder in children, especially those who worry about their school performance (not to be confused with truancy).

- Social anxiety disorder (also called "social phobia") is characterized by avoidance of situations in which a person visibly blushes, trembles or sweats, which subjectively makes them feel very anxious. School phobia in younger children can develop into social phobia, so its causes must be identified and affected children treated. Each disorder is accompanied by physical, cognitive (mental) and behavioral symptoms that can be treated.

The symptom groups:

- The anxious body. The physical symptoms include the whole complex of negative bodily arousal such as fear of panic, blushing, sweating, shyness and the tension of being "excited" and distraught. These symptoms can be controlled with the strategies.

- Anxious awareness. Cognitive symptoms result from hyperactivity of the brain that causes mental stress and obsessive ruminating. A brain that is constantly agonizingly anxious leads to anxious consciousness. The strategies in Part III are effective in calming anxious consciousness.

- The anxious behavior. Behavioral symptoms include both the avoidance behaviors of people suffering from panic and social phobia and the complex and more subtle avoidance patterns of people who constantly worry and fret.

The 10 best strategies against anxiety and panic

-Strategy 1: What, when, where and how much? Diet and stimulation.

Here's where you can consult a therapist to find out which foods don't stimulate your anxiety too much. What stimulates you the most? How can you reduce the influence on your anxiety, such as by watching TV?

-Strategy 2: Let your breathing help you.

Take a breathing class. Get advice from someone who knows how and in what ways you can breathe to control certain fears.

-Strategy 3: Mindfulness with altered attention.

Through mindfulness, learn to change your thoughts when your fears arise.

-Strategy 4: Relax.

Meditation exercises that you can do well will help you go a long way. You can also be guided in this.

-Strategy 5: Stop thinking catastrophically.

Try to perceive that your mind is on the train of drama. When you are aware of these thoughts, you know you can turn them into positive thoughts: your last vacation, for example.

-Strategy 6: Turn off the anxious thoughts

-Strategy 7: Keep worry under control.

Worrying is normal. But always thinking about the same thing and making a drama out of it is not. Stay in the now and know that you have no problems in the now.

-Strategy 8: Behavior change through focused self-talk.

Having worries and fears means having inner monologues. Pay attention to your monologues and change them into something positive or constructive.

-Strategy 9: Master the too-much-activity syndrome.

Master the too-much-activity syndrome. It is a way to become calmer. You don't have to control everything, and you don't have to, because it's usually about small things that you do out of fear and insecurity.

-Strategy 10: Develop and implement a plan.

These 10 strategies, grouped according to physical, mental and behavioral anxiety symptoms, provide different methods of achieving the desired goal, so they can be adapted very effectively to individual cases. There is no right order to learn the 10 best strategies against anxiety and panic. Choose the strategy and method that works best for you.