Anxiety disorder symptoms: types, self-check and treatment
CareOps editorial team · · 8 min read
Mental wellness information and service guidance published by CareOps.
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Read our full editorial standards →Feeling anxious before an exam or an interview happens to everyone. But when worry won't stop for months, your heart races and you can't catch your breath for no clear reason, or fear keeps you away from places you want to go, the picture changes. Here is how anxiety disorder symptoms show up, what the main types are, how to check where you are now and how anxiety can be eased.
At a glance
- An anxiety disorder is anxiety that comes too often or too intensely for the situation, lasts for months and gets in the way of daily life such as work, study and relationships.
- Symptoms appear in the body (racing heart, breathlessness, muscle tension, poor sleep), the mind (worry that won't stop, feeling on edge) and behavior (avoidance). Main types include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias.
- Among psychotherapies, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most studied. You can start by checking where you are with the 7-question anxiety check (GAD-7).
What is an anxiety disorder, and how is it different from everyday anxiety?
The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) describes occasional anxiety as a normal part of life. An anxiety disorder is different: the worry or fear comes too often or too intensely for the situation, doesn't settle easily and gets in the way of daily life such as work, school and relationships. The line is not whether anxiety is present but its intensity, duration and effect on daily life.
| Everyday anxiety | Closer to an anxiety disorder | |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | A clear event, such as an exam or a presentation | No clear reason, or it grows from small things |
| Intensity | Fits the size of the situation | Much larger than the situation and hard to control |
| Duration | Settles once the event passes | Lasts for weeks or months |
| Daily life | You still get things done | You start avoiding things and work, study or relationships suffer |
Anxiety disorder symptoms: how do they show up in the body, mind and behavior?
Anxiety isn't only in your thoughts. The symptoms NIMH lists for generalized anxiety disorder show the body, the mind and behavior moving together. Anyone can have these now and then; they become signals worth looking at when several of them last a long time and shake up daily life.
- Body — your heart races, you feel short of breath or lightheaded and you sweat. Your shoulders and neck stay tense, and headaches or stomachaches are frequent.
- Mind — you worry ahead about things that haven't happened and find it hard to stop. You feel restless and on edge most of the time.
- Behavior — you avoid places, people or tasks that make you anxious, and you spend a lot of time checking or preparing for the worst.
- Sleep and focus — falling or staying asleep is hard, and during the day you feel tired and can't concentrate.
When body symptoms are strong, the worry that something is physically wrong can feed the anxiety further. If worry about your health is at the center, see our guide to health anxiety; if sudden pounding and breathlessness are the problem, read how to cope with a panic attack.
What are the types of anxiety disorders?
NIMH names generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and various phobia-related disorders as the main types. The names differ, but they are easier to tell apart if you ask what sets the anxiety off.
- Generalized anxiety disorder — long-lasting worry about many everyday things, such as work, health, money or family, that is out of proportion and hard to control. NIMH describes the diagnosis as finding worry difficult to control on most days for at least 6 months. For how it differs from simply being a worrier, see the worry-prone personality.
- Panic disorder — repeated panic attacks, sudden waves of intense fear with pounding heart, trembling or breathlessness even without clear danger, along with worry about the next one that leads to changes in how you live.
- Social anxiety disorder — strong anxiety in situations where you may be watched or judged, such as giving a talk, meeting new people or eating in front of others. Read more in social anxiety disorder symptoms.
- Specific phobia — intense fear of something that poses little or no real danger, such as heights, animals or needles, where even thinking about it brings severe anxiety.
- Often discussed alongside — obsessive-compulsive disorder, with repeated unwanted thoughts and checking, is often talked about together with anxiety, though some classification systems place it in its own group. See OCD symptoms.
Anxiety disorder test: how anxious am I right now?
The GAD-7 is a 7-question screening tool about anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks, developed by Spitzer and colleagues (2006) to gauge generalized anxiety disorder. A high score doesn't mean you have an anxiety disorder; it is a starting point for deciding whether to talk with a professional. How often and how intensely you worry can be checked separately with the 16-question worry tendency test (PSWQ), and our guide to anxiety tests compares which one to pick.
Try a self-assessment without signing inAnxiety (GAD-7)How much anxiety and worry occupy your day. Answer the app’s questionnaire and see your result right away.Start the check →How are anxiety disorders treated?
Anxiety disorders are treated with psychotherapy and medication. NIMH names cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a psychotherapy commonly used for generalized anxiety disorder and describes it as the well-studied “gold standard” choice. A meta-analysis of 41 placebo-controlled randomized trials (2,843 people; Carpenter and colleagues, 2018) also found that CBT had a moderate effect on the symptoms of anxiety-related disorders. CBT helps you notice and question automatic thoughts that feed anxiety and practice facing avoided situations step by step. See what CBT is for how it works.
NIMH also introduces acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) as another option for generalized anxiety disorder. Whether to use medication, and which kind and how much, is decided with a doctor in psychiatric care, and many people combine it with psychotherapy.
Coping with an anxiety disorder: what you can try day to day
The harder you try to force anxiety away, the bigger it tends to get. What lasts is gradually changing your relationship with it, so you can keep doing what matters even when it shows up.
- Set a worry time: instead of chasing every worry as it comes, set a window such as 15 minutes in the evening and do your worrying then. At other times, tell yourself “I'll look at that later.”
- Write worries down and separate them from facts: put the worries on paper and sort what has actually happened from what you fear might happen. It loosens the sense that a thought is a fact.
- Face avoided situations in small steps: avoiding brings brief relief, but the anxiety stays. Start with the least frightening step and build the experience that anxiety rises and then passes.
- Breathe out slowly: when your body tenses, make the out-breath longer than the in-breath to signal to your body that you are not in danger right now.
- Look after sleep and your body: go to bed and get up at similar times, and build movement such as walking into your day.
For more methods by situation, see how to cope with anxiety.
When to talk to a professional
If anxiety has lasted for weeks or months, if you avoid more and more and work, study or relationships are suffering, if panic attacks keep coming back or if you rely on alcohol to calm down, don't push through alone. Talk with a mental health professional. A diagnosis comes from a clinical assessment, not a test score.
If you want to keep practicing with your anxiety
When you practice alone, it's easy to slip back into avoiding things when anxiety runs high. CareOps Maeumi is an AI companion that runs sessions with approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and remembers past sessions so the next one picks up where you left off. It also uses practices such as thought records and behavioral experiments. Get the app
Frequently asked questions
- Is an anxiety disorder caused by being a sensitive person?
- It isn't caused by personality alone. NIMH describes generalized anxiety disorder as coming from a mix of genetics, the brain, biology and environment, and notes that traumatic events or a stressful environment can raise the risk. For how a sensitive temperament relates to anxiety, see the sensitive personality.
- If my anxiety test score is high, do I have an anxiety disorder?
- No. Tests like the GAD-7 are screening tools, so a score alone doesn't make a diagnosis. If your score is high and daily life is being affected, use it as a reason to talk with a professional. See our guide to anxiety tests for how to read results.
- Are panic disorder and anxiety disorder the same thing?
- Panic disorder is one type of anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder is the broader term that also covers generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias; panic disorder refers to repeated panic attacks. For what to do during an attack, see how to cope with a panic attack.
- Can an anxiety disorder get better?
- Yes, it can be eased. CBT has been shown in many randomized trials to reduce anxiety symptoms, and medication is another option to decide on with a doctor. The right approach and pace differ from person to person, so it helps to plan with a professional rather than deciding alone.
- Is it bad to avoid what makes me anxious?
- Avoiding brings relief in the moment, but the situations that trigger anxiety tend to widen over time. That's why CBT practices facing them gradually, starting with the least frightening step. The key is starting small rather than forcing it all at once.
Sources
- NIMH · Anxiety Disorders
- NIMH · Generalized Anxiety Disorder: When Worry Gets Out of Control
- NIMH · Panic Disorder: When Fear Overwhelms
- NIMH · Social Anxiety Disorder: More Than Just Shyness
- NIMH · Specific Phobia (statistics)
- Carpenter et al. (2018), Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and related disorders: A meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials, Depression and Anxiety
- Spitzer et al. (2006), A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder: The GAD-7, Archives of Internal Medicine
This guide shares mental wellness information. If you are in immediate danger, contact emergency services where you are. Support and contact information.