I'd like to share some info about Anxiety...anyone interested?

[reallyME]

In my Abnormal Psych class, we've been learning some things about Anxiety Disorders and Neurosis. I was wondering who here might want to read about it if I post?

~Laura

[debkor]

Hi Laura,

Welcome back hope you had a great time.

Sure I would love to read about it.  Post away.

Love
Deb

[reallyME]

Anxiety Disorders begin pre-natally or at birth.  A person can be born with an anxiety disorder (neurosis).  It is very difficult to get rid of, because a person who has one, knows they have one, and that it's their own worst enemy, but does not know how to overcome the problem.
 
Fear and Anxiety are not the same, although symptoms of both can overlap.
 
Fear always has a direct object, even if the person does not know what it is that they are afraid of.
 
Anxiety comes from the inside of a person, has no distinct object linked to it.
In anxiety, depression will be present in the person in some form
A therapist needs to deal with both the seen and the unseen to help this person
 
LEVELS OF ANXIETY
 
I.  ATARAXIA
 
In this level, there is NO ANXIETY in a person at all.  It is rare.

Because anxiety is part of life in some form, a person who has no anxiety, tends to be unmotivated.
This level can be healthy or unhealthy, depending on the circumstance
It can come from the inside of a person or the outside
This level can be attained through prayer, medicine, or hypnosis
 
II. MILD ANXIETY
 
This comes through day to day living
It involves a periodic nervousness (like if a person remembers they didn't buy gas for the car...)
It involves only temporary reactions
It has very few symptoms
A person with this level, may hyper or hypo ventilate (too much oxygen/too little oxygen taken into body)
 
III. SEVERE ANXIETY
 
This person is cognitively compromised (they can't think clearly/rationally)
There is a very narrow frame of focus ability
Intense distractions
Obsessive thoughts
tics
Becoming unavailable emotionally to others (abandonment)
This involves anxiety attacks (not same as panic attacks)
A person with this level, will shut down in their thought processes, misunderstand others, misinterpret others' words/actions
There is a hyping-up of the central nervous system
Long-term, this level of anxiety can cause harm to the physical body
 
V. PANIC
 
This involves panic attacks
A person with this level, will feel "clueless" during an attack
The emotions will begin to take over the thoughts/actions
This person will feel desperate fear, feeling of being about to die, mimicry of medical symptoms of heart attack, etc.
 
Treatment for these disorders varies

[reallyME]

AUTONOMY (not same as Identity) This is a healthy state of being.
 
Internal need for separation/individuation, that begins with a mother and a child.
The child begins in the womb, attached to the mother, as "one with" mom. 
Eventually the child should move away, then come together with mom throughout life.
 
A person who lacks autonomy, will be needy, use other people or things to simulate the womb experience of attachment/security.  They will seek to numb themselves with addictions, as a substitute for the mother, which symbolizes "home."
 
A person needs to be free to be themselves both by themselves and with others.
 
People who are disordered have feelings of "I am BETTER than everyone" or "I am WORSE than everyone."
 
A mother needs to let a child go and not seek to punish it for travelling away from her.
 
Mother needs to examine if she is doing the following things:
 
pretending to live her life through the child
pretending that the child must live their life through her
not caring what the child does or does not do.  Letting the child figure life out on his own.
 
or is the mother giving the child enough "elastic" to leave and then come back throughout life.
 
HETERONOMY
 
This comes from the Latin words: hutos: self, hetero- other
 
It involves forces outside of the self that limit autonomy in a person.
These forces can be positive (boundaries) or negative (unjust restrictions)
 
HOMONOMY (Adult Love)
 
Some parents do not teach their children how to love others for who they are.
In this, a child learns to love people for who they can create them to become or be.

[reallyME]

Neurosis, is a fear of being annihilated in the Universe.  It's the feeling that, years and years from now, the people living will not know that you ever existed on the earth or anything about you.  It is the realization of being truly "alone" in the sense that we are born alone and die alone.  When a person is neurotic, deep down inside, it is a defense against fear of destruction.
 
Annihilation comes from the Latin:  "nihil" "nothingness, as if one never existed"
When a person has this fear, they seek to become "godlike" striving for immortality on the earth
 
Some people actually create substitues for immortality on earth.
They may give birth to children in order to "extend" themselves in the world for years to come
They may use methods to prevent age, in attempt to fool "fate"
 
*In our country, we do not always respect aging as a good thing.  We strive to look as young as possible, so we can in essence "dupe nature"  YOUTH is seen as "life yet unlived" and it's something many spend a lot of time on trying to maintain.
 
Irrationality is a root of neurosis.  Being rational involves dealing with life in a straightforward, healthy, defenseless way.
 
Neurosis is the only condition that can be diagnosed without needing to see symptoms.  It is an obvious condition.
 
People who are neurotic, do what they can to feel "in control" of their lives.  The OCD will check the locks repeatedly and not be able to stop nor know why he is doing so.  The schizophrenic person will go from one room to the other, with his eyes closed...for "to see is to be seen and to be seen is dangerous" for them.
 
In the neurotic, there is an organized structure of defenses set up against ultimate annihilation, that can manifest in different ways.  They are patterned defenses.
 
The larger the neurosis, the smaller the healthy part in the person
 
Neurosis exists for itself.  It is self-serving, self-preserving, very difficult to treat.  A neurotic person feels she must perform the rituals or else suffer the consequences of having not performed them.
 
Society LOVES OCD people, because an OCD can NOT say "NO" very easily.  This leaves the OCD responsible to do things, and do them "perfectly," while the other person can be lazy and irresponsible, leaving the OCD person to carry all the weight.
 

[CB123]

Anxiety Disorders begin pre-natally or at birth. 

RM,

I'd love to see the research on this.  Do you have a citation you can share?

CB

[reallyME]

The only citation I can tell you, is that my teacher dictates notes to us in lecture form, both from our text book and from his 35 experience in dealing with many types of dysfunctional people, families, situations.