The Difference Between Anxiety & An Anxiety Disorder

August 25, 2017

The Difference Between Anxiety & An Anxiety Disorder

We all feel anxious sometimes, maybe even every day. That’s totally normal. And depending on what’s going on in your life you may even experience anxiety more frequently than others.

Maybe you worry about giving a presentation at work.
Maybe you worry about going to the doctor.
Maybe you worry about failing your exams.

But this does not mean that you have an anxiety disorder.

Normal anxiety is short lived and it doesn't negatively impact your life dramatically, an anxiety disorder tends to be a chronic illness that significantly interferes with your daily function and decreases your quality of life.

And it is important to note that there are different types of anxiety disorders. Each have their own unique symptoms and struggles surrounding excessive or misplaced anxiety.

The five major types of anxiety disorders are:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Panic Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Social Phobia (or Social Anxiety Disorder)

Normal anxiety occurs in reaction to a stressor. The presentation, the diagnoses, exam results. And our body reacts to stressors in two ways; fight or flight. Normal anxiety is a logical part of survival. A car is coming towards you so your heart starts to race and you run. Your body knows that you need to escape quickly and so it prepares itself for flight.

But with an anxiety disorder, your body seems to get confused. For example, with social anxiety disorder my body reacts to crowds, strangers, small talk and people in general in the same way as it would if you were being attacked or chased by a tiger. My breathing quickens, my heart races, my palms sweat – but there’s nothing to run from and there’s nothing to fight. Your body recognises a threat, but it doesn't differentiate between the different types of threats. Whether it's a tiger or a sales assistant, a threat is a threat.

And even if you are responding to a stressor, with an anxiety disorder the response produced or the anxiety you feel is disproportionate to that stressor.

Anxiety can be helpful and motivating. You work harder to get a promotion, you study harder for good grades, you live a healthy lifestyle and take your medication to avoid getting sick. You run away from the tiger or you defend yourself from an attacker. But an anxiety disorder can ruin lives. It’s experiencing excessive amounts of anxiety for prolonged amounts of time.

Having your body in this fight or flight mode all of the time is exhausting and unhealthy. It can cause long-term physical harm to your heart, your digestive system and other systems which are constantly on high alert. It’s like trying to sprint as fast as you can for an entire marathon. Well, a marathon that keeps on going.

It prevents you from going to the doctor even though you can’t stop vomiting. It prevents you from going to work even though you are qualified and desperately in need of money. It stops you from fulfilling basic tasks like buying groceries or even leaving the house.

Whilst normal anxiety can motivate your journey towards your goals, an anxiety disorder blocks your path towards basic living, never mind your dreams.

An anxiety disorder affects your entire life. Your relationships, your job, your schoolwork, your diet, your physical health. Anxiety can be helpful but an anxiety disorder is debilitating.

Other physical symptoms also accompany an anxiety disorder as I have listed in a previous post. People with an anxiety disorder can also feel a sense of detachment or disconnected from reality and anxiety disorders often tend to be accompanied by other mental illnesses like depression.

To summarise, an anxiety disorder means that you are experiencing excessive amounts of anxiety which is either not in response to a stressor or is disproportionate to the stressor that you are reacting to. An anxiety is prolonged, it interferes with your life and reduces your quality of life.

It’s illogical, it’s inconvenient and it’s terrifying.

But it can be managed. It doesn’t have to rule your life. There are many different therapies like CBT and psychotherapy as well as counselling, charity services, hypnotherapy and a number of different medications.

Just because one form of treatment didn’t work for you in the past, that doesn’t mean that your anxiety cannot be managed.

Our anxiety may always be there but we can learn to control it instead of having the anxiety control us.

Unfortunately, recovery isn’t an exact science and that can seem terrifying but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try or that you don’t deserve to live again.

If you liked this post you may also like: