Symptoms, Types, Treatments, and Coping

Key Takeaways

• Extreme anxiety can make it hard to do everyday things and can get worse over time if not treated.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy are treatments that can help people manage severe anxiety.

Anxiety is a normal part of life as everyone feels some level of worry or unease from time to time. But if you are experiencing severe anxiety that feels overwhelming or out of control, it could be a sign of a mental health disorder—and anxiety-based mental health issues are highly treatable.

Learn more about what extreme anxiety is, as well as the difference between normal anxiety and an anxiety disorder. We also share things you can do if you feel like your anxiety is negatively impacting your life, including several steps you can take to find relief from severe anxiety.

What Is Extreme Anxiety?

‘Extreme anxiety’ is a phrase that people use to describe feelings of worry, panic, or fear that are intense or out of proportion to an actual threat. It’s important to understand that this term is not a clinical term or mental illness diagnosis.

How people experience anxiety can differ from one person to the next. One person may feel like they have small butterflies in their stomach, while another might have severe anxiety in the form of a panic attack. You can also experience different levels of anxiety at different points in time.

If you are experiencing crippling anxiety that makes it difficult to function in various areas of your life—including work, school, and relationships—you might have an anxiety disorder.

Normal Anxiety vs. Severe Anxiety

Not all anxiety is bad. In fact, normal levels of anxiety can be beneficial by helping you better respond to stresses in your environment. For example, research has found that increased levels of anxiety can help you move faster and with greater accuracy when faced with a stressful task.

The difference between normal anxiety and extreme anxiety is how it affects your ability to function and the level of distress that it creates. When anxiety is extreme or severe, it makes it difficult, if not impossible for you to function normally in certain situations.

With severe anxiety, you may not be able to work or socialize like you normally would. It can also create such extreme distress that you begin to altogether avoid situations that are likely to trigger these feelings.

Signs of Extreme Anxiety

If your anxiety is severe in duration or intensity, negatively impacting your life, or increasing over time, you may have an anxiety disorder. Only a physician or mental health professional can diagnose anxiety disorders, but there are both physical and mental symptoms to watch for.

Physical Symptoms

Extreme anxiety can show up in your body physically, in the form of:

• Rapid heart rate
• Increased breathing rate
• Sweating or trembling
• Shortness of breath
• Gastrointestinal issues (stomachaches or digestive issues)
• Sleep difficulties, such as trouble falling or staying asleep

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

Severe anxiety can also impact you mentally or emotionally, resulting in symptoms such as:

• Intense feelings of fear or worry that are irrational or disproportionate to an actual threat
• Increased feelings of irritability and agitation
• Withdrawal from social situations or only enduring these situations with great anxiety
• Difficulty concentrating or problems completing your typical everyday tasks
• Interpersonal and relationship issues
• Thoughts of suicide

Panic Attacks

Extreme anxiety can also manifest as a panic attack. Panic attacks are characterized by an abrupt surge of intense fear or discomfort accompanied by a variety of physical sensations, including:

• Rapid heart rate
• Choking sensations
• Nausea
• Trembling
• Chills
• A sense of unreality
• Feelings of impending doom
• A feeling of losing control or “going crazy”
• Feeling as if you are dying

Types of Severe Anxiety Disorders

There are many different types of anxiety disorders. If you have one of these disorders, your healthcare provider or therapist can evaluate your symptoms to determine which type you have.

• Generalized anxiety disorder: This condition is characterized by feelings of excessive worry about various events, activities, and situations. These feelings are accompanied by other symptoms, including restlessness, fatigue, trouble concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbances.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Called OCD for short, this condition involves unwanted recurrent thoughts combined with compulsive, repetitive behaviors. For people with OCD, engaging in repetitive behaviors can help temporarily ease the feelings of anxiety caused by obsessive thoughts. 
• Panic disorder: This anxiety disorder is marked by intense and recurrent panic that occurs unexpectedly. During a panic attack, people experience extreme anxiety, feelings of terror, and physical symptoms of fear, often feeling that they are losing control or dying.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder: People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience extreme anxiety and distress due to being exposed to a traumatic event. Symptoms of PTSD can include hypervigilance, flashbacks, and intrusive memories of the trauma.
• Social anxiety disorder: This disorder is characterized by feelings of extreme anxiety in social situations. People with this condition often try to limit or avoid social settings, which can negatively affect their ability to function in relationships, work, and school. 

Anxiety Disorder Prevalence

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that 19.1% of adults in the United States experience an anxiety disorder each year, and an estimated 31.1% will experience this type of disorder at some point during their lives.

Anxiety disorders also tend to be more prevalent among women. Women are twice as likely as men to be affected by an anxiety disorder, so experts suggest that women and girls aged 13 and older be screened for anxiety during regular health exams.

Getting Help for Extreme Anxiety

If anxiety is making it difficult to function normally or creating significant distress in your life, it’s important to get help. Severe anxiety typically will not go away on its own and often worsens over time. Plus, many of the coping strategies that people use to decrease anxiety—such as avoidance—end up making the issue worse.

Fortunately, anxiety can be treated in a number of psychotherapeutic ways. Medications may also be prescribed to decrease anxiety symptoms or treat co-occurring conditions. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment approach that works by helping people identify and change the automatic negative thoughts that contribute to feelings of anxiety. During treatment, people also learn to identify the situations that trigger anxiety, work on changing their avoidance behaviors, and practice relaxation techniques to reduce feelings of anxiety.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is another approach used for treating anxiety, and it often results in positive outcomes. This technique involves being gradually and progressively exposed to what it is the individual fears in a safe, controlled way.

During this exposure, people also learn to practice relaxation techniques. Over time, the thing that triggers the fear elicits less of a response and people are better able to tolerate it without experiencing anxiety or panic.

Medication

Anxiety medications can also be used to help people manage their symptoms. Depending on your situation, your healthcare or mental health provider may prescribe a benzodiazepine or antidepressant such as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) to relieve your feelings of anxiousness.

Combination Approach

For many people, the best approach is a combination of anxiety medications and psychotherapy. Most of the time, using both anxiety treatments at the same time can greatly improve your quality of life.

Coping With Extreme Anxiety

Living with severe anxiety can present a number of challenges, but there are a few self-help strategies you can use to help manage your symptoms.

• Find social support: Having people to support you is critical to your psychological well-being, but it is especially important when dealing with extreme anxiety. Talk to a trusted loved one or find an in-person or online anxiety support group. Talking about your feelings with others who have been in your shoes is a great way to find support, care, and encouragement.
• Practice mindfulness: A 2019 study found that mindfulness was associated with lower levels of anxiety. Mindfulness involves focusing on the present moment and not worrying about past or future problems. This can quiet anxious thoughts, calm the body, and supports greater awareness.
• Deep breathing: Anxiety can often lead to short, rapid breathing. Research has found that slow breathing techniques can have a number of health benefits, including decreasing symptoms of anxiety. This can be helpful for easing symptoms during times of stress. 
• Limit avoidance behaviors: While avoiding the things that make you anxious can provide short-term relief, this strategy tends to make anxiety worse in the long run. Instead of avoiding your triggers, focus on dealing with them gradually. Start small and utilize coping strategies to reduce your feelings of anxiety. Use relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and remind yourself that anxious thoughts are just thoughts. 

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the “Everything Psychology Book.”

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