Anxiety: causes, symptoms, and treatment approaches

Anxiety -- Mental Disorder or Just Modern Culture?

Sometimes it seems like to live even an ordinary life, in today's day and age, is to live in a state of perpetual anxiety. One is anxious to get to work or school on time in one's car, while one is commuting, one is anxious to perform one's task to the highest standard, and even during leisure time, there is anxiety about looking the right way, paying one's bills for gas or the newest 'must have' high tech gadget, or simply staying alive in an increasingly dangerous world.

A state of anxiety, as opposed to a temporary state of depression or stress, might be described as a pervasive sense of dread or fear that never abates. It never comes to a climax of adrenaline or despair and then dissipates -- it is simply always there, a constant nagging source of worry upon the body and mind. When anxiety becomes a part of daily life, the wear and tear upon the body, mind, and spirit can seem unbearable to the sufferer.

In some ways, one could say that a pathological state of anxiety is feeling stressed out all of the time, even about ordinary things that should not prove stress or grief. It is normal to feel stressed about taking a major exam, such as the SATs, or to face the prospect of losing a dearly beloved job -- or a loved one.

But is it normal to feel not simply stressed about exams, but to feel stressed out about homework every night? Is it normal to feel as if every assignment is a test of one's intellectual mettle, and has a crucial impact upon one's GPA and thus one's entire life prospects of getting a good job, getting into a good graduate school, etc. Is it normal to feel as if the axe of downsizing is going to deprive one's self of one's livelihood and retirement nest egg at any moment, because of the unstable corporate environment where one works? Is it normal to feel anxious about the safety and security about one's spouse or child, given the perils they might face simply going to work and school?

The sad answer to many of these questions, is yes -- that life is growing increasingly competitive, cutthroat, and dangerous. Thus it might have become 'normal' for many people to feel constantly anxious. This does not mean, however, because anxiety is normal and endemic to many contemporary existences, that it is a good thing. Rather, the pervasiveness of anxiety drains the joy from personal life and the productivity from one's working, public life.

Ironically, this increased normalcy of the 'anxious' way of thinking has also meant an increased push amongst the psychiatrist community to medicate anxiety with prescription drugs. However, as concerns about side effects -- dare one say, anxiety -- about undetected side effects of even supposedly reputable drugs prescribed by doctors increase, some therapists are turning to new forms of talk therapy instead, rather than to medication to medicate their patient's anxieties.

Some therapists are even advocating a turn to religion or philosophy as a way of self-medicating one's self throughout an anxious day. Faith and reasoned thought can give an anxious person some much-needed perspective. For instance one therapist suggests that patients who are experiencing anxiety actually "allow themselves to feel the storm [of anxiety within] whip up, then let it pass, concentrating on not doing anything," rather than retreating to the hectic, hurrying busyness that is often the instinctive treatment for anxious feelings. (Carey, 2004) "This Zen-like self-observation, called mindfulness, is an exercise not in avoidance but in feeling and enduring emotional pain. It dramatizes one principle of the therapy: that what patients do can be independent of how they feel. Emotion does not have to rule behavior." Or to put it more bluntly, as the psychiatrist told one of his patients, "you can feel [anxious] like a mental patient, but that doesn't mean you have to act like one." Accept the feeling, don't feel anxious about feeling anxious, about feeling less than perfect, and simply and let the anxious feelings of worry pass. (Carey, 2004)

The most common sources for anxiety often have their roots in the current pace modern life, which can make every decision and every choice a do-or-die scenario, even if it doesn't have to be so dire. Therapists suggest cognitive methods for disputing catastrophic assumptions. For instance, instead of assuming "I must be inadequate if I can't fix this myself" or assuming it is inappropriate in a relationship to make demands or to refuse them of one's partner, one must approach decisions and conflicts with a sense of perspective and balance. This new stress on balance and self-acceptance, combined with a healthy dose of perspective is a new trend in therapy, what clinicians and health officials are calling "dialectical behavior therapy," a deliberately provocative approach to assumptions a patient might have about him or herself. (Carey, 2005)