TYPES OF ANXIETY: CHARACTERISTICS, CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS - ARTE - 2025

The main types of anxiety are generalized anxiety disorder, selective mutism, separation anxiety, agoraphobia, distress, social phobia, specific phobias, substance-induced disorder, medical-induced disorder, and mixed anxiety-depressive disorder.

Anxiety is common in our life, since we can find ourselves in certain situations that trigger it: a problem at work, an exam or having to make an important decision.

In fact, it is an adaptive mechanism that sets our body in motion to successfully cope with the demands of the external environment. It is a "push" or "energy" that makes us act and get out of trouble.

However, there are times when anxiety rather than being useful is an impediment to leading a normal life. This occurs when anxiety symptoms appear for no apparent reason, or when the level of anxiety before an event is totally disproportionate to the real danger it poses.

It is definitive for the diagnosis of anxiety that it generates significant discomfort or that it interferes with the normal life of the person. We are talking in this case of anxiety disorders. Although to diagnose and speak of a "disorder" normally more criteria must be met, such as its extension in time.

Anxiety disorders, encompassing all its types, is the most common mental disorder, although it is true that its prevalence seems to vary according to each country and culture. For example, a study on the prevalence of panic disorder (a type of anxiety) found rates that ranged from 0.4% in Taiwan to 2.9% in Italy.

In the general population, an estimated 29% of people have suffered or suffer from anxiety disorders. The most frequently diagnosed types are panic disorder, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder.

Types of anxiety disorders

According to the classification of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), anxiety disorders can be classified into:

Generalized anxiety disorder

This type of anxiety is characterized by persistent and excessive worries that become impossible to control. The theme is very varied, thus a person with generalized anxiety can worry about anything and suffer constant fears. Nor is it strange that the individual experiences anxiety symptoms without knowing exactly why.

This affects well-being and can even interfere with day-to-day tasks, as they have the constant feeling that something bad is going to happen at any moment. For example, a person with generalized anxiety may spend the whole day thinking that her partner is going to have a traffic accident while she is driving and will carry out the behavior of constantly calling her to see if she is okay.

This condition tends to be chronic and is more common in women, in people who have abused drugs in the past, or who have a family history of anxiety. These people suffer greatly with uncertainty.

In addition, the criterion must be met that it must occur on most days for a minimum period of 6 months.

You can read more about this disorder and its treatment here.

Selective mutism

Selective mutism is a new addition to DSM-V, and is the inability to initiate a conversation or respond to others when it should be done. That is to say, those affected with selective mutism are not able to speak with others in certain social settings, but in others.

For example, if they are at home with their closest relatives, they have no problem holding conversations; but they are unable to do so in other settings (school, for example).

In summary, it could be said that these people have a phobia of others listening to them speak, except for some known people with whom they have a lot of trust.

Thus, they develop other ways of communicating: nodding, gestures, whispering in the ear, and even through writing. Many times they are maintained over time by reinforcement of other people, who understand their gestures or speak for them; causing those affected not to recover since they realize that they can communicate without having to speak.

This classification is exclusive for the child population, appearing in the first years of life; mainly when she begins to go to school and interact with other children.

These children tend to have a family history of anxiety, being more vulnerable to fear in new situations.

The criteria for its diagnosis is that the individual experiences symptoms for at least one month, although it does not apply if it is the first month of school. Read more here.

Separation anxiety

Separation anxiety, curiously, can occur throughout life (previously it was only diagnosed in children). Although it is very rare in the adult stage.

It is defined as a strong and persistent fear or anxiety that appears when having to physically separate from someone with whom there is a close relationship. It stands out from other normal situations because the anxiety that is experienced is extreme or excessive, and it interferes with the proper functioning of the person.

It is characterized by at least three clinical manifestations that are: subjective psychological discomfort or concern, refusal to stay alone at home or go alone to other environments such as school or work, and physical symptoms when the separation occurs or is imagined.

In adults, the diagnostic criteria must remain for a minimum of 6 months, while in children and adolescents, 1 month. If you want to know more about this type of anxiety, enter here.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is an intense fear or anxiety that occurs in two or more typical situations considered agoraphobic, such as: queuing, being immersed in a crowd of people, open places, closed places such as an elevator, using public transport, going out alone away from home, etc.

These people actively avoid these situations, demand to be accompanied or live them with strong anxiety.

In reality, what these individuals fear is that, in such situations, they may experience panic symptoms and that they will not be able to flee, lose control, create a “shameful” scene or that they are alone and no one helps them. In fact, it often occurs in conjunction with panic attacks (panic attacks).

To make the diagnosis the criteria must be met for 6 months or more. In this article you can read more about agoraphobia and its treatment.

Panic disorder

It is conceptualized as the presence of recurring and unexpected panic attacks (known as panic attacks). At least one of them is followed by persistent concern about new crises and their consequences, lasting at least one month.

Panic attacks consist of the sudden appearance (whether the person is calm or nervous) of intense fear or discomfort that reaches its maximum expression in a matter of minutes.

During this period of time symptoms such as: sweating, tremors, palpitations, rapid heart rate, feeling of suffocation or fainting, dizziness, chills or suffocating heat, paresthesia, fear of going crazy, fear of dying (it is common for even think they are going to die of a heart attack, which makes them even more nervous.)

These crises can be unexpected or expected. As time goes by, they become more frequent, because the trigger for seizures is usually fear of the anxiety symptoms themselves (generating more nervousness when they think the symptoms are going to appear); acting like a vicious cycle.

Finally, they end up developing a series of behaviors that have the objective of avoiding these panic attacks in the future, such as avoiding going to certain places where an attack occurred in the past, doing physical exercise or going to new places.

In addition, safety behaviors are common. They represent an attempt to avoid or alleviate anxiety in some way that in the long term ends up maintaining or increasing it. Some examples are: carrying anxiolytics, tranquilizers or alcohol; sit near the door in case you have to flee, demand to always be accompanied, etc.

Social anxiety disorder

Better known as social phobia, it is defined by an excessive and persistent fear of one or more social situations in which the person is exposed to the possible evaluation of others, or has to deal with strangers.

The greatest fear of these people is acting in some humiliating or shameful way in front of others, or that they realize that you are anxious. This means that social situations of almost all kinds are avoided or are accompanied by obvious symptoms of anxiety that they try to hide.

In the end, it causes the individual with this condition to have problems in their daily life: poor social life, difficulties at work or school, or discomfort due to the phobia itself.

It has to take 6 months or more to be diagnosed. It is one of the most common types of anxiety, being present in approximately 2-3% of the general population. Visit our All About Social Phobia article if you are interested in the topic.

Specific phobia

The phobia consists of an exaggerated or unreal fear of a certain object, situation or activity. You have an overreaction to something that does not really carry danger or that the probability of being in danger is remarkably low.

Phobias can cover a large number of situations and objects, although the most common are: fear of animals and insects (such as snakes), fear of flying or fear of heights.

The subtypes of phobias are: animal, natural environment, blood / wounds / injections, situational, or others. And they must be present for at least 6 months.

In the most serious cases, the person can spend a lot of time worrying about the phobia and get to have problems in their day to day to avoid it. But, it is important to note that those who want to overcome a phobia should expose themselves to it and not avoid it, because by avoiding it, they become stronger. Here you can see How to Overcome a Phobia in 10 Steps.

On the other hand, these are some of the rarest phobias that exist: anatideaphobia, pogonophobia or aletophobia.

Substance / Medication-Induced Anxiety Disorder

In this case, there is evidence that the anxiety symptoms or panic attack has appeared shortly after or during an intoxication or withdrawal period from a substance. Or, for having taken a drug capable of producing these responses.

Anxiety disorder due to medical conditions

The anxiety or panic attack is due to direct physiological aspects of other medical conditions.

Other specified / unspecified anxiety disorders

Included here are anxiety disorders that have clinically significant symptoms but do not meet all of the diagnostic criteria for any of the disorders listed above.

You can specify the reason why the criteria are not met (that the condition does not last the set time, for example) or these criteria may not be specified for lack of information.

On the other hand, the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases), in addition to the conditions we have talked about, add:

Mixed anxiety-depressive disorder

Mixed anxiety-depressive disorder occurs when there are both symptoms that correspond to anxiety and depression, but neither of the two disorders predominates over the other nor are they of sufficient intensity to be diagnosed separately. It is a very common condition and is linked to absence from work or academics, although being somewhat milder than other disorders, they are the ones who least ask for psychological help.

It should last for more than a month and should not be associated with very stressful and significant life events (otherwise, it would fall into the category of adjustment disorders). Learn more about this disorder here.

Other mixed anxiety disorders

These are conditions in which the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder are met but also present certain characteristics of other disorders (although the criteria for the latter are not strictly met).

For example: obsessive compulsive disorder, dissociative disorders (such as dissociative fugue), somatization disorders, undifferentiated somatoform disorder, and hypochondriac disorder.

In fact, in earlier versions of the DSM, obsessive compulsive disorder and hypochondria belonged to anxiety disorders. In the latest version, they were extracted from that category, although it cannot be doubted that anxiety plays an important role in these conditions.

Symptoms present in all types of anxiety

The symptoms of anxiety are practically the same in all types, but there are variants depending on how it appears or with respect to what situation the symptoms arise. In this way, each person can have a different presentation: some experience panic attacks in an unexpected and intense way, while others experience anxiety when they think they have to meet new people.

However, there are symptoms that usually occur in all types of anxiety:

- Feelings of worry, discomfort, fear or panic.

- Cold or sweaty hands or feet.

- Tingling or numbness of the extremities.

- Muscle tension.

- Feeling of choking or breathing difficulties.

- Nausea or gastrointestinal upset.

- Dizziness or vertigo.

- Dry mouth.

- Palpitations, tachycardias.

- Sleep problems or sleep disorders.

- Feeling that you lose control over your symptoms and that you cannot relax.

- Being continually tense or worried about things that normally do not cause that degree of concern in most people.

- Depersonalization and derealization. Find out more about it here.

However, thanks to the treatment, many affected manage to improve notably and lead a satisfactory life, having a good prognosis in the future.

References

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