Anxiety Health Article

Social and environmental stressors

Anxiety often has a social dimension because humans are social creatures. People frequently report feelings of high anxiety when they anticipate and, therefore, fear the loss of social approval or love. Social phobia is a specific anxiety disorder that is marked by high levels of anxiety or fear of embarrassment in social situations.

Another social stressor is prejudice. People who belong to groups that are targets of bias are at higher risk for developing anxiety disorders. Some experts think, for example, that the higher rates of phobias and panic disorder among women reflects their greater social and economic vulnerability.

Some controversial studies indicate that the increase in violent or upsetting pictures and stories in news reports and entertainment may raise the anxiety level of many people. Stress and anxiety management programs often suggest that patients cut down their exposure to upsetting stimuli.

Anxiety may also be caused by environmental or occupational factors. People who must live or work around sudden or loud noises, bright or flashing lights, chemical vapors, or similar nuisances, which they cannot avoid or control, may develop heightened anxiety levels.

Existential anxiety

Another factor that shapes human experiences of anxiety is knowledge of personal mortality. Humans are the only animals that appear to be aware of their limited life span. Some researchers think that awareness of death influences experiences of anxiety from the time that a person is old enough to understand death.

Symptoms of anxiety

In order to understand the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of its symptoms.

SOMATIC. The somatic or physical symptoms of anxiety include headaches, dizziness or lightheadedness, nausea and/or vomiting, diarrhea, tingling, pale complexion, sweating, numbness, difficulty in breathing, and sensations of tightness in the chest, neck, shoulders, or hands. These symptoms are produced by the hormonal, muscular, and cardiovascular reactions involved in the fight-or-flight reaction.

BEHAVIORAL. Behavioral symptoms of anxiety include pacing, trembling, general restlessness, hyperventilation, pressured speech, hand wringing, or finger tapping.

COGNITIVE. Cognitive symptoms of anxiety include recurrent or obsessive thoughts, feelings of doom, morbid or fear-inducing thoughts or ideas, and confusion, or inability to concentrate.

EMOTIONAL. Feeling states associated with anxiety include tension or nervousness, feeling "hyper" or "keyed up," and feelings of unreality, panic, or terror.

DEFENSE MECHANISMS. In psychoanalytic theory, the symptoms of anxiety in humans may arise from or activate a number of unconscious defense mechanisms. Because of these defenses, it is possible for a person to be anxious without being consciously aware of it or appearing anxious to others. These psychological defenses include:

• Repression. The person pushes anxious thoughts or ideas out of conscious awareness.
• Displacement. Anxiety from one source is attached to a different object or event. Phobias are an example of the mechanism of displacement in psychoanalytic theory.
• Rationalization. The person justifies the anxious feelings by saying that any normal person would feel anxious in their situation.
• Somatization. The anxiety emerges in the form of physical complaints and illnesses, such as recurrent headaches, stomach upsets, or muscle and joint pain.
• Delusion formation. The person converts anxious feelings into conspiracy theories or similar ideas without reality testing. Delusion formation can involve groups as well as individuals.

Other theorists attribute some drug addiction to the desire to relieve symptoms of anxiety. Most addictions, they argue, originate in the use of mood-altering substances or behaviors to "medicate" anxious feelings.