Anxiety is a complex of neurological disorders, characterized by nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worrying. This disorder influences our feelings and behavior, and in some cases manifest real physical symptoms. In severe forms anxiety can have really a serious impact on daily life.
It is usual that people worry or fear before something challenging such as a test, examination, or interview. When these feelings are too strong or even cause problems, interfering with a person’s ability to sleep or otherwise function, then in this case you might suffer from anxiety.
There are many factors that can cause anxiety. For example, environmental factors, medical factors, genetics, brain chemistry, substance abuse, or a combination of all of them may lead to the disorder. Generally it results from stress in our lives and anxiety is just then the reaction on the situation, but sometimes we make ourselves anxious with “negative self-talk” – a habit of always telling ourselves the worst will happen. Let’s consider all of the named factors.
Environmental or external factors are the most common causes of anxiety. They include trauma from events such as death of someone, physical abuse, problems in relationship, marriage, divorce, natural disaster, stress at work or school or simply about money.
Anxiety is associated also with medical factors such as anemia, asthma, infections, and several heart conditions. Among some medically-related causes of anxiety are stress from a serious medical illness, side effects of medication, lack of oxygen.
Anxiety disorders such as GAD, panic disorder, or social phobia occur from alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence. So, it can result from intoxication from cocaine or amphetamines, withdrawal from heroin or from prescription drugs like vicodin, benzodiazepines, or barbiturates.
Genetics plays also an important role. Some people may have a genetic predisposition that gives them a greater chance of suffering from anxiety disorders.
Experts also agree that GAD may be caused by an imbalance of certain chemicals in the brain. When chemical message carriers called neurotransmitters do not perform properly, the brain’s internal communication network breaks down, and the brain may react in an inappropriate way in some situations, what leads to anxiety.
So, as you see, the causes might have various background, therefore, doctors have very often the difficulty to determine which symptoms come from which causes. For example, chest pain that is supposed to be heart disease, can be not heart related, but result from e a panic disorder- a common form of anxiety.