1. Give an example of general anxiety that a person might experience on any given day.
2. What would be some challenges of assessing and diagnosing a person with both PTSD and
an anxiety disorder?
Trauma and Anxiety Disorders
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Trauma and Anxiety Disorders
Experiencing anxiety is a normal part of life. Anxiety is the body’s natural response to everyday stress. It is a feeling of apprehension or fear about something to come. When these anxiety feelings last for longer than 6 months and interfere with the individual’s life, they may be regarded as an anxiety disorder (APA, 2022). An example of daily general anxiety that one might experience on any given day includes attending important events such as job interviews. Anxieties due to job interviews are very common. Meeting strangers in the position of authority, presenting before such a panel, and talking about oneself and answering questions to gauge ability can be traumatizing sometimes, especially when harassed or not treated well by the interviewers (Dai et al., 2017). Sweaty palms, racing thoughts, the inability to focus, and elevated heart rate are common symptoms of interview stress and anxiety.
After going through a traumatic event, it is common to feel symptoms of anxiety. When the world seems to have turned down, the emotions need time to execute the impact. However, at some point, people might begin to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and not anxiety (Dai et al., 2017). Anxiety disorder and PTSD can occur concurrently leading to a more confusing issue. One reason that PTSD can be confused with a generalized anxiety disorder is the intense anxiety people experience with both conditions. Intrusive thoughts and a tendency to feel angry or on edge are also fairly common with both (APA, 2022). There are some distinct symptoms that psychiatrists can look up to, however, they must be very keen to make such distinctions.
References
American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5-TR. American Psychiatric Association.
Dai, W., Kaminga, A. C., Tan, H., Wang, J., Lai, Z., Wu, X., … & Liu, A. (2017). Comorbidity of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety in flood survivors: prevalence and shared risk factors. Medicine, 96(36). https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000007994