HELP TOPIC
ANXIETY
Fear is the human body’s response to an external threat. Fear is a trait people need in order to survive, and it arises from the survival instinct. When we are in a dangerous situation, both our body and our emotions respond. We react emotionally to fear, but the degree of this response depends on the individual. Fear also arises from the human ability to connect facts. We recognize that a situation may pose a threat because we have experienced it ourselves before, or because our ability to think abstractly tells us that a situation or behavior may cause danger.
Causes
There are three groups of disorders in which anxiety is the main symptom of the illness. Anxiety differs from fear in that it arises in the presence of a specific, threatening object. Disorders associated with anxiety include:
- phobias – a person shows fear of a particular stimulus, for example dogs, where the fear is disproportionately greater in relation to the actual threat an object may pose;
- post-traumatic stress disorder – the person suffers from anxiety, depression, feelings of numbness, and the constant reliving of trauma after experiencing a catastrophe that goes beyond ordinary human suffering;
- anxiety disorders – a long-term condition of intensified and frequent fears, accompanied by a deterioration in normal functioning and a sense of mental suffering associated with this condition.
Symptoms
Anxiety causes the release of various substances in our body that put us on standby. Produced in a stressful situation, adrenaline causes an accelerated heart rate, an increase in blood pressure, bronchial dilation, dilated pupils, and muscle tension – in other words, reflexes designed to help us escape and fight. This feeling is accompanied by a wide range of symptoms at different levels. Among the somatic symptoms observed are: sweating, headache, chest pain, accelerated heart rate, faster breathing, dizziness, redness or paleness of the skin, tingling, tinnitus, and erectile problems. Physiological symptoms are accompanied by mental and psychomotor symptoms, such as: hyperactivity, internal tension, fear, tics, nervousness, problems with attention and memory concentration, and impaired reasoning and planning. Anxiety states are characteristic of every type of neurosis; they may also appear in psychoses, depression, and schizophrenia. They can occur in states of reduced consciousness, for example in delirium. They also accompany somatic illnesses, for example cardiovascular conditions.
TREATMENT
Treatment methods can be divided into two main groups. The first is behavioral techniques that focus on learning to cope with the anxiety trigger and eliminating the feeling of fear. The second group includes psychoanalysis. It also assumes that it is important to reach the cause of severe anxiety. In addition to these methods, designed to help the patient understand that he or she has decided to make a harmless situation seem frightening, relaxation techniques are also used, for example breathing control or training behaviors that facilitate coping in a stressful situation, for example not looking down during a mountain hike (with fear of heights). In complex, severe phobias and disorders, medication is also used in addition to psychotherapy.
SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES