The keys to understanding Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is a normal and adaptive reaction that is experienced in situations in which the individual feels threatened or in danger (real or imaginary). It can be understood as a defense mechanism that alerts the person that there is an imminent danger, and prepares the individual physically and psychologically to face or flee from the threat. Thus, a certain degree of anxiety is even desirable for the normal handling of the demands of day-to-day. Only when the intensity is excessive and disproportionate to the threat does it become pathological.

In Anxiety Disorders there is usually no real triggering stimulusRather, it is the individual's own mind that unconsciously evokes a thought or image that is threatening, causing the symptomatic picture of anxiety to start up.

In addition, it is common to find testimonials from patients who state that these thoughts normally occur after a stressful event, just when the person was relaxed. Why is this happening?

• Related article: "How to deal with anxiety and panic attacks"

What thoughts are related to Anxiety Disorders?

When the person is immersed in a situation that requires their full attention, most fears remain in the background, since the person hardly has time to consider anything. It is a question of priorities. However, when the stressful situation has passed and the person remains calm, it is normal for thoughts that have been temporarily avoided reappear abruptly and unexpectedly.

For Rodolfo De Porras De Abreu, psychologist and manager of Psicólogos Málaga PsicoAbreu, anxiety is related to the feeling of “not taking control of your life”. Often people with anxiety feel that they do not have control over their emotions, their body, their relationships, their work, their life. Taking the reins is not about controlling everything, but about deciding what we want and what we don't. It is common to find in anxiety therapies patients who have dedicated their lives to making those around them happy, but have forgotten themselves. Hence the importance of thinking about yourself and decide what kind of life you want to live.

Related to this, the cabinet psychologist Maribel Del Río affirms that anxiety can also be translated as an “excess of the future”. People with anxiety habitually ask what if…? They want to have everything under controlThey think that in this way they will have no reason to worry, since they will have a solution already chosen for each 'possible' problem.

However... When does everything go according to plan? Never. In addition, the psychological cost of constantly considering possible problems for which to be preparations makes it so that we can never enjoy the present and feel that our mind is faster than our body.

What differentiates normal anxiety from pathological?

The characteristics of normal anxiety are as follows.

• The intensity and duration of the episode and its symptoms is proportional to the stimulus that caused it..
• The individual's attention is focused on possible solutions to deal with the danger.
• Increased efficiency, performance and learning.

Next we will see an example:

In a robbery, the victim can feel how her mind races to decide the best way to ask for help, how to do it, if he should attack the attacker or simply run away. While on a psychological level the mind is calculating the different solutions, At a physical and behavioral level, the person prepares to face the problem. Curiously, in these cases, the physical symptoms, despite being the same as in Anxiety Disorders, do not worry the person, since they are related to and proportional to the external event.

On the other hand, the characteristics of pathological anxiety are as follows.

• There may not be a conscious stimulus or thought that triggers it.
• The intensity and duration of the episode and its symptoms is disproportionate to the actual danger.
• The person's attention is focused on the physical symptoms by not understanding the reason.
• The person habitually crashes and their performance worsens.

An example of pathological anxiety can be the following:

In a public talk some people feel dizzy, tachycardia, tremors, shortness of breath, tingling, feeling faint or having thoughts like getting stuck in the middle of speech. In this particular case, there is no real danger, the intensity of the symptoms is excessive and the person can become blocked by their own fear, increasing their feeling of helplessness and strengthening the pathological circle. In these cases, the physical symptoms usually worry the person who suffers from them, since he feels that they are not proportional to the threat.

symptoms of anxiety

Anxiety causes symptoms on a physical, psychological and behavioral level. The psychologists from the PsicoAbreu team affirm that physical symptoms are the ones that cause the most concern and psychological consultations. Among the most common are choking sensation, tightness in the chest or a knot in the stomach, rapid heartbeat, dizziness or feeling faint, vomiting, loss or excess of appetite, cold sweats, tingling and numbness in some parts of the body, sleep problems, etc.

Among the most frequent psychological symptoms are the fear of losing control, fear of having a heart attack or dying from symptoms, depersonalization, derealization, difficulties in attention, concentration and memory, thoughts catastrophists.

Finally, in behavioral symptoms, people tend to avoid crowded places, go out alone, avoid certain situations, perform checks to feel that everything is in order, etc.

• Related article: "What is anxiety: how to recognize it and what to do"

Types of Anxiety Disorders

The different forms that an Anxiety Disorder can take are as follows.

1. panic disorder

It is a psychological disorder in which a person has episodes of intense fear that are accompanied by symptoms such as chest pain, choking sensation, tachycardia, dizziness, gastrointestinal problems, etc They occur suddenly, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours. As a consequence of all this the person ends up developing a 'fear of fear', that is, fear of feeling the anguish generated during one of these crises again, which paradoxically can trigger a new panic attack.

2. Agoraphobia

It has usually been related to the fear of being in open spaces. However, what the person really fears is having a panic attack and finding it difficult or embarrassing to escape. People who suffer from it tend to avoid places like shopping malls, public transportation, and in serious cases, the person may even be afraid to leave the house alone.

3. Generalized Anxiety (GAD)

People with this disorder feel excessively worried about everything around them, whether they are important issues or not. They always put themselves at their worst and constantly suffer. Although they are able to recognize that they worry too much, they cannot control it.

4. specific phobias

The person feels an irrational and excessive fear of a stimulus, place or situation, which is why they end up avoiding them. The most common phobias are animals, darkness, blood, storms, heights, closed spaces, etc.

• You may be interested in: "Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders"

5. Social phobia

The person feels a intense and persistent fear of being judged negatively for other people or do things that make you feel ashamed. Social phobia is often confused with shyness. However, in the shy person he is able to interact and participate in social acts, while who suffers from social phobia has a fear so intense that it prevents them from participating in any way in public.

6. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

This disorder is characterized by the performance of rituals or strange behaviors with the aim of calming the anxiety arising from a premonitory thought. Obsessions refer to intrusive thoughts, ideas or images that cause worry and anxiety and that recur in the mind over and over again. Compulsions are actions taken to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessions.

7. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

In TEP, the person experiences anxiety symptoms as a result of psychological trauma such as the death of a family member, accident, robbery, etc.

The treatment

The team of psychologists from the cabinets of Psychology Psychologists Malaga PsicoAbreu is specialized in the effective psychological treatment of Anxiety Disorders. This therapy aims, on the one hand, to alleviate anxiety symptoms and, on the other, to provide tools for the management and modification of emotional, thought and behavioral factors that maintain high levels of anxiety and its consequences.