Anxiety is considered a disorder if it starts to cause significant distress and/or keeps a person from doing one part of their life like school, work, relationships, responsibilities, or activities they previously found enjoyable. The six major types of anxiety disorders can be listed as:

1.Phobias

Included intense fear of specific animals, objects or situations. An individual with a phobia will go out of their way to avoid a feared object or situation, or if they try to face it, they experience severe distress.

2.Generalized Anxiety

An individual starts to worry about a range of different topics like school, work performance, finances, world events, natural disasters, relationships, and other things. These worries tend to be hard to control and continuously pop up, making it hard for them to focus on their activities.

3.Panic Disorder

When an individual experiences panic attacks that start to interfere with their life in some way. Panic attacks can include multiple symptoms like your heart racing, rapid breathing, chest pain, dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain or blurred vision, sweating, shaking, feelings of doom, feeling like the world is not real, experiencing a moment as though you are outside of yourself. Panic attacks can be triggered by something specific or come out of the blue.

4.Social Anxiety Disorder

Persistent fear of being judged by others. An individual can become intensely afraid of saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing which can make others judge, criticize or evaluate them. This individual may start avoiding interactions with others but still only feel comfortable with close family and friends.

5.Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

While these used to be considered anxiety disorders, they are now classified under their own specific category due to each individual's unique cases, unique brain structures, and unique treatments involved to help.

6.Separation Anxiety Disorder

An individual is persistently and excessively worried about being separated from or even losing their caregiver or attachment figure. This is extremely normal in a child's early development; however, it can become excessive and impair their development. This starts when thoughts about what will happen to their caregiver when the two become separated. The individual becomes worried about what then would happen to themselves if they become separated.