Anxiety is the term used to address how one’s body reacts to stressful situations. It is a term often used in situations eliciting sudden fear for oneself. Though this is a natural phenomenon in cases of uncertainty or lack of confidence, anxiety disorders occur when the stressful situation triggers unmanageable or overwhelming reactions. They tend to be both physically and mentally taxing.
Anxiety disorders can only be diagnosed by mental health professionals and only after undertaking the appropriate psychometric measures.
Anxiety symptoms that are physically visible such as shallow or heavy breathing, sweating, nausea and trembling are the consequence of chemical turmoil occurring inside the person’s body.
There are three steps to understanding how anxiety affects an individual.
- Perception
- Reaction or Avoidance
- Neurological consequences and Memory
Perception
How an individual perceives their environment plays an important role in the chemical and neurological changes within them. Some people may find the first day of school/work a daunting and intimidating task. Whereas some may find it exciting or even challenging (in a positive way).
To make it simpler, imagine the brain as a computer and you are inputting data for processing. The input is how you comprehend the environment or task, feeding into your brain that the task you are about to do is difficult or easy, scary or exciting, impossible or challenging.
Perceived stress is another meddling factor in the processing of a stressful event. It isn’t about the actual stressor rather one’s perception of how much control they have over said stressor. Some may find themselves drawn into a spiral of ‘what ifs’ that tend to make the existing situation worse rather than manageable.
Reaction or Avoidance
An individual’s reaction is the next step in the processing of the stressful stimuli. Where some people may want to be prepared for the stressful environment, some may oblige their overwhelming need to escape the stressor.
Avoidance may provide relief but this relief is short-lived. Overtime, the individual builds barriers for themselves, often refraining from certain tasks and situations in fear of experiencing the anxiety-provoking stressor. And oftentimes than not, one may encounter a similar stressor in their future and their anxiety will return in full force, trying to escape said future stressor.
Panic disorders often stem from the compelling need to escape an anxiety-provoking situation. The symptoms are similar to that of anxiety, with rapid heartbeat, sweating and shivering but may also include panic attacks.
The long-term yet difficult plan of action would be to learn to cope through the stressor rather than avoid it.
- Identifying the stressor.
- Developing self-awareness – being mindful of the avoidance behavioral pattern one has become accustomed to.
- Slowly exposing oneself to low-level anxiety provoking situations.
- Learning to cope through the stressor.
This will also instill a sense of pride at having overcome a fear. Or in the worst case scenario, give one a chance to learn from their mistake. And this is definitely easier said than done.
Neurological Consequences
The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for one’s reactions during a stressful situation. It is activated when exposed to fear-inducing or stress-inducing situations. And the hormone produced by the amygdala is called cortisol.
Cortisol is the trigger needed for a fight or flight response, required to keep your senses alert during stressful situations.
Another role the amygdala plays is that of encoding emotionally triggering events into long-term memory. The reason for this is so that the brain is prepared for response when a similar event occurs in the future. The amygdala acts a lot like a doting mother hen, always worried about protecting its child.
This encoding of the event into long-term memory makes it extremely difficult to unlearn fears and phobias. Oftentimes, people require Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to combat anxiety disorders.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
- Generalized Anxiety Disorders (GAD) – includes anxiety experienced in daily life activities for or over a period of six months.
- Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) – anxiety triggered due to social settings or crowds.
- Phobias – fear induced by specific things or activities such as height, spiders, places.
- Panic disorder – includes provoked and unprovoked panic attacks.
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – anxiety provoked by obsessions or compulsions to do a task a certain way.
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