EVERYONE, AT SOME POINT IN THEIR LIVES, HAS SUFFERED OR WILL SUFFER FROM ANXIETY, A NATURAL FEELING OF AN UNPLEASANT NATURE THAT, IN SOME PEOPLE, CAN BECOME A HEALTH PROBLEM. KNOWING HOW TO ACT WHEN IT APPEARS AND ASKING FOR HELP IF NECESSARY IS ESSENTIAL TO AVOID COMPLICATIONS.
Anxiety, from the Latin “anxietas”, generally responds to an unpleasant state, a mixture of agitation, fear and uncertainty. It is an inseparable part of the evolutionary cycle of the human being. For Kierkegard, anxiety is a necessary existential component of freedom. It is an integral part of choice.
Although it is a natural feeling, anxiety can become a health problem, especially in vulnerable people. When it leads to clear suffering, help should be sought.
Natural anxiety
Classical terminology distinguished between fear (reaction to a concrete threat) and anxiety (reaction to an uncertain or unknown threat). In general, in anxiety a gante psychic perception is combined with a varied range of neurovegetative manifestations, such as sweating, palpitations or tachycardia, tremors, headache, dry mouth or shortness of breath, among other symptoms. As we have said, anxiety is a common traveling companion in the growth and maturation of the human being. This is evidenced in difficult, problematic situations (stressful situations), in which if the intensity is mild or moderate, it usually facilitates a better adaptive response that allows overcoming such challenges. Stress, in general, is subjecting a person to a greater or lesser degree of overload or difficulty. Different people tolerate different degrees or modes of stress, i.e., it is highly individualized. Its original English meaning defines it very well: stress is the point immediately preceding the rupture of a metal when subjected to two opposing forces. Logically, there are personality traits (such as high emotional expressiveness, previous experiences, confusing life references, etc.) that increase the vulnerability to experience anxiety.
Pathological anxiety
On other occasions, anxiety, either quantitatively or qualitatively, exceeds the “normal” limits of reference, damaging the functional capacity of the person, both in the professional and in the social, family or personal sphere. It is the pathological or morbid anxiety. It could be said that this emotional reaction acts at the cognitive-subjective level (causing tension, hypervigilance, fear, insecurity, etc.), motor (we can stutter, become paralyzed, walk from side to side, etc.) and fisiological (experiencing nausea, feeling of instability, dry mouth, headache…).
A clinical distinction can be made between generalized anxiety states and panic disorders. In the first case, anxiety is diffuse, persistent, associated with multiple somatic symptoms creating a very unsettling situation by not allowing a person’s life to run normally, and causing considerable psychological suffering. In the second case, the patient experiences sudden “anxiety attacks” or panic attacks, which are highly incapacitating and cause great fear that they may be repeated, leading to so-called avoidance behaviors (the patient may confine himself at home as the only “safe zone”). Morbid anxiety states are very frequent, and account for around 5% of the general population. The female sex is twice as numerous as the male sex. It is by far the most frequent pathology in any general practitioner’s office.
IN SOME DIFFICULT OR STRESSFUL SITUATIONS, MODERATE ANXIETY CAN FACILITATE A BETTER ADAPTIVE RESPONSE.
The treatment
In general, professional intervention is usually very positive. Among the most effective solutions is cognitive-behavioral psychological therapy, whereby the psychologist provides the patient with a series of exercises to learn to master anxiogenic situations, stop negative thoughts, modify distorted beliefs (beliefs that make the person see a situation as threatening when it is not), etc. In a good number of cases, very especially in panic disorders, it is necessary and very positive to add a little aggressive pharmacological therapy through the intervention of a psychiatric doctor, thus facilitating the good response of the patient.
It should be noted that, on many occasions, the patient, after overcoming a state of morbid anxiety, comes out reinforced in his self-esteem and in his capacity to face any existential challenge (he “knows” more about himself and also possesses “better cognitive weapons”).
It is not surprising that this is so, since Greek philosophy gave greater importance to the individual’s reaction to adversity than to continuous pleasant situations.