Title:
Anxiety
Word Count:
508
Summary:
Anxiety can be defined as emotions which are typically negative in
nature. It will often consist of fear and worry, and some organisms may
even experience physical signs such as nausea or chest pains.
Keywords:
anxiety, depression
Article Body:
Anxiety can be defined as emotions which are typically negative in
nature. It will often consist of fear and worry, and some organisms may
even experience physical signs such as nausea or chest pains. Anxiety is
a complex emotion, and is composed of a number of different elments. Some
of these elements are somatic or cognitive, and the body will prepare
itself to deal with an external threat. The heart rate speeds up, and the
blood pressure is increased. The various muscles in the body will also
receive elevated levels of blood. At the same time, the functions of the
digestive system will slow down.
People who have anxiety will generally have a sense of dread. A number of
voluntary and involuntary processes will take place in the body, and the
goal of these processes is to get the organism away from the source that
is causing it to have anxiety. Anxiety is an important emotion, and is
designed to increase the survival rate of organisms. In humans it appears
that anxiety comes from the hippocampus and amygdala, two regions of the
brain. When a person senses bad odors or tastes, there will be a large
amount of blood flow which will be present in the amygdala. The evidence
also shows that medium levels of anxiety will be present in this
situation as well.
Based on these studies, it appears that anxiety is designed to keep
humans and other organisms from eating food or objects that may be
harmful to their well being. While anxiety is normal, a person that has
excessive amounts of it may have what is called an anxiety disorder. In
extreme cases, people with anxiety disorders may have strong cases where
they are terrorized. Anxiety disorders are broken down into phobias,
panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorders, and obsessive compulsive
disorders. Someone who is suffering from a phobia will have an abnormal
amount of fear of a specific object or situation. People who have phobias
tend to have extensive imaginations, and realize that their fear is often
irrational.
When a person suffers from a panic disorder, they will have extreme panic
attacks, and may have dizziness or breathing problems. These attacks will
typically reach their height in about 10 minutes. Generalized anxiety
disorders are common, and effect a much larger portion of the population.
It is prevalent in both men and woman, and is characterized by long
periods of anxiety that are not related to any specific object or
situation. With the obsessive compulsive disorder, the individual with
have an obsession or compulsion when it comes to specific types of
behavior. People who suffer from this disorder will see the need to do
something obsessively in order to reduce their anxiety.
Many people who have this disorder need to be extremely clean, and are
afraid of germs. To reduce their anxiety, they will wash their hands
numerous times in a single day. There are two primary methods that are
used to help those who are suffering from anxiety, and this is either
therapy or prescription medicaitons.