What is anxiety? | Diseases and conditions.

Anxiety is a normal aspect of the emotional state of human beings. Anxiety is defined as a fear-like affection but which, unlike this one, not due to a threatening external stimulus, but it is experienced as coming from the psychological interiority of the individual. European psychiatry anxiety refers to the start expression of that affection.

Epidemiology

Generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most common psychiatric disorders; It is more frequent in women and is related to the chronic environmental stresses. In older people, there is a higher prevalence of severe anxiety. There is an association with the social sphere, and there is a higher incidence on the population with low socio-economic levels.
The symptom that patients refer as "feeling nervous" is that of greater frequency and severity, followed by "feel angry"; the panic is more frequent in women. Back and neck pain and headaches are the most common conditions, followed by "get tired easily" and "feeling weak".
The prevalence of anxiety by geographical area shows a relationship positive with the most densely populated areas or major armed conflict; with an age of onset between twenty and thirty years, but with anxious symptoms from an early age.

Causes of anxiety

Anxiety, as well as other feelings (pleasure, exaltation, euphoria, ecstasy, sadness, anger, rage and calm), are fundamental to the life of the people; They regulate the interaction with others and offer an alarm system which, in the case of fear, serve to deal with situations of danger or risk.
These emotions, as well as perception and action, are controlled by neural circuits in the brain. In the specific case of distress, his experience includes three types of components:
• A cognitive component.
• Autonomic, endocrine responses and esqueleto-motoras.
• Subjective representations of emotional state.
Two human emotions are very important in terms of the causes of anxiety: sexuality and aggression. However, in the description that people make of their distress, they can wield many reasons that bear no relation with aggressive or sexual desires. Many patients, for example, feel puzzled to the fact that the cause of the anxiety arises precisely when they are happier and have finally gotten the desired achievement. Others blame his State to the abandonment of a loved one, bad luck in business, solitude, an adverse environment or the failure of a project.
These obvious complaints are the unconscious traumatic situations of separation in the early stages of life, psychological development is incomplete, and the subject does not have sufficient elements to defend themselves from fear to lose their lives or be annihilated by alleged or real hazards. Each new situation of separation or neglect is now poorly supported; even an apparently banal everyday fact can be reason to trigger the State of distress and be the cause of anxiety
According to the behaviorist theory, anxiety is a response conditioned to an environmental stimulus; people affected by anxiety sobregeneralizado have their fears and they have learned by imitation, to respond anxiously. Imitation comes from similar responses from their parents, caregivers or important figures; Accordingly, the anxious responses are ratings that exceed the endangerment of the situations, and underestimate their own abilities to face these threats.
Anxiety is a normal affection; its intensification, which becomes a source of suffering and disability, is what makes it pathological.

Symptoms of anxiety

The essential feature of this disorder is a feeling of widespread and persistent uneasiness and restlessness that are not related to any environmental circumstances in particular. More typically, the patient complains of being permanently nervous, as well as feeling other typical symptoms of anxiety such as tremor, muscle tension, excessive sweating, dizziness and dizziness, tachycardia, and epigastric discomfort.
Often express fear that they themselves, or their loved ones, can get a disease or an accident between various obsessions and forebodings of negative nature. Anxiety is a condition more common in women and is often related to environmental stress of everyday life. It has a variable course, depending on the characteristics of the person concerned, but it tends to be fluctuating and chronic.
Anxiety disorder is diagnosed as such, the patient must present anxiety symptoms almost everyday for several consecutive weeks. The most indicative signs of anxiety are:
• Apprehension (excessive concern over possible misfortune future, feel "to the limit" of its forces, difficulty in concentration, etc).
• Muscle tension (agitation and restlessness psychomotor, Cephalalgia of tension, tremors, inability to relax).
• Vegetative hyperactivity (dizziness, sweating, tachycardia or tachypnea, epigastric discomfort, dizziness, dry mouth...).
• Children tend to manifest a constant need for care and safety, and complain repeatedly.
Discover with our test of anxiety if you really suffer from this problem.

Treatment of anxiety

In the treatment of anxiety usually resort to the use of these drugs:
• Benzodiazepines (anxiolytics).
• Selective inhibitors of serotonin (SSRIS) receiving.
• Selective monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants.
However, before using them remember that we must always consult a specialist:

Psychotherapeutic treatment of anxiety

It aims to strengthen defense mechanisms, increase the strength of the self, and ensure the patient to use emotionally corrective aspects of the relationship with the therapist, to achieve a better nature, frequently inadequate, compression of their own interpersonal relationships.
The psychotherapeutic treatment of anxiety should be performed by a trained professional.

Self-help groups and psychoeducational groups

The purpose of psychoeducational groups is to provide knowledge about psychiatric drugs, premonitory symptoms of new crises, relaxation techniques, and methods to coexist and tolerate the everyday stress.
For his part, self-help groups are a receptive environment that is offered is received solidarity and shared with others the painful experience and methods to overcome the inevitable suffering that the existence brings with it emotionally. In addition, group becomes a social reference point, and increases network support needed by every human being, and especially people with anxiety disorder.
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