Living with Anxiety Disorders PDF
Preview Living with Anxiety Disorders
LIVING with ANXIETY DISORDERS also in the teen’s guides series Living with Asthma Living with Cancer Living with Depression Living with Diabetes LIVING with ANXIETY DISORDERS Allen R. Miller, Ph.D. Living with Anxiety Disorders Copyright 2008 by Allen R. Miller, Ph.D. © All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miller, Allen R. Living with anxiety disorders / by Allen R. Miller. p. cm.—(Teen’s guides) Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6344-4 ISBN-10: 0-8160-6344-3 1. Anxiety in adolescence. 2. Anxiety disorders. I. Title. RJ506.A58M55 2007 618.92'8522—dc22 2007000553 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can fnd Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfle.com Text design by Annie O’Donnell Cover design by Joo Young An Printed in the United States of America Sheridan CGI 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. contents ■ ■ 1 Fear v. Anxiety Disorder: What’s the Difference? 1 ■ ■ Getting an Evaluation: Where to Turn 13 ■ ■ Treatment: Therapy and Pills 29 ■ ■ 4 “Am I Just Shy?”: Social Phobia 57 ■ ■ 5 “I Just Can’t Stop!”: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) 73 ■ ■ “The Memory Haunts Me!”: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 91 ■ ■ “I Worry All the Time!”: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) 101 ■ ■ “I Think I’m Going to Die!”: Anxiety to the Extreme—Panic Disorder 111 ■ ■ Black Cats and Broken Mirrors: Specif c Phobias 121 ■ ■ 10 Helping Others Cope with Anxiety 131 ■ ■ 11 Paying for Care 139 Appendix 1. Associations and Support Groups 145 Appendix 2. Anxiety Screening Tools 169 Appendix 3. Phobias Listed by Fear 171 Glossary 175 Read More About It 185 Index 195 1 Fear v. Anxiety Disorder: What’s the Difference? Karla is a 10th grader who’s active in student council, her church, and her school’s lacrosse team. But Karla has a secret she tries to hide from everybody, including her closest friends and family. Each morning, Karla takes a long shower and then spends another 30 minutes washing her hands before breakfast. She wants to stop, but her hands just don’t feel clean enough, and she can’t bring herself to turn off the water. After breakfast she washes again; in fact, it often K takes her so long to get ready that she has to rush to get to school on time. At school she tries not to touch doorknobs or handrails, because she’s scared she’ll catch a serious disease. During a quiz she checks and rechecks every answer and erases anything that isn’t perfectly straight or neat. Sometimes she erases so hard she tears the paper. She worries that if her work isn’t perfect something terrible may happen. But with all this checking and f xing she never f nishes a test before the time is up. Karla hides her habits so that others won’t think she’s weird. She knows that if she weren’t washing and cleaning she could have fun with friends or do her schoolwork, but she can’t stop herself. Karla has a type of anxiety problem known as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)—one of six kinds of anxiety disorders discussed in this book. Unfortunately, her situation is not unique. If you’ve made it through middle school, you know just how anxiety-provoking adolescence can be even on a good day. But in addition to normal anxiety and stress, teens can suffer from anxiety disorders just like adults. 1 Living with Anxiety Disorders InstInctual Fear v. anxIety DIsorDer Instinctual fear and anxiety are a normal part of life that can protect and even stimulate you, whether it’s a feeling of nervousness before giving a speech or a shiver of fear as you walk down a dark street. But more than 19 million Americans experience far more than just normal anxiety. Instead, their lives are flled with crippling anxiety and fear. So what’s the difference between normal instinctual fear and an anxiety disorder? Instinctual fear is a reaction to an actual danger signal. It involves physical and mental tension that helps you spring into action to protect yourself from something scary or dangerous that’s about to happen. Once the danger has passed, the fear goes away. The body’s reaction to danger is called the fght-or-fight response. When you’re scared, you can feel your heart start to pound, your stomach tightens, and you breathe faster. All these changes are designed to help you meet a deadly challenge by either fghting or running away. Your heart beats faster so it can pump more blood to your muscles and brain. Your lungs breathe in air more quickly to supply your body with oxygen. The pupils in your eyes widen so you can see better. And your digestive system slows down so you can concentrate on the danger. It’s a response that developed in humans thousands of years ago when physical dangers were a constant threat. The caveman who was able to outrun or outfght a saber-toothed tiger lived to tell the tale and pass on his superior fght-or-fight genes to his descendants. The physical and mental tension of anxiety is similar to fear, but with anxiety, there isn’t usually any actual danger to trigger the feel- ing. The feeling comes from the anticipation of future danger—the concern that something bad could happen—and the worry that one doesn’t have what it takes to deal with it. Usually your body switches into fght-or-fight mode only when there’s something to fear. When you feel scared without real danger, that’s called anxiety. Here’s the difference: If a bully takes a swing at you and you feel a burst of energy as you jump back out of the way, that’s instinctual fear. If you see a classmate in the distance and your heart starts to pound and waves of terror sweep over you because he looks like someone who might be a bully, that’s anxiety. Psychologists have defned the boundaries between ordinary instinctual fear and anxiety disorders, and this book will help you understand that difference. Although each anxiety disorder has unique features, all anxiety disorders are united by a common theme of excessive fear and dread in the absence of evidence of clear danger. If you have developed a pattern of experiencing too Fear v. Anxiety Disorder: What’s the Difference? much anxiety on a daily basis, you may be diagnosed with an anxi- ety disorder. Tormented by panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, fashbacks of trau- matic events, nightmares, or frightening physical symptoms, teens with anxiety disorders may become overwhelmed by their anxieties and eventually feel so frightened that they can’t leave the house. You may know someone with an anxiety disorder, or perhaps you’re strug- gling with this problem yourself. If you are, you’re not alone. Anxiety disorders affect as many as one of every eight teens of every age, color, religion, and economic status. They also affect more girls than guys. In fact, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in the United States. There are six types of anxiety disorders, and many of their symp- toms overlap. They include M generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): This problem causes constant, exaggerated worrisome thoughts and tension about everyday life events and activities. With GAD, you may almost always anticipate the worst although there is little reason to expect it; there also may be physical symptoms such as fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, headache, or nausea. M post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Experiencing a trau- matic event such as an assault, a car accident, or a natural disaster can later trigger a series of symptoms, including irri- tability, numbed or lack of emotions, nightmares, fashbacks, depression, or anger. Family members of victims also can develop this disorder. M panic disorder: This problem causes repeated episodes of intense fear that strike often and without warning. Physical symptoms include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, abdominal distress, feelings of unreality, and fear of dying. M social phobia: This causes an overwhelming and disabling fear of scrutiny, embarrassment, or humiliation in social situa- tions that can be so anxiety-producing you may avoid poten- tially enjoyable activities. M specifc phobias: People with a specifc phobia experience extreme, disabling, and irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger; the fear leads to avoiding the objects or situations and can cause people to limit their lives unnecessarily. M obsessive-complusive disorder (OCD): This problem involves repeated unwanted thoughts or compulsive behaviors that seem impossible to stop or control.
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