Read on to discover how anxiety changes your body, whether it’s your immediate reaction to stress or a long-term battle. Infographic by Alissa Scheller for The Huffington Post. When the body first suffers from anxiety, you may experience… Throat troubles. That croaky, squeaky voice that seems to have possessed your vocal chords is your immediate reaction to a stressful situation. When anxious feelings creep in, fluids are diverted to more essential locations in the body , causing spasms in the throat muscles. This results in tightness, making it dry and difficult to swallow. Liver reactions. When the body undergoes stress and anxiety, the adrenal system produces an excessive amount of the stress hormone cortisol. That hormone production leads the liver to produce more glucose , the high-energy blood sugar that engages your “fight or flight” reactions. For most people, this extra blood sugar in the body can be simply reabsorbed with no real damage.
Full story: How Anxiety Influences Your Health (INFOGRAPHIC)
A sudden fear grips you, and you begin to feel strange physical symptoms and sensations of doom and worry. Is this a panic attack? Sudden, overwhelming fear: That’s panic in a nutshell. You may have felt that kind of sudden, overwhelming fear in terrifying situations – like when you’re forced to slam on the brakes to narrowly miss a car speeding through a red light or when a large dog lunges at you with teeth bared. But a panic attack can happen at moments that have nothing to do with terror – like in the midst of a deep sleep or a dull meeting or while in a class or stuck in traffic or in line at the grocery store. And you don’t have to have a diagnosed panic disorder to experience a panic attack. Panic attacks come on suddenly and unpredictably, and often peak after about 10 to 20 minutes mark. An attack may include several or many of the following symptoms: a sudden feeling of impending doom or death a feeling like you need to escape from where you are a fear of losing control or “going crazy” a feeling of unreality or like you’re detached from yourself rapid heart rate, chest pain, or discomfort sweating, chills, or hot flashes shortness of breath tightness in your throat or trouble swallowing numbness or tingling sensations
Full article: Panic attack symptoms: Am I having a panic attack? – Mental Health – C-Health
Vorster said she also spoke to members of Pistorius’ family, some of his friends and his agent. Pistorius’ defense said at the outset of its case that it would show his feelings of “vulnerability” and his disability contributed to him shooting Steenkamp. Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Vorster’s testimony also dealt with what she said was Pistorius’ fear of crime and how, because he was a double amputee, he reacted to perceived threats in a different way to other people. She noted Pistorius’ mother, who died when he was a teenager, slept with a gun in her bed and also had a fear of being attacked in her home. Cross-examining Vorster at the start of the eighth week of the trial, prosecutor Nel asked if she was saying Pistorius had a mental illness and should undergo a 30-day period of observation, and if he was changing his defense to one of “diminished responsibility.” Nel also asked the psychiatrist if someone who was suffering from an anxiety order of the kind that she had diagnosed in Pistorius, and also had access to guns, would be a danger to society. Vorster said the person would, indeed, be a danger. Talking specifically about the shooting of Steenkamp, Vorster said Pistorius was more likely to try and “fight” what he thought was an intruder than run away, because his disability meant it was harder for him to flee. Pistorius was on his stumps when he fired four times through the toilet stall door with his licensed 9 mm pistol, killing Steenkamp.
For the original article, visit http://www.cbsnews.com/news/oscar-pistorius-anxiety-disorder-defense-psychiatrist-murder-trial/
After four pregnancies, and four miscarriages, Deacon is here, and healthy. He smiles constantly. Lamphier says, He’s very intense sometimes, but very full of joy and life. He laughs a lot, which is really fun, to listen to him laugh at things.” But getting to this point has been a journey. Careys psychiatrist, Dr. Toby Goldsmith, says Carrie had a lot of anxiety.” Medication had helped make her anxiety manageable. But, pregnant with Deacon, after so many losses, Carey was haunted by what-ifs? The thoughts would get stuck in her head, she says, Was everything going to be okay? Was he going to be okay?
Read more at: Helping pregnant women cope with anxiety – FOX 13 News
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