Is It Just Anxiety? Or Should I Be More Worried?

Is it just anxiety, or should I be more worried?

I'm sure we can all think of times when our anxiety has gotten the best of us. But when does anxiety stop being something everyone experiences and starts becoming a problem that needs professional help? Here are a few signs that you many need some extra help dealing with your anxiety.

• Are you using alcohol or drugs to calm yourself down? It might not be a problem to have a glass of wine every now and then, but turning to a harmful or potentially-harmful substance can create a dependency problem that will create a lot more stress than it relieves. The same goes for smoking and overeating.
• Does your anxiety get in the way of your normal daily activities? For instance, does it cause problems at work? I have had it where my anxiety caused me to make mistakes at work and alienate my co-workers. Does it keep you from doing the things you want to do? Do you find yourself excessively irritable, or otherwise having problems getting along with people that you didn't have before?
• Are you completely unable to control your anxiety?
• Is your anxiety disproportionate to the situation? For instance, do you immediately start worrying that your husband has gotten into a terrible car wreck every time he's late coming home from work? Are you worrying more about something that others would see as 'no big deal', or when you don't have a real reason to worry? Are you unable to 'shake' your concerns, even after they've been proven to be invalid?
• Have you basically tried everything you can think of to help get rid of your anxiety (yoga, exercise, etc), but nothing helps?
• Are your sleeping or eating patterns disrupted? Do you have problems with restlessness or concentration?
• Is your anxiety caused by any particular event, or has it been going for several months with no real discernible cause?

If you think you may have a problem with anxiety or anything else in your life, you owe it to yourself to at least have it looked into. It's perfectly normal to have anxiety or worry about difficult situations in your life. For instance, if you lose a job or have a death in the family, it's normal to spend some time grieving or worrying. In fact, I would say it is expected! However, if the worrying gets in the way of your daily life or starts causing problems in your relationships, it's time to talk to your doctor. Even if you haven't been diagnosed with a specific medical condition such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), depression or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, (OCD) you could still benefit from seeing a therapist. A therapist can teach you techniques to help you deal with things in your life in a more productive way. Sometimes medication helps, but only your doctor can tell you which course of treatment is best for you. Either way, it's worth the effort to get your life back.

Is It Normal Worry, Or Could It Be OCD?

When you hear the term 'OCD', what do you think of? For some, it's taken as a joke because the media tends to make fun of it. If you've ever seen the cable series Monk, you've seen how Tony Shalhoub's character is a total clean freak who carries anti-bacterial wipes with him everywhere he goes. Jack Nicholson's character in As Good As It Gets carries his own silverware with him anytime he goes out to eat and has several jars of M&Ms separated by color. They go to extremes that are easy to make fun of. For people with the disorder, however, it is no laughing matter. The compulsive behaviors and obsessions we laugh at in the movies can be very disturbing when we have them in real life. We all have worries, but how can we tell if they are actually due to OCD?

OCD stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It is an anxiety disorder characterized by obsessive and uncontrollable thoughts, as well as behaviors that come from these thoughts. For instance, Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub's character) carries around anti-bacterial wipes and hand sanitizer because he is deathly afraid of the germs most of us come across without thinking. This is an example of an obsession. A person with OCD may have 'rituals' they feel led to perform, such as checking the locks on their doors a particular number of times a day or constant hand washing. These are examples of compulsions.

A more complete definition of 'obsessions' is uncontrollable thoughts that are extremely distressing and may interfere with daily activities. They usually come out of the clear blue sky-for example, looking at your husband and thinking of the Holocaust, thinking you have a deadly disease or imagining yourself harming one of your pets. As you can imagine, these thoughts can be very unsettling and difficult to get rid of. They are things you would never do or think of normally but, due to a chemical imbalance in the brain, are not 'filtered out' they way they normally would be.

Compulsions, on the other hand, are behaviors that are done repeatedly in response to anxiety. What's interesting is that the behavior doesn't always have anything to do with the anxiety itself. For instance, it's not very likely that having your M&Ms color-coded is going to stop your husband from getting into a car wreck. Even if the person knows this, however, it doesn't stop the compulsion. They literally cannot control themselves, which can cause major problems in things such as work and relationships.

The good news is that OCD is very treatable. Since the disorder is considered a 'spectrum', the symptoms and behaviors vary in severity from person to person. The anxiety experienced can be traced back to an imbalance of serotonin levels in the brain. Because of this, medicines called Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil have been very effective in helping people with OCD control their thoughts and behaviors. Not everyone is helped by these drugs, however, so some opt for more traditional forms of treatment like psychotherapy or relaxation techniques.

OCD and OCD tendencies can be very disturbing to a person who deals with them. However, with proper diagnosis and treatment, people with OCD can live very productive lives. Only a licensed doctor or therapist can diagnose and treat OCD, so be sure to get checked out if you think you might have it. You deserve to live a healthy and happy life.