ANXIETY

Anxiety

Abstract

In this study, the analysis aim to explore the anxiety in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on anxiety and the diverse disorders associated with anxiety. The research also analyzes many aspects that significantly influence anxiety in the individuals; moreover, the study describes the types of anxiety disorder. Nevertheless, the paper also explores the symptoms of anxiety and their impact on patient's condition. Finally, the paper illustrates the treatment suggested for anxiety by diverse psychologists around the world and the effective therapies and meditation suggested for the anxiety patients.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Types of Anxiety Disorder5

Generalized Anxiety Disorder5

Panic Disorder5

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder6

Social Anxiety Disorder7

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder7

Symptoms of Anxiety8

Treatment for Anxiety9

Conclusion11

References13

Anxiety

Introduction

Anxiety is an unpleasant affect accompanied by a myriad of physiologic manifestations (quickened heart beat, gastrointestinal distress, 'butterflies' and diarrhea, a tightening in the chest, tremulousness, sweating, muscle tension) as well as psychological manifestations (a sense of dread and impending danger, of helplessness, of insecurity and uncertainty). Freud's first theory of anxiety (1895) mainly drew on the thermodynamic models he had worked on with Breuer, and paid tribute to some contemporary presentations of neurasthenia as he attempted to explain the freshly differentiated symptoms of phobia and agoraphobia. He considered that pathological anxiety, in 'anxiety neurosis' (i.e. agoraphobia and anxious states not directly related to a single object) arose mainly as the result of an excess of sexual energy that had not been disposed of through satisfactory sexual intercourse.

By 1905, discussing the case of Little Hans, he elaborated a second theory, claiming that the change of sexual excitation into anxiety could not simply be a mechanical phenomenon. At that point, he had differentiated 'anxiety hysteria' (i.e. phobia) from this earlier view of 'anxiety neurosis', and tended to link the issue of the surge of anxiety to castration threats coming from the child's environment rather than to a mechanical quantitative factor. A crucial moment in the Freudian theory of anxiety was his book Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety, in which he assigned the origin of anxiety to a primary state of helplessness experienced by the child overwhelmed by his drives, in the absence of the reassuring mother.

Freud dismissed the hypothesis upheld by Rank and Ferenczi, according to whom all forms of anxiety ultimately result from a primitive birth-trauma. However, the elaboration of the death drive theory brought a significant change in Freud's theory of anxiety, as evidence of unconscious guilt and self-punitive mechanisms led him to admit the limitations of his second theory: the threat of castration appeared to be a highly limited mechanism in front of the more pervasive and technically embarrassing negative therapeutic reactions.

Types of Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of disorders of anxiety. This form of disorder contains several forms of phobias encountered by the individual suffering from anxiety such as, the social phobia, the posttraumatic stress disorder, the agoraphobia, the panic disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder. Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by a pattern of anxiety that is frequent and persistent in a variety of events ...