13 questions and answers about anxiety (FAQ)

Anxiety is an emotional and adaptive reaction that we have all felt in our life. For example, in the moments before an exam, after a labor dispute or when making an important decision that can affect our lives considerably.

Now, some people experience different anxiety disorders that cause great discomfort.

• Related article: "Fighting anxiety: 5 keys to reducing tension"

Questions and Answers About Anxiety

At times, many people may have wrong beliefs about this adaptive reaction and the various anxiety disorders that exist.

Therefore, in the following lines We present a series of questions and answers that seek to clarify some doubts that may arise around this phenomenon.

1. What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a natural defense mechanism that appears in response to a threat. It is a system that generates essential adaptive reactions for humans. Depending on the character and content of the thoughts that the threat awakens, anxiety activates more or less protection systems and manifests itself in a more or less forceful way.

The response generated by anxiety does not depend so much on the type of threat as on the perception we have about it. For this reason, this system is functional when the protection mechanisms it activates are proportional to the danger.

2. What types of anxiety disorders are there?

Although the symptoms of anxiety disorders are similar many times, according to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) there are different anxiety disorders. Among them it is possible to highlight: Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD), Specific Phobic Disorders, Agoraphobia, Social phobia, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Panic attacks, Generalized anxiety disorder.

• You can delve into these disorders in our article: "The 7 types of anxiety (causes and symptoms)"

3. What are phobias?

Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder that generally have their origin in a traumatic experience, since a person associates a phobic stimulus with a negative response. People with phobia feel a great fear of an object, situation and, in other words, a phobic stimulus. This discomfort or anxiety causes the phobic person to tend to avoid this stimulus that causes a fear or anxiety reaction.

4. What is a panic attack?

The panic attack (or anxiety crisis) is precisely the result of the proliferation of thoughts that warn of a danger and that generate fear accompanied, usually, by a feeling of high risk or imminent catastrophe. It starts suddenly and often peaks in less than 20 minutes.

The thoughts that lead these types of episodes share a fatalistic character ("the worst that can happen is ...", "everything is a problem", "Nothing seems a good option", etc.). All of them usually appear automatically. The person is not very aware of its origin or the level of forcefulness and intrusiveness.

The result is a cocktail of emotions that further alerts the individual and, as a consequence, triggers the symptoms related to the overactivation of the organism. Respiratory rate and heart rate are the main protagonists.

5. What role does breathing play in a panic attack?

We obtain energy through respiration (the nutrients that we acquire through food require oxygen to be transformed into energy).

When we perceive a threat, we accelerate breathing and, at the moment of inspiration, we use extra muscle to calm our cravings for "air". All this entails a higher energy cost.

If the feeling of threat does not diminish and the thoughts increase, the respiratory rate increases and is maintained. The result is a breath that is above the needs of our body, an excessive breath that requires a lot of energy. It is what we know as hyperventilation.

6. Why is it so difficult to take in air when we hyperventilate?

When we hyperventilate, we load our lungs with O2 and create an imbalance: O2 levels increase but CO2 levels decrease. In order to rebalance the gases, the body makes it difficult for the individual to take O2. For this reason, in an anxiety crisis the person feels that they are short of breath and find it difficult to breathe.

7. And when we do sports, don't we also speed up our breathing?

Yes. The difference is that, when we do sports, the body needs more energy and we increase the respiratory rate in order to obtain more O2. This oxygen, when used, produces a high amount of CO2. So that, there is no imbalance between the two gases. For this reason, when we play sports, we do not have the same symptoms as when we hyperventilate due to anxiety.

8. Why do some people with a panic attack feel like they can die?

The acceleration of the respiratory rate and, consequently, of the entire metabolism, leads the individual towards a limit physical state. The mismatch between gases (specifically, the decrease in the level of CO2 in the blood) produces another phenomenon: the alteration of the pH.

This alteration in pH is responsible for a whole set of sensations that arouse terror: suffocation, acceleration of the heart rate, dizziness, tremors, muscle spasms in the legs, trunk, arms and even facial muscles, sweating, heat, etc.

The ignorance about what a panic attack is, added to such visible physical symptoms, lead the person to think that you are dealing with a vascular condition (heart attack for example) and not with a problem of origin psychological.

9. What guidelines can help us control a panic attack?

The first essential point is to slow down your breathing. To do this, it is important to try to take air through the nose (to restrict the entry of O2) and expel it through the mouth. As the respiratory rate decreases, the inspirations and expirations are longer (the person begins to feel that they can fill the lungs). Likewise, stop, stop talking and find a "comfortable" space to rest, are three essential elements.

In parallel, the breathing visualization techniques work as a distraction method. Color the path that the gases make by differentiating the O2 input (for example, with the color blue) and the output of CO2 (for example, with the color red) is a way to focus even more attention on breathing and avoid the appearance of alerts.

10. What type of work is done from Psychotherapy?

First of all, we carry out a psychoeducational task that reveals the mechanism of anxiety and panic attack. Understanding the "whys" is the first point to control its appearance.

As we explained, the anxiety crisis is preceded by a whole series of more or less automatic and more or less unconscious negative thoughts. From Psychotherapy we carry out work to learn to detect these thoughts, locate them (in what situations), as well as know their essence and content (what is their meaning).

Automatic thought identification is what provides the basic knowledge to re-empower the individual. At the same time, the construction of new lines of thought that contemplate untried solutions and facilitate conflict resolution, will be the training that broadens the range of resources and increases their ability to management.

11. What types of psychotherapy are useful for treating anxiety?

One of the most used therapies for the treatment of anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been shown to be very effective in many investigations. It works especially well for the treatment of phobic disorders such as claustrophobia. In addition, in recent times, third-generation therapies such as Mindfulness wave Acceptance and commitment therapy they have proven to be very effective.

12. Is it good to take drugs to treat anxiety?

Some drugs are indicated for the treatment of anxiety in severe cases; However, should not be taken as the only therapeutic optionbut in combination with psychotherapy. In addition, anxiolytics or antidepressants they should never be taken without the supervision of a specialist.

13. How do I stop taking anxiety medication?

Many people can stop taking anxiety medications or antidepressants without noticing withdrawal symptoms, especially if they do so under the supervision of a healthcare professional. Other people, on the other hand, may experience some uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms. If you feel any symptoms that interfere with your ability to perform daily activities, you should talk to your doctor, psychiatrist or psychologist and explain your case.