Anxiety and anxiety. Review of some approaches

Anxiety is emotional discomfort that is associated with the expectation and anticipation of unpleasant experiences or danger. Even if everything around is good and prosperous, a person experiences a background feeling of impending disaster.

Anxiety in psychology can mean a short-term emotional state, or it can be a stable character trait of a person. Anxiety as an emotion is common to all people and is necessary for a person’s optimal adaptation to the world around him. Anxiety, as a part of a person’s personality, is a violation in his personal development and interferes with a full life in society.

A constant feeling of anxiety and fear is a consequence of intrapersonal conflict. This may be a contradiction between the image of the ideal self and the real self, which is a discrepancy between the level of self-esteem and the level of a person’s aspirations. Anxiety always signals the need to satisfy a need, and a feeling of constant anxiety is an indicator that the need is not satisfied.

The feeling of anxiety is also a fact of dissatisfaction with a person’s socio-psychological needs.

Increased anxiety is closely related to the patterns between the emotional and motivational-need spheres of the personality. Intrapersonal conflict leads to unmet needs, which creates tension and anxiety.

After constant fear and anxiety takes hold in the human psyche, this new part of the personality can negatively influence further motives of behavior - his communications with other people, the motivation for success, life activity and actions.

Anxiety, along with emotions such as fear and hope, is in a special position. As Fritz Perls, the great German psychiatrist, said: “The formula for anxiety is very simple. Anxiety is the gap between now and then.”

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The manifestations of anxiety in different situations are not the same. In some cases, people tend to behave anxiously always and everywhere, in others they reveal their anxiety only from time to time, depending on the circumstances.

There are such types of feelings as moral, intellectual and aesthetic. According to the classification proposed by K. Izard, emotions are distinguished between fundamental and derivative. The fundamental ones include: 1) interest-excitement, 2) joy, 3) surprise, 4) grief-suffering, 5) anger, 6) disgust, 7) contempt, 8) fear, 9) shame, 10) guilt.

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Popova Roza Viktorovna, educational psychologist

Topic: “The concept of anxiety, types and causes of anxiety”

Recently, the number of anxious children characterized by increased anxiety, uncertainty, and emotional instability has increased. The emergence and consolidation of anxiety is associated with the dissatisfaction of the child’s age-related needs.

It is anxiety, as noted by researchers (A.M. Prikhozhan, I.A. Musina, etc.) and practical psychologists, that underlies a number of psychological difficulties in childhood. Wenger A.L. believes that when working with anxious children, one should take into account their specific attitude to success, failure, evaluation and results. As is known, such children are extremely sensitive to the results of their own activities, are painfully afraid and avoid failure. At the same time, it is difficult for them to evaluate the results of their activities themselves and expect this assessment from an adult.

Emotions and feelings are a reflection of reality in the form of experiences. Various forms of experiencing feelings (emotions, affects, moods, stress, passions, etc.) collectively form the emotional sphere of a person.

The rest are derivatives. From the combination of fundamental emotions arises such a complex emotional state as anxiety, which can combine fear, anger, guilt, and interest-excitement.

In the psychological literature, one can find different definitions of the concept of anxiety, although most researchers agree on the need to consider it differentially - as a situational phenomenon and as a personal characteristic, taking into account the transition state and its dynamics.

So, A.M. Parishioner points out that anxiety is “the experience of emotional discomfort associated with the expectation of trouble, with a premonition of impending danger.”

Anxiety is distinguished as an emotional state and as a stable property, personality trait or temperament.

According to the definition of R.S. Nemova: “Anxiety is a constantly or situationally manifested property of a person to come in a state of heightened anxiety, to experience fear and anxiety in specific social situations.”

L.A. Kitaev-Smyk, in turn, notes that “in recent years, the use of a differentiated definition of two types of anxiety in psychological research: “character anxiety” and situational anxiety, proposed by Spielberg, has become widespread in recent years.”

According to the definition of A.V. Petrovsky: “Anxiety is an individual’s tendency to experience anxiety, characterized by a low threshold for the occurrence of an anxiety reaction; one of the main parameters of individual differences. Anxiety is usually increased in neuropsychic and severe somatic diseases, as well as in healthy people experiencing the consequences of psychotrauma, in many groups of people with deviant subjective manifestations of personal distress.”

G.G. Arakelov, N.E. Lysenko, E.E. Schott, in turn, note that anxiety is a polysemantic psychological term that describes both a certain state of individuals at a limited point in time, and a stable property of any person. An analysis of the literature of recent years allows us to consider anxiety from different points of view, allowing the assertion that increased anxiety arises and is realized as a result of a complex interaction of cognitive, affective and behavioral reactions provoked when a person is exposed to various stresses.

A certain level of anxiety is a natural and obligatory feature of an individual’s active activity. Each person has their own optimal or desired level of anxiety - this is the so-called useful anxiety. A person’s assessment of his condition in this regard is for him an essential component of self-control and self-education. However, an increased level of anxiety is a subjective manifestation of personal distress.

Situationally stable manifestations of anxiety are usually called personal and are associated with the presence of a corresponding personality trait in a person (the so-called “personal anxiety”). This is a stable individual characteristic that reflects the subject’s predisposition to anxiety and presupposes his tendency to perceive a fairly wide “fan” of situations as threatening, responding to each of them with a specific reaction. As a predisposition, personal anxiety is activated when certain stimuli are perceived by a person as dangerous, associated with specific situations, threats to his prestige, self-esteem, self-esteem.

Situationally variable manifestations of anxiety are called situational, and the personality trait exhibiting this kind of anxiety is referred to as “situational anxiety.” This state is characterized by subjectively experienced emotions: tension, anxiety, concern, nervousness. This condition occurs as an emotional reaction to a stressful situation and can vary in intensity and dynamic over time.

Individuals classified as highly anxious tend to perceive a threat to their self-esteem and functioning in a wide range of situations and react very intensely, with a pronounced state of anxiety.

The behavior of highly anxious people in activities aimed at achieving success has the following features:

– high-anxiety individuals react emotionally more acutely than low-anxiety individuals to messages about failure;

– people with high anxiety work worse than people with low anxiety in stressful situations or when there is a shortage of time allotted to solve a problem;

– Fear of failure is a characteristic feature of highly anxious people. This fear dominates their desire to achieve success;

– motivation to achieve success prevails among low-anxiety people. It usually outweighs the fear of possible failure;

– for highly anxious people, messages about success have greater stimulating power than messages about failure;

– low-anxiety people are more stimulated by messages about failure.

Personal anxiety predisposes an individual to perceive and evaluate many objectively safe situations as those that pose a threat.

A person’s activity in a specific situation depends not only on the situation itself, on the presence or absence of personal anxiety in the individual, but also on the situational anxiety that arises in a given person in a given situation under the influence of developing circumstances.

The impact of the current situation, a person’s own needs, thoughts and feelings, the characteristics of his anxiety as personal anxiety determine his cognitive assessment of the situation that has arisen. This assessment, in turn, causes certain emotions (activation of the autonomic nervous system and increased state of situational anxiety along with expectations of possible failure). Information about all this is transmitted through neural feedback mechanisms to the human cerebral cortex, influencing his thoughts, needs and feelings.

The same cognitive assessment of the situation simultaneously and automatically causes the body to react to threatening stimuli, which leads to the emergence of countermeasures and corresponding responses aimed at reducing the resulting situational anxiety. The result of all this directly affects the activities performed. This activity is directly dependent on the state of anxiety, which could not be overcome with the help of the responses and countermeasures taken, as well as an adequate cognitive assessment of the situation.

Thus, a person’s activity in an anxiety-generating situation directly depends on the strength of situational anxiety, the effectiveness of countermeasures taken to reduce it, and the accuracy of the cognitive assessment of the situation.

By a form of anxiety we understand a special combination of the nature of experience, awareness, verbal and nonverbal expression in the characteristics of behavior, communication and activity. The form of anxiety manifests itself in the spontaneously developing ways of overcoming and compensating it, as well as in the attitude of the child and adolescent to this experience.

The study of forms of anxiety is carried out in the process of individual and group practical psychological work with children and adolescents. It is known that there are two categories of anxiety: 1) open - consciously experienced and manifested in behavior and activity in the form of a state of anxiety; 2) hidden - unconscious to varying degrees, manifested either by excessive calmness, insensitivity to real disadvantage and even denial of it, or indirectly through specific modes of behavior.

1. Acute, unregulated or poorly regulated anxiety - strong, conscious, manifested externally through symptoms of anxiety, the individual cannot cope with it on his own.

2. Regulated and compensated anxiety, in which children independently develop fairly effective ways to cope with their anxiety. According to the characteristics of the methods used for these purposes, two subforms were distinguished within this form:

a) reducing anxiety levels and

b) using it to stimulate one’s own activity, increase activity. This form of anxiety occurs mainly in primary school and early adolescence, i.e. in periods characterized as stable.

An important characteristic of both forms is that anxiety is assessed by children as an unpleasant, difficult experience that they would like to get rid of.

3. Cultivated anxiety - in this case, unlike those stated above, anxiety is recognized and experienced as a valuable quality for the individual that allows one to achieve what they want. Cultivated anxiety comes in several forms. Firstly, it can be recognized by the individual as the main regulator of his activity, ensuring his organization and responsibility. In this it coincides with form 2.b; the differences concern, as noted, only the assessment of this experience. Secondly, it can act as a certain ideological and value setting. Thirdly, it often manifests itself in the search for a certain “conditional benefit from the presence of anxiety and is expressed through an increase in symptoms. In some cases, one subject had two or even all three options simultaneously.

The form that we conventionally called “magical” can be considered as a type of cultivated anxiety. In this case, the child or teenager, as it were, “conjures evil forces” by constantly replaying in his mind the most disturbing events, constant conversations about them, without, however, freeing himself from the fear of them, but further strengthening it through the mechanism of the “vicious psychological circle.” "

Speaking about forms of anxiety, one cannot help but touch upon the problem of so-called “masked” anxiety. “Masks” of anxiety are those forms of behavior that have the form of pronounced manifestations of personal characteristics generated by anxiety, allowing a person to experience it in a softened form and not express it outwardly. Aggression, dependence, apathy, excessive daydreaming, etc. are most often described as such “masks.”

There are aggressive-anxious and dependent-anxious types (with varying degrees of awareness of anxiety). The aggressive-anxious type is most often found in preschool and adolescence with both open and hidden forms of anxiety, both as a direct expression of aggressive forms of behavior. The anxiety-dependent type is most often found in open forms of anxiety, especially in acute, unregulated and cultivated forms.

So, anxiety is the experience of emotional discomfort associated with the expectation of trouble, with a premonition of impending danger.

There are two main types of anxiety. The first of them is the so-called situational anxiety, i.e. generated by some specific situation that objectively causes concern. Another type is personal anxiety. It can be considered as a personal trait, manifested in a constant tendency to experience anxiety in a wide variety of life situations, including those that objectively do not lead to this.

A special type of anxiety is school anxiety. This is a common way to describe children’s negative experiences associated with school. School anxiety manifests itself in the following way: the child throws tantrums in the morning and flatly refuses to go to school; parents cannot force their child to do homework; the child is terrified of getting a bad grade, despite the fact that he is mastering the school curriculum well, and is afraid of the teacher; he has nightmares related to school, etc.

Let us turn to the issue of anxiety in children of primary school age.

Disorders of emotional development in primary school age are caused by two groups of reasons:

Constitutional reasons (type of the child’s nervous system, biotonus, somatic features, that is, disruption of the functioning of any organs).

Genetic factors play an important role in the development of psychophysiological characteristics of the nervous system. Being a genetically fixed “specialization” of the style of behavior in extreme situations, temperament can determine the nature of the child’s experiences and internal conflict in response to psychological stress factors, but its action alone is not enough to cause certain emotional disorders to occur.

Features of a child's interaction with the social environment.

A junior schoolchild has his own experience of communicating with adults, peers and a group that is especially important to him - his family, and this experience can be unfavorable:

– if a child is systematically subjected to negative evaluations by an adult, he is forced to repress into the unconscious a large amount of information coming from the environment. New experiences that do not coincide with the structure of his “I-concept” are perceived negatively by him, as a result of which the child finds himself in a stressful situation;

– with dysfunctional relationships with peers, emotional experiences arise that are characterized by severity and duration: disappointment, resentment, anger;

- family conflicts, different demands on the child, lack of understanding of his interests - can also cause negative experiences in him. The following types of parental attitudes are unfavorable for the emotional and personal development of a primary school student: rejection, overprotection, treating the child according to the principle of a double bond, over-demandingness, avoidance of communication, etc. Among the emotional traits that develop under the influence of such parental relationships are aggression, self-aggressiveness, lack of ability for emotional decentration, feelings of anxiety, suspiciousness, emotional instability in communicating with people. Whereas close, intense emotional contacts, in which the child is “the object of a friendly, but demanding, evaluative attitude, ... form confidently optimistic personal expectations in him.”

Relationships in the family are at the epicenter of theoretical and experimental research, focusing on the influence of the environment as a risk factor for the occurrence of emotional distress in children. Any emotional disturbance in a child is considered a product and indicator of a family abnormality and is considered a disturbance for the entire family. Most psychological concepts do not dispute this; the difference lies in which aspect of this relationship is considered to be decisive. Violations are recorded mainly at the personal level (neurotic disorders, adaptation disorders, etc.).

According to the pathogenetic concept of V.N. Myasishchev, “... affective-volitional disorders represent a secondary product of the child’s relationships with others, a product of internal tension arising in connection with this, a product of incorrect attitudes and relationships.”

V. N. Myasishchev’s position on the pathogenic role of family conflicts and the inconsistency of the parents’ relationship with the child is confirmed and concretized by a number of domestic clinical and psychological studies aimed at identifying unfavorable factors in upbringing, the intra-family atmosphere that accompany the child’s emotional distress.

Thus, V.I. Garbuzov, A.I. Zakharov, D.N. Isaev identify three main types of improper upbringing, which is the decisive factor that shapes the personality traits of children predisposing to the occurrence of neurotic reactions:

Rejecting (non-acceptance). Conditioned by a number of conscious and more often unconscious factors, it implies excessive demands, strict regulation and control, or a lack of control due to connivance.

Hypersocializing. It manifests itself in excessive concern for the future of the child and his family, arising from the parents’ anxious suspicion regarding the health of the child and other family members, and the child’s social status.

Egocentric. The idea of “I am big” is imposed on the child as a self-pressing value for others.

The work of A. Ya. Varg describes three pathogenic types of parental relationships that are unfavorable for the child: symbiotic, authoritarian and emotionally rejecting, characterized by attributing pain and personal failure to the child.

Among the causes of school anxiety are the following.

The child is not emotionally ready for school. In this case, even the most benevolent teacher and the most successful children's team can be perceived by the child as something hostile and alien to him. Studying will be perceived as a duty, which will lead to protest reactions, possibly conflicts with parents and teachers, and the mere mention of school will not cause anything in the child except anxiety and hostility. Of course, this outcome does not always occur, and there are quite frequent cases when a child, having found himself in a good class with an understanding teacher, “matures” as his studies progress.

The child is not prepared for school intellectually, and this often means that no matter how much the child strives to be a student, gain knowledge, and go to school, his intellectual base is not yet sufficient to comprehend the material that is given in class. As a result, the child quickly gets tired, does not keep up with the class, worries about his failure and, as a defense, becomes disillusioned with school values. And in this case, the school does not cause anything but acute anxiety.

The child was always very vulnerable, impressionable and shy by nature. For such children, entering school/changing schools, etc. is obviously a stress factor. This may be aggravated by a not very successful school staff, an emotional/hard teacher, as well as the presence of additional factors.

The child often moves from school to school, from class to class, teachers often change, etc. This often leads to the child not mastering the skills necessary for successful adaptation to a new environment and not having time to feel like “he belongs.” And the further you go, the more difficult it is to join an already established team.

Any stress, even not related to school (divorce of parents, loss of a loved one, injury, etc.), can greatly affect learning and perception of school, because a child has one psyche and it is difficult, having received a blow in one area of life, not get a response in another.

Everything that is characteristic of anxious adults can also be attributed to anxious children. Usually these are very unconfident children with unstable self-esteem. Their constant feeling of fear of the unknown leads to the fact that they rarely take the initiative. Being obedient, they prefer not to attract the attention of others, they behave in an exemplary manner both at home and at school, they try to strictly fulfill the requirements of parents and teachers - they do not violate discipline, they clean up their toys. Such children are called modest, shy. However, their exemplary behavior, accuracy, and discipline are of a protective nature - the child does everything to avoid failure.

Anxious children are characterized by frequent manifestations of restlessness and anxiety, as well as a large number of fears, and fears and anxiety arise in situations in which the child would seem to be in no danger. They are particularly sensitive.

A. Prikhozhan identifies the following characteristics of anxious children at school:

Relatively high level of learning ability. In this case, the teacher may consider such a child incapable or insufficiently capable of learning.

These students cannot identify the main task in their work and concentrate on it. They try to control all elements of the task simultaneously.

If it is not possible to immediately cope with the task, the anxious child refuses further attempts. He explains his failure not by his inability to solve a specific problem, but by his lack of any abilities.

During the lesson, the behavior of such children may seem strange: sometimes they answer questions correctly, sometimes they are silent or answer at random, including giving ridiculous answers. Sometimes they speak confusedly, excitedly, blushing and gesticulating, sometimes barely audible. And this has nothing to do with how well the child knows the lesson.

When an anxious student is pointed out about his mistake, the oddities of behavior intensify; he seems to lose all orientation in the situation, and does not understand how he can and should behave.

A. Prikhozhan believes that this behavior is observed specifically among anxious junior schoolchildren. And yet, school anxiety is characteristic of children of other school ages. It can manifest itself in their attitude towards grades, fear of tests and exams, etc.

However, it should be noted that in children of primary school age, anxiety is not yet a stable character trait and is relatively reversible with appropriate psychological and pedagogical measures; it can be significantly reduced if teachers and parents raising him follow the necessary recommendations.

So, disturbances in emotional development in primary school age are caused by two groups of reasons: constitutional reasons (type of the child’s nervous system, biotone, somatic features, that is, disruption of the functioning of any organs) and features of the child’s interaction with the social environment.

Among the reasons for school anxiety are the following: the child is not ready for school education emotionally or intellectually, his character has always been very vulnerable, impressionable and shy, he often moves from school to school, from class to class, teachers often change, etc.

Bibliography

Arakelov N.E., Lysenko E.E. Psychophysiological method for assessing anxiety // Psychological Journal - 1997. - No. 2. – pp. 34-38.
Varga A. Ya. Systemic family psychotherapy: A short lecture course. – St. Petersburg: Rech, 2001. – 325 p.
Introduction to practical social psychology. Textbook for higher education. institutions / Ed. Yu.M. Zhukova, A.A. Petrovskaya, O.V. Solovyova. – 2nd – ed. – M.: Smysl, 1996. – 373 p.
Wenger A.L. Psychological counseling and diagnostics: A practical guide. – M.: Genesis, 2007. – 190 p.
Garbuzov V.I. Practical psychotherapy, or how to restore self-confidence, true dignity and health to a child and adolescent. – St. Petersburg: Sfera, 1994. – 159 p.
Zakharov A.I. How to prevent deviations in a child’s behavior. – M.: Education, 1986. – 129 p.
Izard K. Human Emotions: Trans. from English / Ed. L.Ya. Gozmana, M.S. Egorova; Introductory article by A.E. Olshannikova. – M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 1980. – 315 p.
Isaev D.N. Psychopathology of childhood. – Spetslit, 2007. – 464 p.
Brief psychological dictionary / Ed. A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky. – Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1998. – 512 p.
Musina I.A. Diagnosis of the level of anxiety based on the nature of time perception: dis. ...cand. Psychol. Sci. – M.: Moscow State University named after. M.V. Lomonosova, 1993. – 213 p.
Nemov R.S. Psychology. Textbook for higher education students. Ped. textbook establishments. In 3 books. Book 1 General fundamentals of psychology. – 2nd ed. – M.: Education: VLADOS, 1995. – 576 p.
Prikhozhan A. M. Causes, prevention and overcoming anxiety // Psychological science and education. – 2001. – No. 2. – P. 12 -18.
Prikhozhan A.M. Anxiety and fear in primary schoolchildren / Mental health of children and adolescents. – M., Voronezh. – 2000. – 304 p.

Absolutely every person has experienced a feeling of anxiety at least once in their life. It often accompanies us at some important events, exams and in exciting situations.

Often a person himself understands that there is no good reason to worry, but still cannot get rid of this feeling. Let's try to figure out what anxiety is, what it is associated with and why it is so difficult to cope with.

Anxious state

In psychology, anxiety is understood as one of the psychological characteristics of an individual that is unique to humans. It can manifest itself in a high tendency of the individual to such conditions, which are often unfounded, such as fear, anxiety and restlessness.

This concept can also be likened to as if you are experiencing some kind of fear, worry, discomfort or feeling of some kind of threat. Anxiety in psychology is classified as a psychological neurotic disease, which is characterized by a different clinical picture and the fact that a person’s personality does not change under the influence of anxiety.

A state of anxiety can be observed in a person at any age - both in a small child and in older people. According to statistics, nowadays young girls and boys are most likely to experience anxiety.

Agree, every person can be in a state of anxiety, but you can start talking about an anxiety disorder only when this feeling becomes too strong and manifests itself uncontrollably in a person. At such a moment, this feeling will prevent the person from leading his usual lifestyle and performing his professional activities.

Currently, there are a large number of diseases, the symptoms of which are anxiety and anxiety. These are various types of disorders. A strong feeling of anxiety can keep a person in a restless state for quite a long time, causing him to worry all the time.

Why does this feeling develop?

To be honest, science does not yet fully know why a person experiences anxiety. For example, one person may experience anxiety without significant reasons, while another may experience anxiety as a result of some psychological situation. Some scientists are inclined to believe that this disease can be transmitted genetically. They believe that there may be a certain gene in our body that leads to feelings of anxiety.

If we turn to the theory of psychology, it is easy to find out that the reasons for the manifestation of an anxious state can be conditioned reactions of the body. These reactions occur in the presence of some stimulus, although it also happens that such situations are repeated, but the stimulus cannot be identified.

Other scientists, in turn, say that an anxious state may be caused by some biological phenomena. One example is a situation in which the number of neural impulses increases.

But let's return from heaven to earth. There are much more mundane reasons for anxiety that people experience. One of these reasons can be considered a lack of physical activity and poor nutrition. Every person knows that proper nutrition and strict adherence to a daily routine affect a person’s emotional and psychological health.

Also, to maintain the health of our body, it is necessary to control the level of chemicals, vitamins and minerals. In the absence of any element of this picture, the body may be subject to negative influence from the environment, which in turn can lead to an anxiety disorder.

A person may also feel anxious in a new, unknown environment. This environment may seem dangerous to him. Based on his life experience, a person can conclude that the situation could be dangerous for him, and this causes him to feel anxious. If you think about what else can lead to an anxious state, you can think of some kind of mental illness. A large number of diseases that are associated with the human psyche have such a symptom as irritability.

But if we still talk about diseases, it is worth noting that these do not necessarily have to be mental diseases. Disturbances in the endocrine system can also cause anxiety. The most striking example is the change in hormonal levels in women during pregnancy. Many people have probably noticed that almost all pregnant women are highly anxious for no apparent reason.

In some cases, a sudden feeling of anxiety may be a signal of a heart attack or a sharp decrease in blood sugar levels. It is worth noting that anxiety is one of the symptoms of diseases such as schizophrenia, various neuroses, and can also lead to alcoholism and so on.

Various types

Currently, there are many types of anxiety. We will note only some types of anxiety:

1. Social anxiety. This type is characterized by a feeling of discomfort when a person is in society, among other people. For example, in a store, on the street, at public events, and so on.

2. Mass alarm. The basis of this anxiety is often a lack of self-confidence, in one’s strengths and abilities. A person is afraid of seeming funny to others, of getting into an awkward situation. A distinctive feature is that in the case of such anxiety, a person does not think about the task itself that needs to be done, but about various possible failures. Vivid examples of such situations are exams, public speaking, and so on.

3. Separate anxiety disorders. When a person is left in some unfamiliar situation or without the person he needs, he experiences this type of anxiety.

4. Personal anxiety. To put it simply, it is a person’s fear in the face of death. He is afraid that he could die at any moment, and this begins to worry him.

In a small percentage of people, anxiety may be a special personality characteristic if increased anxiety is always present in a person, regardless of place and time. It is also worth noting that anxiety in children is quite common. And unlike an adult, a small child experiences anxiety much more often. Adults must understand that it is necessary to remove disturbing situations from the child, and the sooner the better.

Visible symptoms

Doctors identify quite a few symptoms associated with anxiety. Doctors assure us that they all manifest themselves at different levels of functioning of our body. Here are a few symptoms that may tell you that you are experiencing anxiety:

High activity of emotional and physical background.
High heart rate.
Fast breathing.
A sharp rise in pressure.
Feeling weak.
Disruption of biological processes.
Poor appetite.
And so on.

As noted earlier, from a psychological point of view, increased anxiety is a disease that needs to be gotten rid of. But how to get rid of anxiety?

The way to get rid of anxiety situations

The very first and most important step when trying to reduce anxiety should be to accurately determine the cause of anxiety. You need to figure out what kind of anxiety you have - is it constant or occurs from time to time.

But, having understood the reasons, we nevertheless do not always understand how to cope with it in the optimal way. In such a situation, the best option is to go to a qualified specialist. As practice shows, detecting and treating anxiety is quite simple.

Usually, only two weeks are enough to confirm the correctness and effectiveness of the prescribed treatment. To do this, the psychiatrist needs to take as many physiological readings as possible from your body. At the same time, identifying an anxiety disorder may not cause difficulties, but determining its type may cause problems.

To relieve the disorder, the doctor may prescribe some medications. In order not to push anyone to self-medicate, which could lead to a worsening situation, we will not name examples of such medications. An anxious person must understand that he needs to learn how to cope with this anxiety. When reducing the level of anxiety, he must realize that it is not as easy as it may seem at first glance.

Another option to reduce your tension is to seek psychological help. A psychologist will always tell you how to cope with the disease. Remember, this fight must be supported by someone. This could be a doctor, friends, or relatives.

Self-control will also relieve high levels of anxiety. Try to control yourself and your thoughts. Try to reduce the number of thoughts that something must happen and that this “something” is bad. If you don't stop telling yourself that everything will be bad, then you will inevitably develop anxiety syndrome. Despite the fact that this is also an anxiety-related disease, it is not so easy to treat.

As you learn how to deal with troubling situations, be sure to maintain the calm state of mind that you arrive at. Try to get into a state of anxiety as little as possible.

In most cases, anxiety can be corrected. Today, there are a large number of medications and psychological techniques that can help solve this problem. The most important thing during treatment is to choose the right methods that will not harm you, and to maintain a state of calm and reasonableness after treatment.

And if you do decide to self-medicate, please be careful. You can absolutely accidentally drive yourself into a deeper state, from which it will be more difficult to get out. Remember, in this world you don’t need to worry about little things, and if you think about it, everything in the world is little things. Author: Olga Morozova

Anxiety is one of the individual psychological characteristics of a person, manifested by a person’s increased tendency to worry, worry, and fear, which often does not have sufficient grounds. This state can also be characterized as an experience of discomfort, a premonition of some kind of threat. Anxiety disorder is usually classified as a group of neurotic disorders, that is, psychogenically caused pathological conditions characterized by a varied clinical picture and the absence of personality disorders.

Anxiety can occur in people of any age, including young children, however, according to statistics, most often young women aged twenty to thirty suffer from anxiety disorder. And although from time to time, in certain situations, everyone can experience anxiety, we will talk about an anxiety disorder when this feeling becomes too strong and uncontrollable, which deprives a person of the ability to lead a normal life and engage in usual activities.

There are a number of disorders that include anxiety as symptoms. This is phobic, post-traumatic stress or panic disorder. Normal anxiety is usually referred to as generalized anxiety disorder. Excessively acute feelings of anxiety cause a person to worry almost constantly, as well as experience various psychological and physical symptoms.

Reasons for development

The exact reasons that contribute to the development of increased anxiety are unknown to science. In some people, a state of anxiety appears for no apparent reason, in others it becomes a consequence of experienced psychological trauma. It is believed that a genetic factor may also play a role here. Thus, in the presence of certain genes in the brain, a certain chemical imbalance occurs, which causes a state of mental tension and anxiety.

If we take into account the psychological theory about the causes of anxiety disorder, then feelings of anxiety, as well as phobias, may initially arise as a conditioned reflex reaction to any irritating stimuli. Subsequently, a similar reaction begins to occur in the absence of such a stimulus. The biological theory suggests that anxiety is a consequence of certain biological anomalies, for example, with an increased level of production of neurotransmitters - conductors of nerve impulses in the brain.

Increased anxiety can also be a consequence of insufficient physical activity and poor nutrition. It is known that maintaining physical and mental health requires the correct regimen, vitamins and microelements, as well as regular physical activity. Their absence negatively affects the entire human body and can cause an anxiety disorder.

For some people, anxiety may be associated with a new, unfamiliar environment that seems dangerous, their own life experiences in which unpleasant events and psychological trauma took place, as well as character traits.

In addition, a mental state such as anxiety can accompany many somatic diseases. First of all, this includes any endocrine disorders, including hormonal imbalance in women during menopause. A sudden feeling of anxiety is sometimes a warning sign of a heart attack and may also indicate a drop in blood sugar levels. Mental illness is also very often accompanied by anxiety. In particular, anxiety is one of the symptoms of schizophrenia, various neuroses, alcoholism, etc.

Kinds

Among the existing types of anxiety disorder, adaptive and generalized anxiety disorder are most often encountered in medical practice. In the first case, a person experiences uncontrollable anxiety in combination with other negative emotions when adapting to any stressful situation. In generalized anxiety disorder, the feeling of anxiety persists permanently and can be directed to a variety of objects.

There are several types of anxiety, the most studied and most common of them are:

For some people, anxiety is a character trait when a state of mental tension is always present, regardless of specific circumstances. In other cases, anxiety becomes a kind of means of avoiding conflict situations. At the same time, emotional stress gradually accumulates and can lead to the emergence of phobias.

For other people, anxiety becomes the other side of control. As a rule, a state of anxiety is typical for people who strive for perfection, have increased emotional excitability, intolerance to mistakes, and worry about their own health.

In addition to the various types of anxiety, we can distinguish its main forms: open and closed. A person experiences open anxiety consciously, and this state can be acute and unregulated or compensated and controlled. Anxiety that is conscious and significant for a specific individual is called “instilled” or “cultivated.” In this case, anxiety acts as a kind of regulator of human activity.

Hidden anxiety disorder is much less common than open anxiety disorder. Such anxiety is unconscious to varying degrees and can manifest itself in a person’s behavior, excessive external calm, etc. In psychology, this state is sometimes called “inadequate calm.”

Clinical picture

Anxiety, like any other mental state, can be expressed at various levels of human organization. So, at the physiological level, anxiety can cause the following symptoms:

At the emotional-cognitive level, anxiety manifests itself in constant mental tension, a feeling of helplessness and insecurity, fear and anxiety, decreased concentration, irritability and intolerance, and the inability to concentrate on a specific task. These manifestations often cause people to avoid social interactions, look for reasons not to attend school or work, etc. As a result, the state of anxiety only intensifies, and the patient’s self-esteem also suffers. By concentrating too much on one's own shortcomings, a person may begin to feel self-loathing and avoid any interpersonal relationships and physical contacts. Loneliness and a feeling of “second-classness” inevitably lead to problems in professional activity.

If we consider the manifestations of anxiety at the behavioral level, they may consist of nervous, mindless walking around the room, rocking in a chair, banging with fingers on the table, fiddling with one’s own lock of hair or foreign objects. The habit of biting your nails can also be a sign of increased anxiety.

With anxiety disorders of adaptation, a person may experience signs of panic disorder: sudden attacks of fear with the manifestation of somatic symptoms (shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, etc.). With obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsessive anxious thoughts and ideas come to the fore in the clinical picture, forcing a person to constantly repeat the same actions.

Diagnostics

Diagnosis of anxiety should be made by a qualified psychiatrist based on the patient's symptoms, which should be observed over several weeks. As a rule, it is not difficult to identify an anxiety disorder, but difficulties may arise when determining its specific type, since many forms have the same clinical signs, but differ in the time and place of occurrence.

First of all, when suspecting an anxiety disorder, a specialist pays attention to several important aspects. Firstly, the presence of signs of increased anxiety, which may include sleep disturbances, anxiety, phobias, etc. Secondly, the duration of the current clinical picture is taken into account. Thirdly, it is necessary to make sure that all existing symptoms do not represent a reaction to stress, and are also not associated with pathological conditions and damage to internal organs and body systems.

The diagnostic examination itself takes place in several stages and, in addition to a detailed interview with the patient, includes an assessment of his mental state, as well as a somatic examination. Anxiety disorder should be distinguished from the anxiety that often accompanies alcohol addiction, since in this case a completely different medical intervention is required. Based on the results of the somatic examination, diseases of a somatic nature are also excluded.

Introduction

Anxiety concept

Classification of types of anxiety

Forms of anxiety

Stages of anxiety development

Existential anxiety

Features of anxious personalities

Causes of anxiety

Bibliography

Introduction

There are such types of feelings as moral, intellectual and aesthetic. According to the classification proposed by K. Izard, emotions are distinguished between fundamental and derivative.

From the combination of fundamental emotions, such a complex emotional state as anxiety arises, which can combine fear, anger, guilt, and interest-excitement.

1 The concept of anxiety

In the psychological literature one can find different definitions of this concept, although most studies agree on the need to consider it differentially - as a situational phenomenon and as a personal characteristic.

A.M. Parishioner points out that anxiety is the experience of emotional discomfort associated with the expectation of trouble, the premonition of impending danger. Anxiety is distinguished as an emotional state and as a stable property, personality trait or temperament.

V.V. Suvorova defines anxiety as a mental state of internal restlessness, imbalance and, unlike fear, it can be pointless and depend on purely subjective factors that gain significance in the context of individual experience. She attributes anxiety to a negative set of emotions in which the physiological aspect dominates.

According to R. S. Nemov’s definition, “anxiety is a constantly or situationally manifested property of a person to enter a state of increased anxiety, to experience fear and anxiety in specific social situations.”

Karen Horney Anxiety is an integral component of the psyche. She believed that anxiety is formed in the earliest relationships with parents. If the parents are not attentive enough to the child, do not show enough love and care for him, the child develops a hostile attitude towards them. The child is forced to repress this relationship, since he is dependent on them. Later, these repressed feelings of resentment and hostility spread to relationships with other people.

Horney also identified in her concept “basic anxiety” - this intense and pervasive feeling of insecurity.

The consideration of anxiety as a subject of psychological research originates in the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. Initially, he suggested that anxiety was a consequence of inadequate discharge of libidinal energy. Freud later revised this assumption and came to the conclusion that anxiety is a function of the ego and its purpose is to warn the individual of an impending threat that must be met or avoided.

In his works, Wilhelm Reich expanded Freud's psychodynamic theory to include, in addition to libido, all basic biological and psychological processes. Reich viewed pleasure as the free movement of energy from the core of the body to the periphery and to the outside world. Anxiety was understood by him as an obstacle to the contact of this energy with the outside world, returning it inside, which causes “muscle clamps”, distorts and destroys natural feeling, in particular sexual. Reich introduced an important aspect into the description of the phenomenology of anxiety - rigidity and muscle tightness, refusal to perform an action by blocking bodily organs.

The central category of Adler's theory - the inferiority complex - also includes anxiety. Anxiety arises due to the need to restore a lost social feeling (a sense of unity with society), when the social environment poses challenges to the individual. Even if the task is very simple, it is perceived by him as a test of usefulness, which leads to an excessive emotional reaction to it and unnecessary stress when solving it.

All authors consider anxiety differently, but we can come to the general conclusion that anxiety is a state of fear, anxiety experienced by a person in anticipation of trouble. Typically, anxiety leads to defensive reactions.

Classification of types of anxiety

Ch. Spielberger distinguishes two types of anxiety:

The first of them is the so-called situational anxiety, that is, generated by a specific situation that objectively causes anxiety. This condition can occur in any person in anticipation of possible troubles and life complications. This condition is not only completely normal, but also plays a positive role. It acts as a kind of mobilizing mechanism that allows a person to approach emerging problems seriously and responsibly.

What is abnormal is rather a decrease in situational anxiety when

a person, in the face of serious circumstances, demonstrates carelessness and irresponsibility, which most often indicates an infantile life position, insufficiently formulated self-awareness.

The second type is the so-called personal anxiety. It can be considered as a personal trait, manifested in a constant tendency to experience anxiety in a wide variety of life situations, including those that objectively do not lead to this. It is characterized by a state of unaccountable fear, an uncertain sense of threat, and a readiness to perceive any event as unfavorable and dangerous. A child susceptible to this condition is constantly in a wary and depressed mood,

It is difficult for him to contact the outside world, which he perceives as frightening and hostile. Consolidated in the process of character formation to the formation of low self-esteem and gloomy pessimism.

A.M. Parishioners distinguishes types of anxiety based on situations related to:

With the learning process - learning anxiety;

With self-image – self-esteem anxiety;

With communication – interpersonal anxiety.

Sigmund Freud spoke about the presence of two types of anxiety: primary and signal. Each of these types is the ego's response to increasing instinctual or emotional tension.

At the same time, the alarm is a watchdog mechanism that warns the EGO about an impending threat to its balance. Primary anxiety - prevents the emotion that accompanies the disintegration of the Ego. The function of the signal alarm is to prevent primary anxiety by enabling the ego to take precautionary measures (protection), so it can be considered an inwardly directed form of vigilance.

Freud identified the following types of anxiety.

1. Realistic - is a response to an objective external threat; when expressed excessively, such anxiety weakens the individual’s ability to effectively cope with the source of danger. Moving to the internal plane in the process of personality formation, it serves as the basis for two types of anxiety, which differ in the nature of awareness.

2. Neurotic anxiety is caused by the fear of being unable to control one’s internal impulses, and is a modified form of realistic anxiety, when the fear of external punishment is not caused by an objective situation. In psychoanalytic terms, this is an emotional response to the threat that unacceptable impulses from the ID will become conscious.

3. Moral anxiety occurs when immoral impulses are blocked by the social and cultural norms perceived by the individual. The fact that such impulses arise causes self-blame (feelings of shame and guilt, even self-hatred).

Other types of anxiety described in psychoanalysis include:

a) castration anxiety caused by real or imagined threats to sexual function;

b) separation anxiety, caused by the threat of separation from objects perceived as necessary for survival;

c) depressive anxiety, provoked by fear of one’s own hostility to “good objects”;

d) paranoid anxiety (persecution), which is based on fear of attack from “bad objects”;

e) objective anxiety, in which fear is caused by a real external threat;

f) neurotic anxiety - a term that covers all of the above types of anxiety, with the exception of objective, i.e. a) and b) in contrast to c) and d), which are covered by case g);

g) psychotic anxiety, which sometimes refers to threats to one's own identity.

Forms of anxiety

A form of anxiety is understood as a special combination of the nature of experience, awareness, verbal and nonverbal expression in the characteristics of behavior, communication and activity. The form of anxiety manifests itself in spontaneously developing ways of overcoming and compensating it, as well as in a person’s attitude towards this experience.

A.M. Prikhozhan identifies the following forms of anxiety:

1. Open anxiety - consciously experienced and manifested in activity in the form of a state of anxiety. It can exist in various forms, for example:

As acute, unregulated or poorly regulated anxiety, most often disorganizing human activity;

Regulated and compensated anxiety, which can be used as an incentive to perform appropriate activities, which, however, is possible mainly in stable, familiar situations;

Cultivated anxiety associated with the search for “secondary benefits” from one’s own anxiety, which requires a certain personal maturity (accordingly, this form of anxiety appears only in adolescence).

2. Hidden anxiety - unconscious to varying degrees, manifested either in excessive calm, insensitivity to real trouble and even denial of it, or indirectly through specific forms of behavior (pulling hair, pacing from side to side, tapping on the table, etc.):

Inadequate calmness (reactions based on the principle “I’m fine!”, associated with a compensatory-defensive attempt to maintain self-esteem; low self-esteem is not allowed into consciousness);

Leaving the situation.

“Disguised anxiety” can also be identified. “Masks” of anxiety are those forms of behavior that have the form of pronounced manifestations of personal characteristics generated by anxiety, which at the same time allow a person to experience it in a softened form and not express it externally. Aggression, dependence, and apathy are most often described as such “masks.” , excessive daydreaming, etc. There are aggressive-anxious and dependent-anxious types (with varying degrees of awareness of anxiety).