Anxiety symptoms: Spotting the Right Hints of the Disorder
Human beings react to a stressor through physiological and psychological changes and display signs of Anxiety symptoms. Components of the normal reaction revolve around emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components that can also manifest as somatic impulses. While moderate levels of anxiety symptoms are considered normal, intense levels of reactions can be classified 
as a disorder. By learning about the possible symptoms that could arise due to anxiety, reactions are understood and appropriate coping mechanisms protect the anxious individual from developing the disorder.
General description of Anxiety Symptoms
As a generic mood that can manifest in an individual, anxiety and anxiety symptoms may occur without any identifiable stimulus that could explain the reaction. This is its major distinction from fear, in which a perceived threat cultivates a particular response. Generally, anxiety symptoms have physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral effects.
Physical Anxiety Symptoms
Anxiety symptoms evident in physical effects include heart palpitations and muscle weakness. As the heart muscles begin to overwork, blood pressure and heart rate increase. Another set of physical effects include stomach aches, chest pain, and even headaches. Hence, normal digestive functions and immune systems are inhibited. Disturbed digestive functions lead to frequent urination and possible onset of diarrhea.
On the outside, the individual could sweat excessively with episodes of trembling and dilation of the pupils. Trembling results from the uncontrolled muscle tension. Dilation of the pupils, on the other hand, is the reaction developed through millions of years of evolution when an individual becomes more alert for the perceived threat.
Another common symptom manifested physically is a panic attack, which comes without warning. Other people with no anxiety disorders would find the behavior irrational. For the person with anxiety disorder, however, his subjective perception of the imagined danger is very realistic which explains his erratic response. Fear of experiencing the terrible panic attack again leads to the development of certain phobias.
Emotional Symptoms – Anxiety Symptoms
While subtle and indirectly observed, anxiety symptoms as manifested by emotional effects include trouble in concentrating. The rushed feeling of an anxious person deprives him of the ability to focus on what he is doing. Similar to the inability to concentrate effectively, the individual can also experience temporarily emptied mind forgetting important information which might be needed for a particular situation.
Emotionally, the individual also becomes irritable and restless. Failing to control his emotional response leads to the restless behavior. Irritability also becomes an issue especially if the individual has to deal with situations that relate to the stimulus.
Pessimism is another negative emotional effect of anxiety disorder and is an anxiety symptom. The individual anticipates the worst scenario could happen along the way watching aimlessly for signs of danger that may never happen in the first place. This negative emotional effect results further to a tense and jumpy feeling.
Cognitive Anxiety Symptoms
Like the effect of anxiety symptoms on human emotion, cognitive effects are also subtle as these occur within the individual. Thinking about possible dangers which have very slight chance of happening is an indication of the cognitive effect of anxiety. For instance, the chest pain being felt at the moment can be feared as something that could result to eventual death. Frequent thoughts about death leading to intense fear are symptoms of anxiety disorder.
Behavioral Anxiety Symptoms
If an individual tends to withdraw forcefully from a familiar and harmless situation in which he has perceived negatively, then it is another one of the many anxiety symptoms observed from his behavior. Change in sleeping patterns is also another manifestation. Behavior habits such as foot tapping, nail-biting, and other repetitive and unusual movements arising from psychomotor tension are some of the directly observable effects of an anxiety symptoms disorder on behavior.
Major types of Anxiety Disorder Symptoms
In addition to panic or anxiety attacks and intense fear or phobia, an anxiety disorder is also classified as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety disorder. Obsessive-compulsive behavior is characterized by unnecessary and uncontrolled actions performed to satisfy an unrealistic need. Social anxiety disorder, on the other hand, arises from the irrational fear of being viewed negatively by others. Finally, post-traumatic stress disorder is the aftermath of a traumatic event.
Anxiety symptoms affect the suffering individual in the physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions. As soon as these symptoms are observed, appropriate therapies must be taken to avoid worsening the problem. With a number of scientific studies regarding the disorder, classifications have been set each with its own unique characteristics and treatments.
Also read about Anxiety Symptoms – Medications That Help With Anxiety & Anxiety Symptoms & how can it be Treated.
