General overview of anxiety, by Dr. Carlo Carandang MD, psychiatrist and anxiety expert. Brought to you by AnxietyBoss.com- Anxiety Help Online, Anxiety Protocol- Anxiety Self-Help Book, and KalmPro- Anxiety Natural Supplement.

1. Question: Can you give me an
overview of anxiety?
Dr. Carlo Carandang,
MD, FAPA
Psychiatrist

2. Overview of Anxiety
 Gene from San Francisco asks if I can give
an overview of anxiety

3. Anxiety Disorders
 Anxiety disorders are characterized by:
– extreme fear
– nervousness
– or worry on exposure to a feared stimulus
 Feared stimulus can be an object, person, or
situation

4. Fear versus anxiety
 Fear is a reaction to a current stimulus
 Anxiety is fear of some future stimulus or
anticipation of one
 Anxiety becomes a problem when:
– one becomes fearful, nervous, or worried out of
proportion to the feared stimulus, or
– becomes nervous or worried about some future
stimulus or anticipated event

5. Fear and survival
 Fear
– normal response
– necessary component of survival
 When presented with danger
– a physiological reaction is triggered
– adrenaline is released into the bloodstream

6. Adrenaline
 Adrenaline is a fear-response hormone
 Adrenaline causes several physical changes
in the body
– increased heart rate
– increased rate of breathing
– dilated pupils

7. Shunting of blood
 Shunting of the blood flow from the digestive
system and the skin to the skeletal muscles
– “butterflies” in the stomach
– numbness and tingling sensations of the
extremities

8. Fight or flight response
 These physical changes allow the person to:
– prepare to fight the danger
– run from it
 This is the “fight-or-flight” response

9. Why the physical changes?
 Increased heart rate and breathing:
– allows the blood to supply more oxygen to the skeletal
muscles needed to fight or run
 Blood shunting to the skeletal muscles
– further aids this process to either fight or run
 Dilated pupils
– improved vision to assess the danger
 Brain becomes more alert and hypervigilant for
danger, allowing one to scan their environment in
order to deal with the external danger

10. Anxiety is fear gone wild
 The fear response goes awry and turns into
anxiety when:
– you start to anticipate danger
– you overestimate the danger
– You underestimate your ability to cope with the
danger

11. Thoughts lead to anxiety
 Fear response is heightened by your
thoughts about the event or future event
 Your thoughts of anticipatory worry,
overestimation of the danger, and
underestimation of your coping leads to
anxiety

12. Adrenaline and anxiety
 Body perceives fear and anxiety the same
way
 Adrenaline response is triggered with either
fear or anxiety

13. Anxiety serving no purpose
 Anxiety activates the fight-or-flight response
 Serves no purpose
– danger is more in your head
 Your thoughts about the situation leads to
anxiety

14. Anxiety becomes disorder
 Anxiety becomes an anxiety disorder when
the anxiety symptoms:
– cause impairment of functioning in your
relationships and work/school
– you have significant distress and are unable to
control the anxiety

15. Major anxiety disorders
 The major anxiety disorders include:
– generalized anxiety disorder
– specific phobia
– social phobia
– panic disorder
– post traumatic stress disorder
– obsessive compulsive disorder.

16. For more information on anxiety
 Visit AnxietyBoss.com
 I hope this answers your question
 Thank you for viewing and listening