Anxiety

. Although this is a blog about Schizoaffective Disorder today I would like to discuss anxiety. Yesterday I touched upon me having anxious thoughts a bit but today I would like to discuss my sister and the form of anxiety that she has. 

Before I was born my family suffered a devastating house fire. No one was injured or killed but they lost everything that they had. My sister was very little when this happened and the memories have stayed with her. Every time there is fire close by she goes into a panic mode, last year the house next to hers caught fire and she truly had panic like attacks related to the fear that the fire was going to jump to her house regardless of the fact that it was small fire that the fire department easily brought under control and the fact that the fire would have to jump over a two lane road to get to her house.

This year there was a structural fire directly next door to my house. Again she went into panic mode.

She was worried that we might not have batteries in our smoke detectors (we do indeed have batteries in them) She was worried that we were going to get hurt, yet we were all safely out of our house and standing at a safe distance from the fire. Her worry was enough that she was shaking and nearly in a full blown panic mode. She was even hyperventilating at one point that was how worked up she was. There was never a reason for her to display such feelings as we were safely out of home and the fire was quickly brought under control.

My sister suffers from some symptoms of an anxiety disorder, I am not sure if it raises to the level of PTSD symptom wise. The traumatic event for her was the house fire when she was little. While not rare house fires are fairly uncommon when you take into account the odds of a neighboring structure catching fire. So for her the triggers are few and she likely didn't know that she even suffered from an anxiety disorder until the house fire next to her own house. I've never discussed this with her so I am not sure if she has feelings of panic when ever there is mention of a fire on the news.

Symptoms of an anxiety disorder are as follows: feelings of worry, anxiety, or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one's daily activities. Like I said as to if my sister fits the criteria of either an anxiety disorder or PTSD I am unsure. I do think that she should seek treatment as it might help her work through these types of feelings and emotions and make her less anxious should there be another fire event.

People who suffer from either anxiety disorders or PTSD can get treatment. The usual course of treatment involves therapy or counseling to help the person work through the trauma. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is the standard for treatment of both.

With CBT a person works with a therapist to change how they feel and/or think in regards to negative emotions. So if you or someone you know suffers from either an anxiety disorder or PTSD please seek help. With the variety of therapies available there is no reason that a person has to suffer these awful disorders