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Anxiety is a complex combination of emotions that include fear, oppression and worry, and is often accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, internal tremor. The classification of anxiety disorders is very wide, now many of these will be mentioned, just to give a sense and an idea of ​​what it is. They are as follows: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobia and social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.

WHAT 'THE ANXIETY DISORDER Generalized (DAG)
Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by excessive worry, difficult to control, the more lasting the usual concerns of healthy subjects. Generalized anxiety is called a "fear not its object" because it often appears without a reason: we live as anxiety and may also arise when there is a real and imminent danger. suddenly increases, leading to excessive worry thoughts about the future, fear of not being able or not being able to cope with the problems and everyday life. In DAG's concern it is not focused in particular situations. In this case the attention of those who suffer from generalized anxiety is directed to external reality, perceived as threatening and faced with a state of mind that responds to a heuristic like "things will turn out badly." The person may or may not recognize rationally that the world is not so dangerous, but those who suffer from generalized anxiety makes it hard to tolerate the inherent uncertainty that is part of life, so any negative outcome in itself becomes unbearable. So only the absolute certainty of safety is considered an acceptable criterion to calm down, but this unfortunately favors broods as a control form for life events.

HOW IT HAPPENS
What characterizes the generalized anxiety disorder is the presence of anxiety and persistent concern in conjunction with somatic symptoms.
Motor symptoms:
Tenderness and widespread muscle stiffness, especially in the back and shoulders.
Autonomic symptoms:
Gastrointestinal: dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, bowel sounds, abdominal spasms.
Respirators: feeling of chest tightness, difficulty to breathe, and subsequent hyperventilation.
Cardiovascular: feeling of precordial discomfort, palpitations, feelings of missing beats.
Genitourinary: Frequent and urgent urination, erigendi impotence, lack of sexual desire.
nervous system: sensation of blurred vision, insomnia, hypersensitivity to noise, irritability, depressive symptoms.

TREATMENT
During a psychotherapeutic process you can get excellent results. Anxiety is a message from our body and should be listened to and accepted. It is important to analyze the emotional and somatic causes anxiety, and give meaning to what is happening. And it is only by acting in the depths that you can touch the interweaving of psycho-physical elements that produced the symptom.
The symptoms are nothing more than the metaphorical symbolism of our lives. The careful analysis of the symptom allows us to fully understand the reactions that translate into anxiety.

PHOBIC PROBLEMS

It is a group of syndromes in which anxiety is evoked only a few specific situations, or external objects not generally considered hazardous.
What characterizes a phobia is usually a persistent and irrational fear of a specific object of an activity or situation. The person suffering from phobic disorder felt a pressing desire to avoid the object, activity or situation feared. The phobic is able to recognize his fear as excessive or unreasonable compared to the real danger of the phobic stimulus. All this creates an avoidance behavior towards the object or situation phobic. You need only imagine the phobic stimulus to generate anticipatory anxiety.

There are three types of phobias:

Phobia simple: the symptoms cause the person to avoid objects or situations trigger. Common examples are a simple phobia: fear of snakes, fear of spiders and fear of mice. Or fear situational, for example: airplanes, elevator, enclosed places. Another type of fear may be the avoidance of situations that can lead to choking, vomiting, or contracting an illness. In any case the phobic situation is avoided or endured with intense anxiety.
Social phobia: in social phobia symptoms push the person to avoid situations in which you feel or be judged by others. Social phobia is characterized by a marked and persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people. The individual is afraid to act so humiliating or embarrassing and especially as already mentioned the person fears the possible scrutiny by others. The avoidance, anxious anticipation, or distress in social or performance situation interferes significantly with the person's normal routine, occupational functioning or with their daily activities.
Agoraphobia: those who suffer from agoraphobia have an anxiety related to being in which places or situations which would be difficult or embarrassing to get away, or in which help may not be available in the event of a panic attack. Agoraphobic fears typically involve characteristic situations that include being outside the home alone: ​​being in a crowd or in a jam; being on a bridge; and traveling in a bus, train, car, plane or boat. Many situations are avoided, and for example travel is restricted, or born with very uncomfortable or with anxiety about having a panic attack.

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD)

Who among us has never tried to go back to check if the car door was closed and the front door, which of us has never come back to check that the lights were out or gas?

Who among us he has never tried to have the desire, but almost to be bound to want to reorder so meticulous parts of the house?

Who among us he has never made the same action several times, as if not to do it almost bring bad?

Those who have never tried it at least once in life the desire to do harm even to a loved one?

All this belongs to what it means to be human, but rather when these mental events become recurrent and persistent and are experienced as intrusive, then they cause anxiety and discomfort. And it is precisely when such pain interferes with their friends, loved ones and work that one can speak of OCD. The OCD is characterized by the presence of obsessions and compulsions.

SYMPTOMS - WHAT ARE OBSESSIONS

Obsessions are ideas, thoughts, impulses, or after-images that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted, and for this cause anxiety. Obsession is characterized by the arrogance of an image that intrudes into the mind of a person remaining there long without being able to be removed.

WHAT ARE Compulsions

Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or rituals (washing, checking, ordering, etc.) Or mental acts (like singing, praying, repeating words or phrases, etc.) That the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession , according to rules that must be applied rigidly. These behaviors or mental acts play the role to assuage anxiety. The aim, in fact, is to neutralize and prevent the inconvenience or discomfort caused by the obsessive thought.

FORMS MORE 'OBSESSION OF COMMON ARE:

- Obsession of dirt and contamination (worry or disgust for waste or secretions of the body for germs, etc.)

- Obsessions of verbal or physical aggression (concern on the idea of ​​being able to harm oneself or others, utter obscenities or insults, steal items, etc.)

- Obsessions dubitative (gas, work): forced doubt

- Obsessions religious background (excessive morality concerns than sins of sacrilege or blasphemy)

- Obsessions of memories forced (need to know or remember songs, melodies, addresses, names)

- Sexual Obsessions (thoughts, images or impulses prohibited sexual or perverse, thoughts of pedophilia or incest or homosexuality)

- Obsessions of symmetry or precision (for example, do not step on the floor joints)

- Somatic obsessions (concerns for diseases, excessive concern for some parts of the body or the appearance etc.)

- Numerical Obsessions: calculations and dates can be seen as mental compulsive acts.

FORMS OF MORE compulsions' COMMON

- Compulsions of personal and household cleaning (ritualized hand washing, showering, bathing, brushing teeth, clean in general, house cleaning, or other inanimate objects etc.)

- Compulsions gas control, door, electricity, water, that has not happened no harm to someone or to yourself, that nothing happened or did not happen nothing horrible

- Obsessions ritualized in symmetry or order

A large part of the suffering of people affected by OCD comes from their awareness. Patients, in fact, are perfectly aware and recognize that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive and unreasonable. The obsessions or compulsions cause marked distress, are time consuming (more than 1 hour per day), or significantly interfere with the person's normal routine, occupational functioning or school or with usual social activities or relationships.

For example, the joint are often directly involved in the compulsions (to contain the person's discomfort they feel compelled to do it themselves repeated washing, checks or other types of rituals). Those who live with them, family members are constantly called into question by repeated requests for reassurance about the content of the obsessions. For example, the patient turns questioning the parents, partners, brothers, with questions "how are you sure you are not touching that shirt contagions?" Or "I'll shut the door?". Involvement in symptoms for family members can be exhausting.

CAUSES

Research and scientific literature reveal that an exaggerated sense of responsibility may be a central factor in the development of the disorder. In fact it seems that the fear of guilt and a high sense of responsibility are elements for predicting the tendency to have obsessions and compulsions. At times the suffering person often tells stories of a life in which there is a strong moral rigidity, often the result of a strict upbringing, with great attention to the rules and punishments disproportionate often where sensitivity to guilt and sense of responsibility promote the development to OCD.

Another feature of obsessive disorder is characterized by doubts: in fact an ancient name of the disorder is "delusions du doute". Doubt is typically powered by a low ability to believe in themselves, and by a pervasive feeling of not "know if they know anything." All this is further amplified in new situations, uncertain or ambiguous.

Another feature that may predispose to the disorder is its poor ability to tolerate uncertain situations. And it is as if the uncertainty and waiting pushed to create thoughts or ritual actions in an attempt to neutralize the doubt itself

. For others these thoughts from which we can not deviate and rituals become strange and unnecessary. For the person who suffers, however, these rituals are deeply important actions and must be run in special ways to avoid negative consequences and to prevent anxiety to take over (eg climbing a ladder with always a given foot, the right, or turn on and turn off the lights a number of times before leaving the room).

TREATMENT

The DOC is traditionally considered a chronic course and disabling disorder, often refractory to any type of therapeutic intervention. But we must say that today with the integration of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy you can get good results.

The marked distress that results from this type of disorder can provide useful information to go exploring the anxiety underlying the symptoms. And the symptoms themselves within a therapeutic alliance are valuable path towards the acquisition of an awareness now too long buried.

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

WHAT IS IT

Who among us he has never felt a strong fear, a pain like a punch in the stomach, and maybe this state of fear and pain persisted even after the following days by which time the hazardous event was far away from us. The fear was so intense to the point of making it hard to fall asleep and also to relive the same fear in the dream. What we experienced is called shock and we needed time to process what had happened. In some cases, however, when such intense feelings of fear made persist over time and interfere in our daily lives, causing distress and suffering then you can speak of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This disorder can therefore represents the response of a subject to a critical event abnormal. The person has witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others. These events may include physical abuse, emotional or sexual. Special conditions such as war or natural disasters but also apparently normal situations such as medical practices, road accidents, deaths.

The response of the person event often includes: intense fear, feeling helpless, or horrified. It is important to remember that most people, even if he lives potentially traumatic events, suffers only from the transitional emotional reactions which, although painful, they rarely turn into a real post-traumatic stress disorder.

SYMPTOMS

Often the person continues to relive the traumatic event. This is done through unpleasant recurrent and intrusive recollections of the event (flashbacks). The person presenting a post-traumatic stress disorder often making efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, conversations, activities, places or people that arouse recollections of the trauma. Also the person has an inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma.

Often the person indicates a strong loss of interest in important aspects of life, including feelings of detachment or estrangement from others. Also on the physical plane is raising anxiety and increased vigilance where danger seems to be imminent. The person has difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, irritability or outbursts of anger, difficulty concentrating, hypervigilance and exaggerated alarm response.

These symptoms may occur immediately or some time after the traumatic event. In the first case there is an Acute Stress Disorder, if the duration of symptoms is less than 3 months. It differs from Chronic Disorder if duration of symptoms is more than 3 months. The disorder may be evident to debut also it delayed six months after the stressful event.

TREATMENT

First, it is important to stress that those who have to deal with a traumatic event is not crazy, but only reacting. Often, however, the pressure and the stress created by a traumatic event, they become difficult to deal with in solitude, therefore, seek the help of a specialist (psychotherapist) is the right way forward. It is important to deal with the disorder as early as possible, because with proper treatment psychotherapeutic you can resolve or mitigate the symptoms significantly.

It is inside a solid and secure therapeutic alliance that the patient can be helped. A course of treatment where the patient can learn to trust, to feel safe and be heard. This time the patient can tell their own story, reliving and remembering the trauma in a "muffled" climate and safe, and the patient will achieve the ability to find meaning to the events experienced. And it is through this process that the person be able to gain a feeling of dominating on intrusive memories and a high control in revived traumatic memories. In this way, the symptoms will be reduced to start then towards the road to recovery.