There are several different types of anxiety disorders, with generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and specific phobias being among the most common.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) causes persistent worry about a variety of things, like work or school responsibilities, family, other relationships, health, or day-to-day tasks. Beyond feelings of worry or nervousness, GAD can cause physical symptoms like tight muscles, fatigue, and sleep problems. GAD symptoms occur on most days for a period of at least a few months and can make it challenging to get through daily activities.
Panic disorder causes sudden and intense surges of anxiety and physical symptoms, which can include symptoms like a fast heartbeat or palpitations, chest tightness, nausea, shaking, dizziness, sweating, abdominal pain, or difficulty breathing. These panic attacks can have a clear trigger or may seem to come out of nowhere. Fear can feel overwhelming during a panic attack, and a person may worry that they could lose control or die. Because panic attacks cause such intense feelings, a person with panic disorder will worry about having future panic attacks and may avoid situations that they think could trigger an attack.
Specific phobias cause extreme fear of situations or objects that are unlikely to be dangerous. For example, a person may have a phobia of heights, specific animals (like dogs or spiders), needles or medical procedures, flying on an airplane, being enclosed in an elevator, or being in water. A person with a phobia may feel intense fear despite understanding that they aren’t in danger and may go out of their way to avoid situations that trigger this fear.
