What Do Different Types of Anxiety Have in Common?

Anxiety has important functions. By signaling that something doesn’t feel right, anxiety may protect us from danger or indicate that we need to make some kind of change. When anxiety is chronic, however, it can undermine our capacity to evaluate danger and it can disrupt our lives. Anxiety includes feelings of worry, nervousness, or dread. Common distress signals include panicky breathing, elevated heart rate, and disrupted sleep. Additionally, we may experience different types of anxiety.

Some of the frequently observed adult anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, agoraphobia, anxiety disorder due to a medical condition, and substance-induced anxiety disorder. One can suffer from more than one disorder. Our interest here will be to examine what these many forms of anxiety share in common, as well as to consider some approaches to treatment.

Fear versus anxiety

Experiences of fear and anxiety have a fair amount of overlap. However, there are also some key differences.

Fear

Fear is a response to something we have identified as an immediate threat. It has a clear source and often includes a fight, flight, or freeze response. These responses involve staying to fight, attempting to flee, or freezing.

For example, Sean observes that the sun is going down while he is descending a mountain path. He realizes that the approaching darkness and drop in temperature will put him at risk if he does not arrive at the bottom of trail and return to his car in time. Before he realized that the sun was low, he was feeling tired and unfocused after a long day of hiking. When he wraps around a bend in the mountain path and finds himself in near darkness, he realizes his situation and suddenly feels a burst of energy and increased focus, which helps him rapidly descend the mountain. Sean’s experience illustrates a “flight” response. Fear mobilizes him, meaning he experiences physiological responses that support taking action.

Anxiety

Anxiety also involves a sense of threat. However, there is a gap between the external levels of threat and our internal response. The threat does not involve a clear and immediate danger (such as the sun going down as we descend a mountain). Instead, the source of threat may feel vague, or may include a future concern that we are anticipating. This often includes a chronic, low-level mobilization, such as muscle tension. Our muscles flex in preparation for movement, but with chronic anxiety we are constantly preparing for actions that are not taken. We may or may not clearly realize that we are experiencing anxiety.

Anxious physiological responses often mirror those we experience with fear. An extreme version of this is panic attacks. During a panic attack, we become highly mobilized for action. This response includes the release of large amounts of adrenaline, and significantly elevated heart and breathing rates. However, we often have not identified a clear source of threat, and there is no clear action for us to take in order to release this powerful flood of energy.

Types of anxiety disorders

Here are some of the common anxiety disorder diagnoses:

Generalized anxiety disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) includes persistent and excessive worry that is out of proportion to the actual circumstance and interferes with daily activities. It includes physical symptoms, such as restlessness, feeling on edge, feeling easily fatigued, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, or problems sleeping. It is often accompanied by depression or other anxiety disorders.

Panic disorder

Panic disorder is characterized by recurrent panic attacks, which are sudden episodes of intense anxiety that often include feelings of impending doom, shortness of breath, chest pain, sweating, and heart palpitations. This disorder also frequently includes worry that panic attacks will recur.

Social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder involves high levels of anxiety and avoidance of social situations due to feelings of embarrassment, self-consciousness, and concern about being judged or viewed negatively by others.

Specific phobia

Specific phobias include high levels of anxiety in response to a specific object or situation and attempts to avoid it. This can include panic attacks.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia involves fear and avoidance of situations where one may feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.

Anxiety disorder due to a medical condition

Anxiety disorder due to a medical condition includes anxiety or panic caused by a physical health problem.

Substance-induced anxiety disorder

Substance-induced anxiety disorder is characterized by symptoms of intense anxiety or panic following the use of drugs or medications. 

Now, let’s consider some different perspectives on why anxiety exists.

Evolutionary perspectives on anxiety

As we can observe in the descriptions above, all anxiety disorders involve the activation of our threat responses. These responses share an evolutionary history that was highly protective throughout most of human history. Our survival as a species depended on our capacity to perceive and avoid or respond to threat. Over time, we developed enormously sensitive abilities to do so. In contemporary life, these highly evolved systems are sometimes “overkill,” and can work against us.

Through experiential approaches to therapy such as mindfulness, we can learn to track and retrain our responses to our environments, including our evaluations of threat.  

Watch a video about a different way to look at anxiety

Psychodynamic perspectives on anxiety

As infants and children, we are extremely vulnerable. We are entirely dependent on caregivers for our physical needs, comfort, and for assistance in processing deeply felt experiences. Any breach in these relationships could be perilous. These experiences have powerful psychological implications. During our first years of life, we likely form many centrally held beliefs about ourselves and the world that can influence the way we behave in relationships throughout adulthood. Because these beliefs are formed so early – before we have the capacity for reflection and language – many of them may remain unconscious, and yet operate powerfully ‘behind the scenes.’ 

Through dynamic and experiential approaches to therapy, we can get in touch with internalized belief systems, feel and observe how they are operating in our current lives, and restructure them. 

Buddhist psychology perspectives on anxiety

Buddhist psychology considers anxiety to be a fundamental misunderstanding that requires new learning. Through psychoeducation and new experiences in therapy, including mindful observation of thoughts and feeling states, we can discover the possibility of open communication, trust, and connection. This can dismantle the sense of isolation and disconnection that Buddhist psychology considers to be a fundamental misconception that leads to anxiety.

We have now explored a range of common anxiety disorders through a few lenses and considered aspects they likely share in common. The good news is that we can learn to approach rather than avoid anxiety, loosen the grip of threat, and experience new ways of being present in our lives.  

Are you struggling to manage your anxiety? Our monthly Meditation & Mindfulness Group can help you to acquire new skills to relieve and manage anxiety.

Can you identify the ways you have managed anxiety so far in your life? Join the conversation in the comments below!