What is anxiety and where does it come from?
Can you recall how you felt just before that midterm you barely had time to study for? When you spoke in front of an audience, dozens of faces peering up at you as you took the front of the room? As a small child on your very first day of school? It is likely that many of these events made you feel anxious. Increased awareness of mental health has ushered in a new acknowledgement of anxiety. This has prompted many questions, including: what is anxiety, where does it come from and when does it become a major problem?
According to the American Psychological Association, anxiety is an emotion defined by tension, worry and physical changes (APA, 2016). It is entirely normal to experience anxiety and its symptoms to some degree in one’s lifetime. However, if a person finds themselves worrying excessively, on more days than not, about many different topics, it may constitute an anxiety disorder (W.E. Craighead, Milkowitz & D.J. Craighead, 2008). Anxiety disorders are classified in several ways, including panic disorder, phobia, social anxiety disorder and the most common, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (“Facts and Statistics,” 2016).
Those who suffer from GAD worry about the same types of things as those who do not. Just like anyone else, they worry about finances, school, health and safety among other things. The primary difference lies in the fact that people who live with the disorder worry with a greater intensity and have less control over these emotions and their accompanying symptoms (W.E. Craighead, Milkowitz & D.J. Craighead, 2008). Excessive worrying in GAD involves two biases. The first is probability overestimation, which is believing a negative consequence to be more likely than it is in reality. The other is catastrophizing, which is assuming an outcome will be unmanageable.
The origins of anxiety are understood from neurobiological and psychological perspectives. A neurotransmitter called norepinephrine plays a principal role in the functions of the sympathetic nervous system. One of these functions is the fight or flight response. The fight or flight response comes from millions of years of evolutionary stress adaptations. A typical amount of norepinephrine allows the body to respond with fight or flight at appropriate times. However, studies suggest that norepinephrine levels are higher in those with certain anxiety disorders, resulting in an overactive fight or flight response (W.E. Craighead, Milkowitz & D.J. Craighead, 2008).
Feelings of worry and stress are inevitable components of life. However, when they become overwhelming they can be extremely detrimental to a person’s mental wellbeing. As this realization comes into public understanding, increased research and aid pertaining to anxiety is emerging to alleviate the burden on the minds of so many.
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Helpful Resources:
Panic Disorder
Phobias
Social Anxiety Disorder
General Anxiety Disorder
Sources:
Anxiety. (2016). Retrieved November 2, 2016, from http://apa.org/topics/anxiety/
Facts and Statistics. (August, 2016) Retrieved November 2, 2016, from https://www.adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics
Craighead, W. E., Miklowitz, D. J., & Craighead, L. W. (2008). Psychopathology: History, Diagnosis, and Empirical Foundations. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from https://books.google.ca/books?id=xZYeZbqBt2cC&dq=ge&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s
