Dr. Semra Salik, CEO PsychCare is a Consultant Psychologist and Hypnotherapist working in the field of mental health. With her expertise, we dive deep into the issue of anxiety disorder as she shares with our readers’ ways to overcome this condition:
SD: How will you define anxiety disorder?
Dr.Semra: Feelings of nervousness and fear are completely normal when occurred occasionally, but people with anxiety disorder have an intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. These worrisome thoughts disturb their daily life activities badly and are long term. It can be of different types, as there are different kinds of anxiety.
SD: How do we know if someone`s suffering from anxiety?
Dr.Semra: There are some common signs and symptoms from which you can find out if your friend, family friend or anyone around you is suffering from anxiety. Most common symptoms include canceling plans at the last moment, restlessness, sleep disturbance, feelings of being `on edge`, and uncontrollable feelings of worry.
SD: What are the risk factors for anxiety?
Dr.Semra: Factors that can cause anxiety can be one or more. Parents can pass on their anxiety disorder traits to their children, environmental stressors, toxic relationships, brain chemistry, stressful and negative events in childhood, and any other mental disorder can be the cause or contributing factor in developing anxiety disorder.
SD: What should a person suffering from anxiety disorder do to overcome his/her problem or from where can they get help?
Dr.Semra: Seek professional help as treating anxiety is a combination of psychotherapy, behavioral therapy and medication. There are few cases in which a person can treat anxiety on their own without professional help. Techniques include self-management, relaxation exercises, techniques to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, and physical workouts.
SD: What should we do to help the anxiety sufferer or how can we be the source of comfort to them?
Dr.Semra: If you have someone around you who’s suffering from anxiety disorder your support can do wonders. Social support can help them think a bit good about themselves. You can make them feel understood, be available to them in case they need you, lower your expectations from them for a certain time period, don’t pressurize them to tell you what’s going on with them but wait and let them tell you on their own when they’ll feel it’s the right time.
