Definition Essay: Understanding Anxiety

Understanding Anxiety

“Anxiety sets in motion a series of physiological changes, All designed to focus on dealing with the sudden threat to our existence.” Every person may experience occasional anxiety, whether it be nervous about the paper due next Friday, or waking up with the constant feeling something bad is going to happen today. Some people suffer more than others with this illness, so being able to understand how it affects a loved one may aid in the treatment outcome and possible how the person reacts the next time they have a panic attack or bad spell.

What is anxiety? Anxiety goes back many centuries there are many theories on anxiety for example “Benedict Morel (1809-73) argued that the symptoms of anxiety were triggered by disease of the nervous system. Maurice Krishaber (1836-83) argued anxiety was caused by cardiovascular irregularities.” Anxiety is, in fact, an emotion. Just like being happy or sad, anxiety brought about fear and worry. Emotions are the body’s natural instinct. As a doctor and writer Lewis Thomas put it ‘ We are perhaps, uniquely amount the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry our lives

away.’

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) ‘Worry is the cardinal characterstic of generalzed anxiety disorder, which the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagonostic and Satistical Manual defines as Excessive, unrealistic and uncontrolled worry and High levels of distress and/ or major disruptions to the affected persons day-to-day life.’ GAD has some of the same symptoms of other anxiety disorders, including some amount of worry, trouble sleeping, troubles concentrating and fatigue to name a few.

But what sets GAD apart from the rest is the never-ending fear something will go wrong. Constant unwanted thoughts you can’t seem to shut off and repeatedly going thoughts, lack of sleep which leads to irritability. ‘Worrying to the point of uncountable is the main characteristic, which can be a highly debilitating illness.’ This illness

can

be very serious it can cause encumber a person to there own thoughts. ‘About 3 % of people suffer from GAD, and woman are twice as likely to be affected as men.’

There’s no rhyme or reason why anyone experiences anxiety. But to experience GAD and the feeling of dysphoria is a terrible feeling that consumes your whole body. Imagine your doing something fun with your family or friends. Out of nowhere your stomach starts to churn you have a questionable amount of guilt in the pit of your stomach, your mind starts racing and your notice your heartbeat rising. Your body then tells your brain you need more oxygen. Your breathing increases. In the back of your mind, you know the feeling all too well. What comes next? Your hyperventilating to the point it affects your limbs arms and legs draw up. Before you know it you are waking up in the floor. You just experienced an anxiety attack.

Treatment for anxiety can be different for each case and each person. Treatment can take a tremendous amount of time and patience and can be very tedious, to find the right doctor to help. In some case’s a person will need a referral to a Psychiatrist. Psychiatrist are trained medical doctors, that can take you through the process of seeking to counsel and prescribing medication. In some cases, a psychologist is also included in the referral process. Psychologist focus on psychotherapy and behavioral intervention.