Are you calmly at home and feeling anxious? Have you ever woken up in the middle of a crisis? Do you sometimes feel anxious and can’t find the reason? In Psychology-Online we explain why you can have anxiety for no apparent reason.
Symptoms of anxiety (DSM)
The symptoms of a disorder as listed in the DSM are:
- Palpitations, heartbeats, or increased heart rate
- Sweating
- Tremors or shaking
- Feeling of suffocation or shortness of breath
- Feeling of choking
- Chest tightness or discomfort
- Nausea or abdominal discomfort
- Unsteadiness, dizziness, or fainting
- Derealization (feeling of unreality) or depersonalization (being separated from oneself)
- Fear of losing control or going crazy
- Affraid to die
- Paresthesias (numbness or tingling sensation)
- Chills or hot flashes
In the following article you will find more information about the issue.
Causes of anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion that has helped us survive as a species. When faced with a dangerous situation, our body activates a alarm system to provide a fight or flight response in the face of imminent danger. Currently, this activation continues to be very helpful to us in situations of real danger, such as when someone who wants to attack us approaches us.
However, our body reacts the same to situations that are objectively not dangerous but that we perceive as such. This is why it can be maladaptive in that we avoid situations that do not really represent a danger and this can affect the normal development of our lives.
Why do I have anxiety for no apparent reason?
There are three types of anxiety attacks or crises depending on how they start and what triggers them:
The situational crises
They occur when we expose ourselves to situations that generate anxiety or we anticipate them. It may be because they have previously caused us anxiety or because we consider them threatening.
Situationally predisposed crises
They are related to situations that are associated with anxiety, but the crisis does not always have to appear. It can appear before exposure, during the exposure, a while after or even not appear at all. This type of crisis can confuse us if it occurs after exposure because we do not associate our anxiety with something that has already happened and that at the time it occurred did not cause us anxiety.
The unexpected crises
These crises are not related to situational stimuli. They appear in situations that we consider safe. They are triggered by the perception of bodily sensations related to anxiety. and we may not even realize it. These crises are the ones that most make us believe that we have anxiety for no apparent reason, but in reality yes there is a reason that we are not identifying.
Why do I get anxious at night?
Unexpected crises occur in situations that we consider safe, even while we are calm and relaxed, such as at night in our house and even in our bed. It is triggered by bodily sensations that may go unnoticed by us. The thoughts related to anxiety They are also common triggers for this type of crisis.
This type of crisis can occur even while we sleep. There are people who claim that they have woken up in the middle of a crisis, with all the symptoms and, obviously, without understanding what triggered it.
Why do I have anxiety all day
Just as fear creates more fear, anxiety also creates more anxiety. In fact, fear and anxiety go hand in hand.
Anxiety attacks or crises are very unpleasant for those who suffer them. So much so that after the first one we lived in fear of the possibility of it happening again. This fear makes us have sensations related to anxiety and thus we enter a fear-anxiety loop from which it is difficult to get out without good treatment.
If we have also suffered unexpected anxiety attacks, we lose the feeling of control we had. When crises are situational, we can avoid them if we stop exposing ourselves to stimuli that we know trigger them, but when they are unexpected we feel completely exposed and that generates a constant anxiety faced with the uncertainty of when a new crisis will occur.
On the other hand, if anxiety occurs constantly, on a daily basis, it is possible that we are facing a generalized anxiety disorder.
What is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
He is characterized by excessive anxiety and worry in a large number of situations.
Some symptoms occur such as: restlessness, early fatigue, difficulty concentratingirritability, muscle tension and sleep disorders.
The situations that generate anxiety are not limited to the usual ones, but cover a wide variety of everyday situations: facing the day, health of family members, small problems with children, work, etc. The intensity of anxiety and worries are disproportionate with the possible consequences that the feared situations may trigger. The inability to control excessive worries disrupts the normal development of your daily life.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Why do I have anxiety for no reason?we recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- American Psychiatric Association (1995). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Barcelona: MASSON