Anxiety: It’s Not How It Looks
Seriously, it’s time to get the image of a quiet, fearful person biting their nails in the corner out of your mind
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes such as increased blood pressure.
People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns, and may experience physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat.
Those who have never experienced generalized or social anxiety might picture someone biting their nails, avoiding social situations, or being very quiet and withdrawn.
The thing is, just like anything, no two people experience their anxiety in the exact same way.
The DSM-V lists the following symptoms for a diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD):
Restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge.
Being easily fatigued.
Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank (distractibility).
Irritability.
Muscle tension.
Difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless unsatisfying sleep.
Anxiety, Autism, and ADHD
Anxiety is highly co-occurring in Autistics and people with ADHD. Due to overlapping symptoms and high rates of people who are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, it’s difficult to accurately identify prevalence rates.
One study estimated approximately 22% of autistic people meet the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder, compared to 3–5% of the general population. Another estimated a lifetime prevalence of between 27% and 42% for autistic adults for anxiety disorders.
The estimated prevalence rate of anxiety disorders in people with ADHD is 37%. I’ve written previously about anxiety and other disorders which frequently co-occur with ADHD.
This article will focus specifically on the various ways in which anxiety can manifest, particularly in children’s behaviour and in neurodivergent people.
But wait — there’s more!
This is a good start, although anxiety can come out in a lot of different ways, especially in children and neurodivergent people.
(This is not because neurodivergent people are child-like, far from it, it is because both demographics have brains that diverge from the statistical norm.)
Because of this, anxiety may look different from the expected neurotypical presentation — but for different reasons. I’ll outline here the various unexpected or misunderstood ways that anxiety can present itself.
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