Just Relaaax...

.Sometimes easier said than done.

Imagine yourself sitting in your apartment, eating ramen noodles (or some other poor, college kid food) and watching TV. The phone rings and your mother tells you that your best friend has just been in a car accident.

How do you feel?

Your heartbeat might race, you may begin to sweat and feel dizzy, perhaps even feel like vomiting or passing out.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in every eight Americans suffers chronically from symptoms like these, which occur amidst a world of anxiety and panic attacks. And many don't really know why or what to do about it. Due to the fact that so many, including myself, experience some sort of anxiety during their lifetimes, I believe that this type of mental illness is one of the biggest challenges that young adults and students face today. And also one of the most misunderstood.

But by attempting to understand what anxiety is, its symptoms and types, how it can be treated and the different ways in which it affects one’s everyday life, it's much easier to grasp.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “What exactly is anxiety? And am I at risk?"

About.com defines anxiety as feelings of apprehension, danger, dread and uncertainty, accompanied by restlessness and tension. It can also be characterized by palpitations, sweating and feelings of stress.

However, anxiety is also a result of chemical imbalances in the reduced availability of neurotransmitters such as Serotonin, Dopamine, and Norepinephrine in the brain. Neurotransmitters are molecules that carry signals between nerve cells in the brain, or, simply, neurons.

This chemical imbalance helps doctors determine who is at risk for anxiety, which touches at least 19 million lives every year, but each story is different. Females are two times more at risk than males at experiencing anxiety, and anxietypanicattack.com says those ages 18-34 are most at risk.

Many who suffer face the difficult decision of determining whether their condition is that of the mind, the body, or both.

Body anxiety deals with the genetics, and many who suffer from anxiety have at least one family member who suffers as well. This was confirmed by several twin studies that back-up the ‘genetic inheritance’ theory.

However, slightly different from body anxiety, mind anxiety occurs when an individual experiences a stressful life event, such as recent loss or separation. Mind anxiety can be compared to a thermostat: when stress lowers the mind’s resistance, attacks are triggered.

Most anxiety attacks are a combination of both mind and body, working together so that the suffered actually helps bring on attacks by responding to physical symptoms.

For example, after drinking a cup of coffee, your heartbeat usually increases. Someone living with anxiety may notice this and fear that they will have an attack, which actually causes one. Depending on how strong the chemical imbalance in one’s brain, anxiety attacks range from mild to impairing. This can be determined by the symptoms one experiences.

Anxiety and panic attack symptoms range from relatively mild, such as racing heartbeat, lightheadedness or nausea, sweating and tingling in the limbs, to severe, such as feeling like you can’t get enough air, paralyzing terror, trembling, choking, chest pains, hot flashes or sudden chills, fear that you’re going crazy or about to die, and even passing out.

Those who experience many symptoms in the latter list often are sufferers from the worst type of anxiety, called agoraphobia, during which the sufferer is plagued with an absolute fear of any and everything. Living with this crippling type of anxiety is not fun. Many despise being in public, most choosing to not even leave their house or room at all.
But There’s a Treatment in Sight!

Once symptoms of anxiety begin to occur, it is important that it is professionally recognized and treated as soon as possible. You may feel like the feelings you experience, say, right before you give a speech or go off to college are normal, but what about when they begin to affect your every day life?

It’s time to see the doc!

We all know how nerve-wracking going to the doctor is, but for those with anxiety, a professional’s guidance often offers the sufferer a sense of relief, taking away the vulnerability of the question, “What’s wrong with me?” A question the anxiety-stricken often finds unanswerable. Once one is diagnosed, they now have the option of selecting a path of treatment.

Many choose prescribed medication, others, a more natural approach.
The types of medications available to treat anxiety differ according to severity. For the mildest cases, antidepressants such as Lexapro, Zoloft, Paxil, and Prozac act in the brain on the chemical messenger Serotonin, restoring balance to the brain. Other, older types of medications, such as Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAIs), tackle the more severe types of attacks.

There are also anti-anxiety medications such as Xanax that are highly potent but act quickly on symptoms.

But is this really safe?

Choosing the right medication is important, and even then, side effects can be a huge downfall. The most common side effects are nausea and feeling jittery. Others include sexual dysfunction, dry mouth, weight gain, and in severe cases, fluctuating changes in blood pressure that can be dangerous.

Herbs and other natural remedies are also emerging as popular among medications, such as Serodyn. While anti-anxiety medications do work well, they can often be habit-forming or cause side effects, whereas herbal remedies for anxiety are considered safer and typically do not lead to dependence or addiction.

However, because the FDA does not thoroughly evaluate all natural treatments, most of the herbal remedies for anxiety on the market simply are not effective.

No matter what treatment one chooses, the ultimate goal is simple—help treat these problematic symptoms! Anxiety is a chronic illness that can only be treated, rarely cured.

Although many who receive treatment live years without reoccurring symptoms, there is usually a trigger reaction that occurs when stress has reached its breaking level.
This means that anxiety can come back, even when you least expect it. Without proper attention, anxiety may lead to phobias, depression, substance abuse, medical complications, and even suicide. And even when treated, medication often leaves people feeling like victims, living in fear of the next anxiety attack.

Anyone who truly does suffer, including myself, will tell you that whatever type of treatment that worked for him or her has been a complete lifesaver, restoring the feelings of comfort and normalcy back into minds that were once plagued with terror and panic. And it is important to both recognize the reality of anxiety and to feel safe within our own skins.

So if you ever do receive that phone call while you’re eating your Ramen noodles and waiting for Stewie to actually kill Lois, I hope that you are able to keep yourself calm and composed. Because if you can’t, you just might develop an anxiety attack, and all I’ll have to say is: welcome to my world.

If you or someone you know is suffering from anxiety, get help here.