Anxiety in Men
Feeling anxious is a normal part of the human experience.
Everyone knows what it’s like to be anxious: feeling tense, on edge, unable to focus or relax… Feeling anxious is a normal part of human experience. If we didn’t feel anxiety, we wouldn’t avoid dangers: predatory animals, aggressive people, poisonous foodstuffs. In a nutshell, anxiety keeps us safe.
Physical response happen because when we’re anxious, the brain sends danger signals to the biological system.
In addition to anxious thoughts, anxiety also manifests physically in the form of shaking, tense muscles, increased heart rate and heavy breathing. Alternatively, some people freeze when they’re anxious. These physical responses happen because when we’re anxious, the brain sends danger signals to a biological system, called the autonomic nervous system, which controls our “fight, flight or freeze” response to danger.
This burst of physical activity caused by our brain’s anxiety response can be really helpful in keeping us safe in dangerous situations, such as helping us run away from danger more quickly (flight) or automatically causing us to freeze the moment we notice someone threatening (before they have noticed us). Anxiety, as you can see, is an essential tool that we use to protect ourselves and our families.
The problem is when anxiety is activated in the absence of any real danger – that’s when anxiety becomes a mental health problem. These problems can take a real toll on people’s lives.
There are quite a few types of anxiety problems – and together they make up the most common mental health problems experienced worldwide. In fact, about 1 in 5 men will have a diagnosable anxiety disorder at some point in their life.
Understanding different types of anxiety problems in men
Doctors classify anxiety problems into different diagnosis groups. Some of the most common are:
Phobias
A phobia is an intense fear about a specific situation or object. Some common examples are intense fears of heights, animals, flying, or blood. The anxiety associated with phobias only occurs when you’re in the presence of the particular situation or object that frightens you. For example, in the case of a phobia of heights, while you’re up a ladder – once you get back down to the ground, the anxiety should taper off. While some phobias don’t necessarily impact very severely on people (it might not be too difficult, for example, to avoid heights), others can make life very difficult: a phobia of dogs, for example, can make it difficult to even go out for a walk.
Generalised anxiety
Generalised anxiety is characterised by what is called “free floating” anxiety. What that means is that the anxious thoughts aren’t tied to any particular thing (unlike in phobias) – the person seems to be able to worry about just about anything, from work to health to family to money. The focus of the worry can easily (and frequently) change and the worries are out of proportion to the likelihood of the outcome (such as losing a job or friends becoming seriously ill). It’s common, in addition to the worries that the person has, that they find it difficult to relax or to concentrate on anything other than their anxiety. They can often feel “on edge”, irritable and worn out.
Social anxiety
Social anxiety relates to an intense fear of being embarrassed in social situations – at a party, while out for dinner, while socialising with work colleagues. It’s common to experience some anxiety when entering social situations but, with social anxiety disorder, the person’s mind becomes totally pre-occupied by the idea of being negatively evaluated by others, thinking they’ll be judged to be odd, weak or unlikable. This often leads people to avoid social situations altogether, which means missing out on many important parts of life.
Health anxiety
Health anxiety involves being preoccupied with the idea of having a serious illness. People with health anxiety become alarmed by minor physical symptoms, for example, worrying that a simple headache is a brain tumour or that their stomach cramps are really bowel cancer. These worries often lead the person to overly focus on potential signs of illness and repeatedly seek out information on severe illnesses, which often causes them great distress.
Panic attacks
A panic attack is a sudden intense feeling of fear that occurs together with a number of physical symptoms, such as a pounding heart, sweating, shaking, feeling like you’re short of breath or are choking, dizzy or nauseous. People often say the feel like they’re “losing control” or “going crazy” during a panic attack or even fear they’re going to die. Phobias and social anxiety can trigger panic attacks but panic attacks can also occur out of the blue, without any obvious trigger.
What do I do if I or someone I care about has a problem with anxiety?
First, recognise that anxiety is not the enemy. As described above, anxiety is essential to keeping us safe –without it, humans wouldn’t have lasted very long! Comments like, “snap out of it” or “don’t worry” are not helpful for someone who’s struggling with anxiety – nobody wants to feel anxious and if they could just stop it, they would. People sometimes turn to alcohol, cannabis and other drugs to help manage their anxiety. These may provide temporary relief but they prevent us from developing healthy, long-term strategies to manage our anxious thoughts. On the other hand, there are lots of tried and tested strategies that we know can help people manage anxiety problems: check out the Cycle Against Suicide resources webpages for information on practical ways to help if you, or someone you care about, is dealing with an anxiety problem.
Prof Ian Kelleher
Consultant psychiatrist, chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh, and an Academy of Medical Sciences professor, researching ways to prevent mental illness.