The Anatomy of Anxiety
http://www.therapist-psychologist.com/psychology_article/articles/228/1/The-Anatomy-of-Anxiety/Page1.html
Steven Griggs, Ph.D.
I've been an outpatient psychologist for 24 years. I work with many conditions every day, including relationships, self-esteem, work, assertiveness, children's behavior, anxiety and depression. I started writing ebooks on these subjects, which helped people change without therapy, but greatly speeded up therapy, too. To let people know about what I've written, people said I should write aritcles, which are like snippets of the full-blown ebook, which is available on my website.
Dr. Griggs By Steven Griggs, Ph.D.
Published on January 10, 2010
This is a short description of the nuts and bolts
of how anxiety emerges into awareness, and why.
The process is quite dynamic, and largely out of
awareness, unless one understands the cues and
purpose of anxiety.--Written by a psychologist
of how anxiety emerges into awareness, and why.
The process is quite dynamic, and largely out of
awareness, unless one understands the cues and
purpose of anxiety.--Written by a psychologist
How To Diagnose and Treat Your Anxety
The Anatomy of Anxiety
In my capacity as an outpatient psychologist, I have seen clients with
anxiety for twenty-five years. That and depression seem to be the number
one and number two presenting complaints.
Anxiety accompanies major depression seventy-five percent of the time,
not because it is a separate syndrome in this case, but because it appears to
be part of the depression problem. So, treating the depression, with
psychotherapy, medications, or both, usually resolves a significant part of
the anxiety. This is diagnostic, because if the anxiety lifts in rough
proportion to the depression, then it probably is really about depression,
not anxiety, proper.
However, we all know there are anxiety "experiences" that do not
correlate with depression. Panic attacks and phobias are two. OCD and
PTSD can occur separately, too, but often are accompanied by depression.
Or, there can be what psychologists call "co-morbid" conditions. This
is when anxiety and depression co-exist as separate entities, not necessarily
one causing the other.
It is a little confusing, but necessary to distinguish, because in this
article I'm going to talk just about anxiety of the panic and phobia kinds,
even though OCD sufferers will be able to "relate."
What is the role of anxiety? Anxiety is the harbinger of feeling out
of control. It is a "red flag" from the back of your mind (think
subconscious) to the front of your mind (think conscious). It's telling you
that if you keep doing what your are doing, or thinking what you are thinking,
something bad is going to happen and you are not going to be in control.
What is the response to anxiety? Most of us stop doing what we were
doing or thinking what we were thinking, and then our anxiety diminishes.
Presto! Instant reward for avoiding! We no longer have to deal with those
pesky "background" thoughts or feelings because we removed ourselves from the
triggers (think "cues") that elicited our anxiety. In other words,
something in our environment reminded us of something we don't like (memory,
feeling, situation, etc.), but we didn't really want to consciously pay
attention to it. So, when our subconscious mind perceived that this was
going to be stimulated (memories, feelings, thoughts, etc.), it directed us
to steer clear and "disconnect."
This is a neat trick and an almost automatic defense mechanism. We all
do this every day. The subconscious is very, very good at picking up
potential threats, way before the conscious mind catches on. Panic and
phobia sufferers have perfected this escape trick, and at the same time have
buried lots of feelings, memories and other associations (to the trigger).
They have very high internal "pressure" due to such a load of background
feelings, memories, etc. Precisely to the extent they have an overload of
repressed material and precisely to the extent they strive to avoid it
dictates the strength of the panic or phobia.
-Dr.Griggs
http://www.drgriggs.org
In my capacity as an outpatient psychologist, I have seen clients with
anxiety for twenty-five years. That and depression seem to be the number
one and number two presenting complaints.
Anxiety accompanies major depression seventy-five percent of the time,
not because it is a separate syndrome in this case, but because it appears to
be part of the depression problem. So, treating the depression, with
psychotherapy, medications, or both, usually resolves a significant part of
the anxiety. This is diagnostic, because if the anxiety lifts in rough
proportion to the depression, then it probably is really about depression,
not anxiety, proper.
However, we all know there are anxiety "experiences" that do not
correlate with depression. Panic attacks and phobias are two. OCD and
PTSD can occur separately, too, but often are accompanied by depression.
Or, there can be what psychologists call "co-morbid" conditions. This
is when anxiety and depression co-exist as separate entities, not necessarily
one causing the other.
It is a little confusing, but necessary to distinguish, because in this
article I'm going to talk just about anxiety of the panic and phobia kinds,
even though OCD sufferers will be able to "relate."
What is the role of anxiety? Anxiety is the harbinger of feeling out
of control. It is a "red flag" from the back of your mind (think
subconscious) to the front of your mind (think conscious). It's telling you
that if you keep doing what your are doing, or thinking what you are thinking,
something bad is going to happen and you are not going to be in control.
What is the response to anxiety? Most of us stop doing what we were
doing or thinking what we were thinking, and then our anxiety diminishes.
Presto! Instant reward for avoiding! We no longer have to deal with those
pesky "background" thoughts or feelings because we removed ourselves from the
triggers (think "cues") that elicited our anxiety. In other words,
something in our environment reminded us of something we don't like (memory,
feeling, situation, etc.), but we didn't really want to consciously pay
attention to it. So, when our subconscious mind perceived that this was
going to be stimulated (memories, feelings, thoughts, etc.), it directed us
to steer clear and "disconnect."
This is a neat trick and an almost automatic defense mechanism. We all
do this every day. The subconscious is very, very good at picking up
potential threats, way before the conscious mind catches on. Panic and
phobia sufferers have perfected this escape trick, and at the same time have
buried lots of feelings, memories and other associations (to the trigger).
They have very high internal "pressure" due to such a load of background
feelings, memories, etc. Precisely to the extent they have an overload of
repressed material and precisely to the extent they strive to avoid it
dictates the strength of the panic or phobia.
-Dr.Griggs
http://www.drgriggs.org