Anxiety disorders can have different causes and symptoms. However, some symptoms, like fear and worry, are present in all these disorders.

Common Anxiety Disorders

People with GAD worry too much and too often about many things. They may be anxious about their health, members of their family, their jobs, and money when there is no real reason. They may know they don’t need to worry, but they cannot stop over-thinking.

Symptoms of GAD include:

• Too much anxiety or difficulty relaxing
• Trouble concentrating or being easily startled
• Difficulty falling and staying asleep
• Irritability, tension, or restlessness
• Shortness of breath or rapid heart rate
• Sweating or dry mouth
• Headaches, dizziness, or nausea
• Frequent bowel movements or urination
• Depression

People with panic disorder have repeated and unexpected panic attacks. When they happen, people have overwhelming anxiety. During panic attacks, people may feel like they are about to lose their mind or self control, have a heart attack, or die.

Often, attacks happen in response to certain “triggers.” For example, some triggers are being caught in a crowd, or being trapped in a public place. Panic attacks last up to half an hour.  Symptoms may include:

• Rapid, pounding heartbeat
• Shortness of breath, or chest pain
• Dizziness, faintness, or weakness
• Trembling
• Tingling or numb hands
• Sweating
• Nausea or stomach pain

People with a panic disorder worry a lot about when the next attack may happen or change their behavior to avoid one.

Panic disorder usually begins between the ages of 15 and 40. Less than 1 percent of older adults start a panic disorder after age 65.

A phobia is an extreme fear of something that usually poses little or no danger. When people are around the thing they fear, they can have overwhelming anxiety. Even thinking about being around the thing they fear can trigger extreme anxiety or attempts to avoid it.

People with phobias may know that their fears are not rational but can’t deal with them. A person can feel out of control and hopeless.

Common Phobias. A common phobia is agoraphobia, which is an extreme fear of two or more of the following places:

• Public transport
• Open, closed, or crowded places
• Being outside alone

People with agoraphobia try to avoid public places. So, they may not leave home and can become isolated. In older adults, agoraphobia may be related to a fear of falling or crime.

Specific Phobias. People may have specific phobias, which can include extreme fear of a specific person, animal, place, thing, event, or situation.

• Common specific phobias include fears of certain animals, tight spaces, flying, or heights.
• Specific phobias often involve a lot of anxiety related to experiencing the source of fear and trying to avoid it. These behaviors can make work and daily routines difficult and decrease pleasure in life.

Some phobias are more common at different ages. For example, fears of crime or falling are more common in later life. It is important to find out whether these fears have a realistic source. For example, older people may live in a high crime area.  

People with this disorder fear that they will behave in an awkward or embarrassing way in a public place. Often people fear trembling, blushing, or sweating when in social situations. Like with other phobias, social anxiety disorder involves much worry and avoidance of some settings.

Common symptoms of social anxiety disorder in older adults include:

• Inability to eat food in the presence of strangers
• Embarrassment about physical decline
• Inability to urinate in public rest rooms

Social anxiety disorder can occur with medical conditions, depressive symptoms, and alcohol or drug misuse.

People with OCD have repetitive thoughts that cause anxiety. These thoughts are called “obsessions.” To ease their anxiety, people with OCD repeat behaviors over and over, called “compulsions.”

People with this type of anxiety disorder can’t control their thoughts or stop their compulsive behavior. Their thoughts and rituals can cause much distress and make living life difficult.

Two common compulsions are:

• Repeated handwashing, where a person with OCD may spend hours washing their hands after shaking hands with a stranger because they worry about disease.
• Checking doors and windows over and over again to make sure that they are locked.

Depression or dementia in older adults can result in development of OCD. For example, a person who has difficulty paying bills on time may become obsessive about checking when bill payments are due.

Hoarding disorder means a person has extreme difficulty with getting rid of their things. This happens even if those things have little value.

Hoarding is often compulsive and causes clutter in a person’s home. They may have difficulty using some rooms. In older adults, extreme self-neglect may be a part of hoarding.

About 5 percent of older adults have a hoarding disorder. This disorder is about three times more likely in older adults than in younger people.

People may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when they have reacted to seeing or experiencing a traumatic event with fear and helplessness.

Traumatic events are those that have or nearly have caused serious injury or death. Events include threats, wars, car crashes, natural disasters, long-term abuse, or violent crimes. Some people develop PTSD after a family member or friend is the victim of a traumatic event or dies suddenly and unexpectedly.

During a traumatic event, it is normal to be extremely frightened, anxious, and vigilant. For people with PTSD, these symptoms continue long after the event. Also, a person can seem fine for a few weeks or months after the event. Later they may begin to experience PTSD.

In older adults, PTSD can be delayed for years. For example, a Holocaust survivor may experience PTSD for the first time late in life. Or the new onset of PTSD in later life may be related to the loss of family and friends as a person ages.

The following symptoms of PTSD can cause people to have difficulty managing daily activities and enjoying life. Symptoms include:

• Having flashbacks related to the traumatic event or not being able to remember it
• Nightmares and scary thoughts about the event
• Needing to avoid places and situations that remind the person of the event
• Feeling emotionally numb
• Feeling guilty if others died or were more badly hurt in the event
• Irritability, anxiety, or tension
• Loss of interest in activities that were enjoyable in the past
• Being easily startled

Older adults with anxiety disorders often have other health problems. These include:

• Coronary artery disease
• Diabetes
• Thyroid problems
• Neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, dementia, or delirium 
• Depression
• Side effects of some medications

Last Updated February 2023