Anxiety neurosis: what is it and what symptoms is it linked to?

Throughout the last two centuries, psychology and, especially, its clinical application, has been modifying several of its postulates and concepts used to establish topics of study and analysis scientist.

Among them are diagnostic systems, which have not only been adding and removing disorders psychological but, in addition, the already existing ones have been renamed in terms that one might think are another stuff.

One of these disorders is anxiety neurosis, a term which today would be rare to find in a patient's anamnesis. Despite being outdated, its definition and coinage are very interesting, and they tell us about the development of behavioral science (psychology) and psychiatry. If you want to know more about this, keep reading.

• Related article: "Neurosis (neuroticism): causes, symptoms and characteristics"

What is anxiety neurosis?

The term anxiety neurosis is an expression, nowadays in disuse, originally coined by Sigmund Freud. With this term, the famous Austrian psychoanalyst referred to when a person suffered from periods of deep anxiety and high body tension. When a person was diagnosed under this label, it meant that he suffered from a state of elevated excitability and, also, she felt very worried about his future, especially seeing him very dire (wait for it). distressing).

Although today no psychologist would give someone the diagnosis of anxiety neurosis, it is worth noting that it has been of vital importance when it comes to understanding anxiety disorders and the classifications that have been made they. The current equivalent of this type of neurosis would be a panic attack..

Neurosis in the history of Psychology

As we were already saying, before the current elaboration of the classification for disorders of the anxiety, the term neurosis was used with a very similar definition to the current one of this type of anxiety. disorders.

Freud dedicated part of his work to elaborate a detailed description of disorders that shared the label of neurosis, such as phobic neurosis, obsessive-compulsive neurosis, depressive neurosis... and, being the main topic of this article, anxiety neurosis. Today, all these neuroses have been renamed under different categories, especially within anxiety disorders.

However, the first person to use the term 'neurosis' was not the most famous psychoanalyst of all time, but a Scottish physician and chemist, William Cullen, who first used the term in 1769. He used this word in reference to sensory and motor disorders that were caused by diseases of the nervous system.

In this way, the word neurosis made reference, in those times, to any mental disorder that implied some type of distortion in the rational thought of those who suffered from it, in addition to diminishing their functioning at the family, social and labor.

Nowadays the word neurosis has been practically forgotten in the academic field. No clinical psychologist, no matter how psychoanalyst they were, would use this term when diagnosing someone.

However, this is not to say that the word has been totally forgotten in popular culture. Its colloquial use is synonymous with obsession, nervousness and eccentricity, although it cannot be taken seriously as a relevant term in a clinical sense.

• You may be interested in: "History of Psychology: authors and main theories"

What are your symptoms?

As we have seen, anxiety neurosis is no longer a current diagnostic label in clinical practice and, therefore, saying that has some symptoms would not be entirely correct, since really, as it was conceived at the time, this pathology does not would exist. However, it can somewhat overlap with the concept we have today of what panic disorder is.

Thus, anxiety neurosis can be understood as a pathological problem in which the person presents episodes in which they feel great fear and anxiety, appearing suddenly and without any prior warning. The crisis begins suddenly, without there having been a clear factor that explains why the episode is beginning to occur.

These episodes typical of this type of neurosis coincide with panic attacks, which have a variable duration, from about 10 to 20 minutes to hours. Their frequency of appearance also varies, being possible to manifest them every long time or, in the most worrying cases, several times a month.

The anxiety suffered by the person is very high, their heart racing and, usually, feeling chest pain, which often makes them think they are having a heart attack.

Next we will see a list of symptoms that, although they are taken from the DSM-5 for panic disorder; most of its symptoms coincide with the original conception of anxiety neurosis.

• Inordinate fear of losing control, going crazy, or dying.
• Tremors throughout the body.
• Sweating and chills.
• Fast heartbeat and feeling like you are having a heart attack.
• Sensation of intense pain in the chest with no apparent biological cause.
• Feeling of lack of air with no apparent biological cause.
• Sensation of suffocation with no apparent biological cause.
• Nausea, hyperacidity, acid reflux, and the urge to vomit.
• Cramps.
• Mateos and feeling of loss of balance.
• Numbness of extremities.
• Dryness in the mouth and throat.
• Sleep disturbances.
• Decreased sexual desire.

During the crisis, not all the symptoms shown here manifest, but a significant number of them do. The discomfort that the person suffers while having the panic attack is very high, which can even increase anxiety itself, which is already high. This is one of the factors that can make the episode last longer.

As the attacks are not predictable, the person lives in fear of being able to experience them in situations in which, if something happens to them, their physical integrity could be in danger. People who would suffer from this anxiety neurosis would be on constant alert.

As has already been said, many of the symptoms suffered during the crisis have no apparent biological cause. On many occasions, those who suffer from panic disorders, despite the fact that their doctor has told them that they do not have any type of problem to explain their chest pain and shortness of breath, they still fear that they may die of a heart attack or suffocation.

Affectation in daily life

Although, since the term anxiety neurosis is outdated, it is not possible to find statistics and studies that talk about how it interferes in the daily life of patients who would suffer from this disorder, it is possible, as we have done in the section on symptoms, to extrapolate it with how people with panic disorder live their lives daily.

Panic attacks can present in a unique way, especially in high-stress situations. The person may be overwhelmed by the demands of day-to-day, especially if there has been an event that has put you in special stress.

However, the interference is very serious when panic attacks occur frequently and without warning. The person does not have the ability to know what is going to activate all the symptoms previously mentioned, making him afraid of doing daily actions that, perhaps, will lead him to the unpleasant situation.

The person constantly lives in a state of hypervigilance and tension. You are afraid that the future is going to be worse than how you are living in the present. She is also afraid that it will happen to her just when she is in a situation where they will hardly be able to help her, which causes her to develop agoraphobia as a side effect.

With agoraphobia, contrary to the popular idea that it is the fear of leaving the house, it really refers to the fear of finding yourself in a situation where you suffer some problem and no one can help us.

As a consequence of this, the person with panic disorders combined with agoraphobia begins to restrict his behavior, avoiding certain places or avoiding leaving his safe place, normally being at home always with someone's company.

• You may be interested in: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

Treatment

The treatment for anxiety neurosis would be the same for panic attacks. It would consist of helping the person who suffers these episodes of anxiety to develop and perform more functional in their daily life, to be able to enjoy a family, social and work life as close to normal possible. For it it is necessary to combine psychopharmacology with psychotherapy.

In the first place, the pharmacological route is usually used SSRI antidepressants, especially paroxetine, sertraline and fluoxetine, which selectively inhibit serotonin reuptake, raising the state of spirit. SNRI would also be prescribed, specifically venlafaxine.

Other drugs that are prescribed sedatives such as benzodiazepines, which depress the central nervous system and induce a state of calm. The most used for this condition are alprazolam and clonazepam., although its use would be limited in short-term treatment due to its high risk of addiction.

In second place is psychotherapy, which would focus on working on distortions in the mind of the person who make you think that you are going to suffer an imminent panic attack that will end your life of her It is also intended to make him see that there are not as many dangers as he thinks and that, if something happens to him, it is quite It is likely that someone will end up helping you if you were, for example, on the street or in a space public.

Strategies for stress management, relaxation, breathing control are taught, and ideas that can serve as anxiety triggers are also worked on. For it, Cognitive behavioral therapy is often used (TCC), in which the person is encouraged to express their feelings and ideas regarding their problem and how This has an impact on your daily life, to gradually introduce changes in your way of thinking, feeling and acting. behave.

Thus, under the umbrella concept of anxiety neurosis there is a complex reality that can be embodied in many different types of problems and that require a specific and personalized approach. That is why as applied psychology evolves, it tries to go beyond the old clinical categories and focus more in the symptoms linked to a certain context, to from there establish what type of psychotherapeutic intervention would work better.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
• C bottle and Ballester, R, (1997). Panic disorder: Assessment and treatment. Barcelona, ​​Spain: Martinez Roca.
• Calleo, J. & Stanley, M, (2008). Anxiety Disorders in Later Life: Differentiated Diagnosis and Treatment Strategies. Psychiatric Times. 26(8): p. 24 – 27.