Anxiety Disorders And Older Adults

Feeling anxious and nervous is a normal reaction to stress, but when it occurs often and is overwhelming affecting the daily tasks, social life and relationships that it turns into an illness. Anxiety is a common illness that affects every 10-20 elders, with it being more common in women than men.  Anxiety in both the old and the young causes feelings of fear, worry, apprehension or dread that is disproportionate to the problem or situation feared.

Anxiety disorders affecting the elders could be of various types:

 
Social phobia: Also known as social anxiety disorder, it makes one very self-conscious and anxious of social situations; an older adult could feel an intense, persistent, and chronic fear of being judged by others and of doing things that will cause embarrassment. Being uncomfortable and anxious of a social encounter and worry how they will be judged, the elder could portray physical symptoms as blushing, heavy sweating, trembling, nausea, and difficulty talking.

Specific phobias: This sort of phobia could be an intense and irrational fear of a place, thing or event, with some having intense fears of  heights, escalators, tunnels, highway driving, closed-in spaces, flying, and spiders. The phobias that are very common in older adults include fear of disaster to family, death and dental procedures. These situations could be triggers that could cause heart palpitations, chest pain, and shortness of breath, nausea and dizziness. 

Generalized anxiety disorder or GAD: An elder or older adult could also suffer from GAD where he/she has constant worries unnecessarily about health issues, money, family problems, or possible disaster, with older adults having difficulty relaxing, sleeping and concentrating, and they startle easily. An older adult could also experience fatigue, chest pains, headaches, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, trembling, twitching, irritability, sweating, nausea, lightheadedness, urge to go to the bathroom frequently, feeling out of breath, and hot flashes.

Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD: This stress disorder develops after a traumatic event that involved physical harm or the threat of physical harm to the individual, a loved one, or even strangers like  mugging, rape, abuse, car accidents, or natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes, or experiences of war. An older adult with this anxiety disorder may startle easily, be emotionally numb with people with whom they were once close, have difficulty feeling affection, and lose interest in things they once enjoyed. Those suffering PTSD may be irritable, aggressive or violent and may experience flashbacks when he/she believes the event is actually happening.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder or (OCD: Though less common among older adults, they could suffer from persistent, upsetting thoughts that they control by performing certain rituals, such as repeatedly checking things, touching things in a particular order, or counting things. Some with OCD are preoccupied with order and symmetry; others accumulate or hoard unneeded items.

These are some of the anxiety disorders that older adults suffer from; Untreated this anxiety could lead to cognitive impairment, disability, poor physical health, and a poor quality of life. Fortunately they are treatable with prescription drugs and therapy.

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