Dealing with Social Anxiety Disorders and Symptoms

Dealing with anxiety attack symptoms can be extremely difficult and at times seem like it's impossible. And the ever increasing range of anxiety medications isn't really helping us to solve the problem - they're simply masking the symptoms.

Susan awakens suddenly almost every night, a couple of hours after going to sleep, with a tightness in her throat, a racing heart, dizziness, and a fear that she' s going to die. Although she's shaking all over, she hasn't a clue why.

After many nights of getting up and pacing her living room floor in an attempt to get a grip on herself, she decided to go see her doctor to find out whether something is wrong with her heart.

Cindy has been having attacks like Susan's whenever she's in a public place. Not only does she fear losing control over herself, but she dreads what other might think of her if this were to happen in public. Recently she has been avoiding going into any kind of store other than the local convenience store. Even then, she feels safe only when with her boyfriend.

She is beginning to wonder whether she can cope with her job. After a few minutes at work she starts to fear that she's losing control of herself and suddenly feels as though she has to leave.

Mike is so embarrassed about a peculiar fear he's had over the past few months that he can't tell anyone, not even his wife. While driving he is frequently gripped by the fear that he has run over someone. Even though there is no evidence that anything like this has happened, he feels compelled to retrace his route to make absolutely sure. Recently, his fear of having hit someone has grown so strong that he retraces his route three or four times to assure himself that nothing has happened. Mike feels utterly humiliated about his compulsion to keep checking his route and is beginning to wonder if he's "going crazy".

Susan, Cindy and Mike, are all experiencing social anxiety disorders and symptoms. Yet it is not ordinary anxiety. Their experiences with anxious feelings, thoughts and behavior are out of control and are interfering with the normal functioning of their lives. These examples illustrate types of Anxiety Disorders: panic disorder, agoraphobia and obsessive - compulsive disorder.