About 20 percent from the world's population endure some form of anxiousness problem at some point in their lives, as indicated by statistical data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Panic attacks and phobias are some of the methods in which this disease is present not just manifested via the intense fear and nervousness but also physical signs for example tachycardia, nausea and dizziness, signs and symptoms that confused with other pathologies delaying accurate diagnosis. Without having adequate remedy, these problems can lead to severe depression boxes, isolation and even suicide.

The feeling of anxiousness prior to an exam, a job interview or a first date is what is recognized as anxiousness. Experts define it as an emotion that allows us to adapt to new situations and compels us to act, although functioning as a protective mechanism against feasible danger.

In those moments, "we feel uneasy, we sweat and we hand quickens the pulse, but until then everything is within normal parameters. The problem arises when this reaction is disproportionate, when we override to make decisions and when we lose the capability to detect the actual danger. In such cases, psycho-physical discomfort prevents us relate to our social and work environment simply because, at this point, the warning signs begin to be beyond the manage of people who endure and go to set a condition that requires particular remedy, "explains Silvia Bentolila, head from the Mental Health Service hospital Paroissien of La Matanza.

Among the most typical anxiety problems is known as GAD or Generalized Anxiety Disorder. In these cases, the person goes into a state of excessive worry and either permanent health, money, loved ones or work. These people can not relax at any time and, therefore, have sleeping difficulties, however, are aware that the level of concern and nervousness that show is unwarranted.

Diagnosis, panic attacks and phobias

The chest pain, palpitations and shortness of breath, among other physical signs and symptoms of anxiousness problems, causing the affected individual to go through a number of medical consultations before realizing that you have an illness that must be addressed with psychotherapy and psychiatric treatment .


"Keep in mind that these instances are, at present, significant economic issues within the health system, with much more than 70 percent of sufferers have gone through many different medical specialties and many studies have been performed without having find an answer to their distress, "said Bentolila.

The difficulties with early diagnosis to occur frequently in patients with panic problem, simply because in these cases the person think you're having a heart attack or who is on the verge of death. "He quickens the pulse, dizzy and shaken, he feels a pain in his stomach, you will cover their ears, your hands will sweat until it ends, as so often in the emergency room of the very first hospital in its path. Electrocardiograms told that his heart is perfect, cardiologists have recommended psychiatric care, the person understands that they're right but at the time of the attack, can not assist but die, "said Bentolila.

In these instances, as in other anxiety problems, the person begins to prevent everyday circumstances such as driving, grocery shopping or the movies. It appears what is called "anticipatory anxiety", which is characterized by dread to return to having a new state of emotional overflow, which increases tension and predisposition to a brand new crisis.

About the other hand, when the irrational fear comes to an object or situation repeatedly, the disorder is what experts define as particular phobias for example dread end towards the airplanes, enclosed places or public speaking to the point to avoid, by all means, exposure to these situations perceived as "triggers" of dread. Although not yet determined the cause, it's known that in general, phobias begin in adolescence and, like panic attacks are much more frequent in women.

Risk groups

To determine the origins of this problem generates conflicting views on the scientific community. While there is consensus on the existence of an inherited predisposition to suffer from anxiety, "it is hard to determine how this burden is due to genetics and how to live with a family group with anxiogenic patterns," says the specialist.

The research in this direction show that exposure to traumatic stress circumstances - for example violence, abuse and marginalization -

repeated and sustained over time, "determine biological patterns of response to new stressors. Individuals live in a constant state of hyperarousal, the globe is experienced as dangerous and the body prepares for danger, it's as if you were in permanent state of war, warning, "he adds Bentolila.

Posttraumatic stress problem, which is another form of anxiety disorders, most often it is associated with GAD, panic attacks and tables from major depression, substance abuse and alcohol in a substantial percentage of those who endure .


The affected individual loses the capability to discriminate the threat "real", everything is potentially threatening. As a defensive response psychobiological state generates a continuous alarm: "These patterns are transmitted both to physical and behavioral degree, simply because children grow inside a climate of irritability, insecurity, poor impulse control, with the consequent violence that perpetuate generating circuits anxiousness, "says the specialist.

Remedy

Those who suffer from these disorders start to self-limiting and in many cases, are subjected to prolonged periods of confinement, as untreated disease could be highly disabling. In addition, emerging physical discomforts for example diarrhea, ulcers or digestive disorders. In the tables of panic, feeling of impending doom is so intense that in numerous cases, leads patients to suicide attempts like a form of escape from the scenario.

Professionals tension the importance of detecting this disease since its inception "because what happens is that numerous newly consult long after being locked within the house or not to travel by bus, for example, and in these circumstances, although great results with treatment, you require a more intensive therapeutic function and a longer time, "said Bentolila, adding that it is really unlikely that a individual will overcome these problems without professional assist," the most common is that, left to their fate, the table is becoming chronic and worsen the signs and symptoms. "

To treat these diseases, experts believe that at first, it is important to combine the pharmacological aspect of psychotherapy. Anxiolytics are effective in the early stages of treatment, but act only symptomatic level, are like aspirin to an infectious procedure: lower the temperature but it's the antibiotic that will alter the underlying problem. Anxiety problems in the "antibiotic" is represented by the combination of antidepressants with psychotherapy, which is important to change the psychological and behavioral patterns that perpetuate the circuit.

The province of Buenos Aires, Mental Health services in public hospitals offer person and group psychotherapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders. "In this kind of cases it is important to psychotherapeutic treatment that consist of not just the person but to family and social context in which it generates discomfort. Self-help groups also are efficient because the affected individual who makes person treatment is often reinforced by participating in these spaces where others have gone via what might obtain from responses to experiences very self-limiting, "he concludes.

The so-called cognitive therapy is among the options utilized within the treatment of these disorders. The focus of this approach is that the patient change their globe view, namely that the therapeutic procedure will serve to alter perceptions of reality and threatening fatalistic.