IT CRAWLS TOWARDS ME!
You have to give a presentation at work today. You start searching for the folder with the PPT you saved last night but you cannot find it.You begin to mentally trace your steps from last night. You had obviously saved it.. but what if you did not? Your anxious thoughts begin to build as the scenario of your boss slamming me for your careless, unprofessional behavior plays in your mind. Just then your colleague comes in front of you and tells you that the boss is waiting for you in the conference room.Your heart starts pounding, your throat gets dry, beads of perspiration appear on your forehead. You get a mail from your husband with the presentation attached to it. Phew!! That was close.
Anxiety is a complex emotional response that is similar to fear. Both arise from similar brain processes and cause similar physiological and behavioral reactions, both originate in portions of the brain designed to help animals deal with danger. However, they differ in one aspect that fear is typically associated with a clear, present and identifiable threat and sometimes our past experiences ,whereas anxiety occurs in absence of immediate peril.. In other words I feel an emotion of fear when I see a truck heading towards me in full speed but I feel anxious thinking about how the truck could have hit me but the truck is not actually present at the moment. It is just a dreadful, discomforting idea. Anxiety can limit people in surprising ways.
Like fear, anxiety has not only cognitive/subjective components but also physiological and behavioral components. At cognitive/subjective level, anxiety involves negative mood, worry about possible future threats or danger, self pre-occupation, and a sense of being unable to predict the future threat or to control it if it occurs.
At a physiological level, anxiety often creates a state of tension and chronic overarousal, which may reflect risk assessment and readiness for dealing with danger should it occur.
At a behavioral level, anxiety may create a strong tendency to avoid situations where danger might be encountered,but the immediate behavioral urge to flee is not present with anxiety as it is with fear.
Among the anxiety disorders recognised in DSM-5 are specific phobia, social phobia( social anxiety disorder), panic disorder, agoraphobia, and generalised anxiety disorder.
Cultural aspects also play a key role in defining the subject of anxiety for a particular individual. In individualistic countries like the USA, the main source of worry remains to maintain a higher self-image and ego whereas, in collectivistic cultures like India, the individual gets worried about other aspects than self-image including family, spirituality and conformity to society. Dreams are a major source of anxiety because they are thought to indicate that one may be bewitched.
