Anxiety is very common among college students. Not only they are living away from home for the first time ever, they are also constantly under pressure because of exams, works, projects and other activities. And as if the pressure to be a successful student wasn’t enough, they also feel the pressure to be good friends, good children, take care of their own selves and also manage their money. They have so much to do that they often tend to forget about one very important thing: their mental health. The large amount of pressure they go through, along with the limited amount of time they have is what gets them to start feeling anxious and having anxious thoughts. They are constantly trying to find a way to organize their lives, putting their value on things like grades and how popular they are, and overall, just doubting and criticizing themselves. And, as they are not paying attention to these anxious thoughts, they tend to perpetuate and a cycle of obsessing over many situations is started, a cycle that can take control over their lives.
But What is Anxiety All About?
Let’s make things clear. Anxiety is actually a normal emotional experience that has place in many daily situations that represent a potential threat -so yes, exams can be interpreted like a threat by our bodies. It is part of the human experience; everyone feels anxiety sometimes. In fact, without anxiety, we wouldn’t be able to learn new things, keep up with school, or achieve different goals. We can say anxiety is considered to be an adaptive response to danger that prepares us to deal with it. But anxiety is not always adaptive, it can sometimes become maladaptive, this happens when someone becomes anxious over things that are not actually a threat or over situations that are not such a big deal. So, when the feeling of anxiety is way out of proportion to the situation and it becomes so strong you cannot control it anymore, that’s when anxiety stops being normal and it is called an anxiety disorder.
How Does Anxiety Feel Like?
Some general signs you may be experiencing an anxiety disorder are:
- Excessive and uncontrollable worry about things or situations that have already happened, are still yet to happen or even those that will not happen.
- Feeling restless (even when you have already slept)
- Getting easily fatigued
- Having trouble to focus
- Feeling irritable all the time
- Feeling your muscles tense
- Having trouble to fall or to stay asleep
- Having lower grades than before
- Isolating from others
Are There Different Kinds of Anxiety Disorders?
Yes, there are many different kinds of anxiety disorders. Let’s take a look at the most common ones:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): This type of anxiety, as its name says, has a person worrying excessively over almost everything. It’s generalized. The person who suffers from this is constantly worrying about school, friends, family, health, finances, and the list can go on and on. For someone to be diagnosed with GAD, they must have had it for at least 6 months.
- Social anxiety: This kind of anxiety occurs when a person is involved in a social activity. Parties, meetings, presentations, even just talking to someone can represent stressing situations that people with social anxiety tend to avoid at all costs because they fear they can be observed and criticized by others.
Angie is a college student who suffers from social anxiety, about it she says: “It’s awful and it gets worse when I speak in public. Whenever I have to talk to a professor or when I have to speak in front of the entire class, I literally can’t articulate a word, start sweating badly and my face gets super red, I just can’t do it.”
- Panic disorders: This happens when, all of a sudden, a person has an intense fear or discomfort that reaches its peak within 10 minutes or less. It is experienced like palpitations, sweating, trembling, chest pain, shortness of breath, along with fear of death or fear of losing control.
Gabriela has experienced panic disorders two times before, she explains: “I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, I started to feel short of air and was really afraid to die.”
- Specific phobias: This means someone has an irrational fear of a specific thing such as spiders, heights, dogs and so forth.
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): People with OCD will constantly have intrusive thoughts that cause major anxiety -like fear of getting contaminated by some germ-, these thoughts are called obsessions. So, to avoid the anxiety, they start to have repetitive behaviors -like washing their hands over and over- that are called compulsions.
Marcelo has contamination OCD, he tells us: “My mind is always telling me that everything is contaminated by fungus and that it will make me and my family sick, I can’t stand the anxiety so I wash my hands like 20 times a day.”
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): PTSD is developed when a person goes through a highly traumatic event, like the death of a friend or a family member, any kind of abuse, or a serious illness. Because of PTSD, a person can have nightmares, panic attacks, or can remember the traumatic event in a very vivid way.
I Think I Have Anxiety, What Can I Do Now?
You can check these two tests we have available so you can learn more about anxiety:
Remember they are not medical tools, to have a diagnosis you should always seek for professional help. Contact your doctor if you have had anxiety symptoms and they are interfering with your normal life.
Anxiety disorders are treated with therapy, medication or a combination or both. The right therapy depends on each individual and can only be implemented by a mental health professional.
