Stress is a natural emotion and a part of life. It is your brain’s way of alerting you to potential dangers that you may be faced with.
Examples include when you are stressed before exam time or when you are dealing with an important problem at work, as the passing of an exam as well as problems at work could have significant ramifications.
It is very much understood and accepted that occasional experience of feeling stressed is normal and a part of life.
When Stress becomes Anxiety Interfere with your Life
If instead of occasional stressful experiences, you are experiencing frequent and excessive anxiety, fear, terror, and panic in everyday situations, you may be suffering from an anxiety disorder.
An important indicator that shows you need to seek assistance for managing your anxiety symptoms is when these feeling are occurring for no apparent reasons and they interfere with your daily life.
Connecting with the right mental health clinician that could assist you with dealing with your symptoms starts by visiting your GP, who can discuss your options with you. Your GP may refer you to either a psychiatrist or psychologist, subject to your individual circumstances and needs.
Common anxiety disorder symptoms include the following:
- Sweating
- Feeling helpless
- Being irritable
- Having headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, or unexplained pains
- Difficulty controlling feelings of worry.
- Having sleep problems, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep
Different types of anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders can be divided into several categories, a few of examples are listed below.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: This categorized by chronic anxiety and exaggerated worries when there is no cause and nothing to trigger the anxiety.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): This anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviours (compulsions). If you are suffering OCD, you may think that performing the ‘ritual’, such as repetitive hand washing, could give you temporary relief. However, continuing with these behaviours not only leads to return of the same thoughts they will also come back even stronger.
Panic Disorder: if you are suffering this disorder, you may have frequent and unexpected panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear, discomfort, or sense of losing control even when there is no clear danger or trigger.
Seeking Assistance
- Diagnosis and Treatment:
As stated earlier, your GP must be your first point of contact. Your GP is the one that knows most about your overall health. Following your initial mental health examination, you can then discuss your options with your GP. - Other Sources of Information:
Due to the vastness of this area, like any other mental health related areas, it is best to arm yourself with as much information as possible.
Below, contact details of a few authoritative sources are listed below. You could have a confidential with any of them to obtain further information on a wide range of related issues, such as seeking how identify the right psychologist or psychiatrist that would suit your needs.
- Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636, 24 hours/7 days a week
- Kids Helpline, specially suits for 5-25 years old, 1800 55 1800.
- SANE Australia, 1800 18 7263,
- Suicide Call Back Service, 1300 659 467, 24 hours/7 days a week
For further questions and see how Takes Care Specialist Centre can assist you in journey of recover, please call 07 3870 9388.
We have been providing our psychiatry and psychology services face-to-face at our Centre in Greenslopes or through telehealth to Brisbane metropolitan area, such as Camp Hill, Coorparoo, Morningside and Woolloongabba, as well regional areas.