Role of Anxiety in Personality Development - Term Paper Example

Analysis of the personality development and the associated constructs of anxiety Analysis of the personality development and the associated constructs of anxiety There are no scientific evidences for the presence of emotions in animals other than human. But it is a fact that a major part of human life is controlled by pleasant or unpleasant emotions. Only at the time of sleeping, human is not under any influence of normal emotions even though dreams can still create different types of emotions while a person sleeps. Emotions or feelings can be pleasant and unpleasant. Pleasant feelings will always fill positive thoughts and positive energy in the minds of a person whereas unpleasant feelings will always generate negative thoughts and negative energy. Anxiety is one psychological disorder which is reported even from the beginning of recorded human history. In Holy Bible incidents of depression are reported to two prominent personalities; King David and Job. Many people still don’t have much idea about anxiety as a disease since the symptoms of anxiety are visible among even normal people occasionally. Like many of the psychological disorders, both heredity and environment can cause depressive behaviors Anxiety is always caused by negative thoughts and negative energy driven by unpleasant emotions or feelings. Anxiety can be defined as a psychological disorder characterized by cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components. It is driven by low mood and lack of activity. Persons with anxiety disorders may exhibit sadness, hopelessness, helplessness, worthlessness, guilty feeling, restlessness, uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry. Anxiety can change the normal conduct of a person and it can be considered as a normal reaction to stress. An 80 year old mother of one of my friends, who is staying near my home, is undergoing treatment currently for anxiety related psychological problems. Lady X (For convenience throughout this paper this lady is referred as ‘Lady X’) was a brave and courageous lady who has faced several problems during her childhood with respect to poverty. She was the second child of a seven member family. She was married to a soldier at an early age of 18. Her husband was busy with his military assignments till 58 years of age and enjoyed only 2 months of his annual holidays with his wife and four children for a prolonged 20 years of his military services. When he retired at the age of 58, he was quiet happy as all the four children were already got employment and his family burdens were considerably reduced. Lady X was the one who brought up her children and worked hard for the wellbeing of their children even though Mr. X assisted her with money. Lady X is still alive even though her husband died around 6 years before. Lady X started to show signs of a depression and anxiety around one year before, more precisely saying from 2009 onwards. I know this lady for a long period and I would like to develop this paper with the help of the case study of this lady in order to identify the the personality development and the associated constructs of anxiety. Role of Anxiety in personality development Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. As no person can claimed to be free of stress, anxiety is common to all the people, one way or other. But the volume or amount of anxiety may vary from person to person. When anxiety becomes excessive, it may fall under the classification of an anxiety disorder. Some people may manage their stress more effectively so that they may face less anxiety even when they face severe problems whereas some other persons may develop anxiety and depression even for small things. In other words personality plays an important role in the development of anxiety. Some of the studies revealed that some persons are vulnerable to extreme form of anxiety known as panic attacks because of low self esteem and mental power or cognition. Symptoms of anxiety Prominent symptoms of anxiety according to Richard J. Davidson (2000) are; “decreased motor activity, decreased eating and drinking, weight loss, lack of weight gain, decreased grooming, decreased competitive behavior, increased errors in choices, decreased responses, sleep disturbances or reduced sleep, early morning awakening etc” (Davidson, 2000, p.4). Lady X has started to complain about lack of hunger from 2008 onwards. She has complained that she feels something is obstructing the passage of food at her throat. She had a habit of reading the news papers thoroughly and once a news paper published an article about the toxic ingredients contained in food items available in the market. Lady X read that article thoroughly and after few days, she started to complain about loss of appetite for food. She started to grow vegetables in her land and tried to reduce the consumption of food items purchased from groceries. In that article, the author claimed that no food items available in the market are safe or free from toxic ingredients. The family members thought that Lady X’s loss of appetite for food was due to some stomach problems or digestion problems. They brought her to a hospital and consulted with a physician. The Physician, after going through a thorough examination, concluded that apart from some thyroid problems, she was perfectly alright physically and prescribed some vitamin tablets and tonics in order to regain the appetite for foods. The physician informed the family members of Lady X that no medicine is required at present for the thyroid problem as it was not much serious. Lady X regained her appetite for food after few weeks from taking the medicine and the family members started to forget about it. After a couple of months she again started to complain the same thing and this time the family members do not care much about it. She has lost around 5 kgs in weight and her relatives treated the weight loss as a positive sign for maintaining her health as she had a heavily constructed body earlier. Another day, same newspaper published another article in which the author pointed out that most of the old people were not looked after well at home and they are taking shelter in Cheshire homes at present. Lady X started to develop concerns about her future after reading this news paper article. She asked her children, whether they will be able to look after her when she becomes too old. Even though the children assured their assistance, she was not ready to accept it. She gathered stories about old people who took shelter in Cheshire homes and started identify herself as one among them. But nobody noticed her psychological disorders even though she has started to exhibit slight mood changes occasionally. Lady X often started to complain about sleeplessness and nobody took it as a serious thing as the relatives thought that sleeplessness is another problem associated with old age. Lady X had a habit of awakening early in the morning because of her agitated mind and lack of sleep. She had a habit of singing Christian devotional songs early in the morning and reading bible. Her normal routine of singing and reading bible was around 5 am in the morning. But at the beginning of 2009 onwards, she started to sing and read bible even at 4am and 3 am because of her lack of sleep. Her body became too week and she fell down one evening in an unconscious state and the family members admitted her in the hospital. Physician has identified low blood pressure and low sodium and potassium levels in blood as the reason for her unconsciousness; but he again failed to recognize the psychological problems. After 5 days admission in the hospital, Lady X returned home in a completely different mood. The physician told my friend and other family members that her mood change was due to the low sodium and potassium levels in her body and once the levels of sodium and potassium became normal, she will regain her mental health. At home she started to exhibit strange behaviors; she started to put her hand on head and started to examine her body parts suspiciously. She has developed a habit of massaging her body parts, especially the head and hands. Even after the sodium and potassium levels were regained to the normal values, she continued her peculiar behavior and finally the physician realized that instead of sodium and potassium, anxiety and depression were her major problems and asked my friend to show her to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist concluded that her problems were anxiety related and started medicines for that. DR. VASUDEVAN (2006) has mentioned that “rapid or pounding heartbeat, difficult breathing, tremulousness, sweating, dry mouth, tightness in the chest, sweaty palms, dizziness, weakness, nausea, diarrhea, cramps, insomnia, fatigue, headache, loss of appetite, and sexual disturbances are some other major symptoms of anxiety” (DR. VASUDEVAN, 2006). Most of these symptoms are associated with some other physical diseases and hence in many cases, people will not recognize them as the symptoms of anxiety. Lady X has suffered majority of the above symptoms and she was unable to either organize her thoughts or plan effectively. During the initial stages of her anxiety disorder, she has exhibited more vigilance and attention in doing some simple tasks whereas when the anxiety disorder became chronic, she failed to focus on any of her daily activities. Physical effects of anxiety include irregular heartbeats, muscle weakness, tension, fatigue, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, stomach aches, or headaches. Lady X had muscle weakness, stomach aches, fatigue and irregular heartbeats because of anxiety disorder which earlier suspected as symptoms of some other diseases. Her blood pressure also increased drastically even though she had taken less food. Earlier, before identifying the disease, physician has given her many tablets for reducing blood pressure without knowing the exact villain; the anxiety disorder. Lady X always complained that she was feeling hot even in rainy seasons. Even cold water became hot for her because of the anxiety disorder. Theories associated with anxiety disorder There are many theories associated with anxiety disorders like; learning theory, cognitive theory, physiological theory, psychoanalytical theory etc. Learning Theory In learning theory, anxiety is seen both as a response to learned cues and as a drive, or motivator, of behavior. Most learning theorists maintain that anxiety is derived from reaction to pain. Anxiety can thus be reduced by removing or avoiding the source or sources of the situations that have produced pain. Avoidance may become firmly established and lead to constricted or bizarre behavior. A better way to reduce anxiety is to pair a strong, positive reinforcer such as food with the frightening situation so that the stimulus that formerly elicited anxious responses becomes associated with positive feelings (DR. VASUDEVAN, 2006). Lady X has not developed anxiety because of any pain she suffered physically or mentally. In fact she has developed anxiety automatically after reading news paper stories about the pathetic end of life situations of old age people. She has derived pain out of the article she read. So, only way of reducing anxiety of Lady X is to inject a feeling of security in her mind by the beloved ones. The love and care extended towards her by the beloved ones may force her to revert her feelings, emotions and thinking. Learning theory was formulated by Ivan Pavlov who believed that learning occurs due to classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning. “Classical conditioning happens when an animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that has intrinsic meaning based on how closely in time the two stimuli are presented” where as instrumental conditioning “happens when an animal learns to perform particular behaviors in order to obtain an intrinsically rewarding stimulus” (Dombeck, Ph.D. and Wells-Moran, Ph.D, 2006). In Lady X’s case, instrumental conditioning seems to be more relevant. Lady X developed a defense mechanism in order to attract the attention of the beloved ones. Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological strategies brought into play in order to cope with reality. Lady X developed suspicion over her beloved ones’ abilities and attitude in looking after her during her old age and her body automatically started to show signs and symptoms to attract the attention of the beloved ones. Cognitive Theory In the control of anxiety, some psychologists have focused on the role of cognition as the origin of anxiety. Cognitive theories emphasize the process of appraisal and the often unnoticed internal dialogue that amplifies emotional response. Experiments have shown that the interpretation of a situation determines whether a person feels anxiety or some other emotion. Learning to substitute benign reappraisals for unrealistically negative "self-talk" reduces anxiety (DR. VASUDEVAN, 2006). Cognitive theory assumes that anxiety depends on the cognitive abilities of a person. This theory argues that two persons react to a situation differently. The article published in the newspaper about the pathetic conditions of old people might be read by thousands of old people. It is not necessary that all of them may develop anxiety disorder because of that. On the other hand, that article should have struck many of the old people differently and some of them might have even developed the same anxiety disorder because of that. In other words same story or incident can affect people differently. Those who with higher levels of cognition may not bother much about that article whereas Lady X like people may develop anxiety and depression because of the new information. Eysenck, (n. d) has mentioned that individual differences with respect to high and low traits play an important role in causing anxiety and anxiety depends largely on cognitive biases (Eysenck, n. d) Psychoanalytic Theory In 1926 Freud radically revised his ideas about anxiety and claimed that repression caused anxiety. He distinguished two types of anxiety, a traumatic, reality-oriented "automatic" anxiety in which the system was overwhelmed, and a secondary, "neurotic" anxiety in which reprisals of these situations were anticipated, thus setting in motion defensive processes. "Automatic anxiety" was an affective reaction to the helplessness experienced during a traumatic experience (Psychoanalysis - Theory Of Anxiety And Affects, 2010) Lady X has the external demand of protection and for that purpose; she has started to develop internal symptoms after she came across with the newspaper article. According to Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory, lady X’s anxiety can be termed as an Automatic anxiety" which can be attributed as a reaction to the helplessness. Lady X has realized that if she was denied the care and attention from the beloved ones, only option left her is Cheshire homes. But her ego never allowed her to accept such realities since she disliked the Cheshire home life. She wished to spend her final days with her family members and for that purpose her body developed the anxiety disorder unconsciously. DR. VASUDEVAN (2006) has pointed out that “anxiety arise from a persons need to guard against traumatic anxiety”. In his opinion, “the ego appraises its ability to cope with external demands and the push of internal drives” and “when normal methods of coping with these pressures threaten to fail, the ego responds with anxiety, which then mobilizes the person to take new action” (DR. VASUDEVAN, 2006) Physiological Theory Some medications, called anxiolytics, lead to the hope that anxiety can be understood physiologically. The exact metabolic pathways remain incompletely known, however, and appear to be quite complex. Among the currently most used chemicals are the later benzodiazepines and the serotonin-reuptake inhibitors. A combination of medication and therapies, including relaxation training, provides the best treatment for anxiety and panic attacks (DR. VASUDEVAN, 2006) Even though anxiety is a mental disorder, medical science has developed a lot so that even cognitive functions can be controlled using medicines. In other words, mental functions can be controlled physiologically. Rapid changes can be observed in the cognitive abilities of persons when they are getting old. It is difficult for the old people to judge things correctly and they may sometimes say same thing again and again. Memory abilities may also start to decrease as a person getting old. Brain is the most complex component of our body and it works with the help of multiple factors like neurons, cells, and the neural networks. Amen & Routh, (2004) have pointed out that “understanding brain circuits is vital for properly understanding depression and anxiety. The prefrontal cortex is the brain’s supervisor and helps with decision making, attention span, judgment, and impulse control”. In their opinion, “when it is underactive, people may have trouble in focusing and often exhibit poor judgment and “when it is overactive people tend to worry and have trouble letting go of hurts and bad thoughts” (Amen & Routh, 2004, p.4). In short, prefrontal cortex has definite role in controlling the character of a person. Over activity and under activity of prefrontal cortex is equally dangerous. Both over activity and under activity of prefrontal cortex can cause anxiety related problems. Under activity of prefrontal cortex can prevent a person from focusing continuously on a specific topic whereas over activity of prefrontal cortex can increase the worry. In both cases the ultimate result would be the development of anxiety related psychological disorders. Ball & Birge, (2002) have pointed out that the brain has the capacity to repair the damages caused to brain cells and neurons. Moreover, they also argued that dementia occurs when the balance lost between neuronal injury and repair (Ball & Birge, 2002). Physical activities help a person to provide the required exercises to the brain cells in order to keep them in good condition. In Lady X’s case, physical activities were reduced considerably and subsequently her mental activities also reduced a lot. Just like physical activities strengthen the physical condition of the body, mental activities are necessary to strengthen the cognitive abilities of a person. Nutrition is another factor which can affects the cognitive development. Malnutrition creates problems to the body and the mind. Lady X has developed lack of appetite for foods after she read an article about the harmful ingredients in food and drinks available in the market. The loss of appetite for food resulted in malnutrition and contributed heavily to her anxiety related mental disorder. Socialization is one of the major requirements for keeping a person mentally healthy. Old age prevented Lady X from keeping good company with others and she has started to develop a feeling that she is rapidly approaching her end of life. Anxiety, not only consist of physical effect, but it consists of emotional ones as well. Feeling of apprehension, trouble in concentrating, anticipating the worst, irritability, restlessness and nightmares/bad dreams are some of the end products of anxiety disorder. Ethical considerations of anxiety Nobody knows from where we come and where we go. Even though science and technology developed a lot, nobody knows the mysteries surrounding life before birth and life after death. On the other hand, religions have their own interpretations and perceptions about the life after death. Most of the religions believe that the death is the beginning of a new life. These religions are of the opinion that only our body would be destroyed after death whereas the soul or spirit escape from our body and attain another proportion at another place to continue our life. Religions also taught their believers that they are accountable for all the good and evil activities performed during their earthly life. A person’s life after death depends on his activities when he was alive on earth. Most of the religions believe in heaven and hell theory. In their opinion, those who performed good things in this world will get heaven or salvation whereas those who performed badly during their earthly life will get hell after their death. Lady X was a highly religious person who believed in Christianity. According to Bible, not even a single person in the world is a saint and all the people are sinners. According to Christian belief, sinners will get severe punishment after death. Lady X was not sure about whether she was a saint or sinner. The concerns about the punishments after death started to develop in her mind when she approached her old age. The uncertainty over the life after death caused lot of worries and terror in the mind of Lady X which finally came out in the form of anxiety disorder. Luciani, (2006) has mentioned that “when insecurity is allowed to embellish difficult life situations like unnecessary doubts, fears and negatives, then you are not being driven by facts, but by fictions, fictions perpetrated by insecurity” (Luciani, 2006, p.12). Thoughts are pictures rather than realities according to one of the greatest Indian psychologist Dr. P.M. Mathew. Thoughts will become reality only when we were able to do or perform things based on our thoughts. For example, we can think of becoming a billionaire. Until we became a billionaire, that thought may not have significant meaning; it is only a picture. The thought of becoming a billionaire will become a fact only after we would be able to earn a billion dollar money. Persons with anxiety disorders are often driven by negative thoughts which are pictures in reality. Most of their thoughts may not have any relation with facts and they might be forced to live in an imaginary world in which they were driven by fictions rather than facts. It is difficult to convince them that they are living an unreal world. Solutions for anxiety disorder A little adjustment in life style can bring enormous benefits in the management of anxiety disorders. Allocation of certain time for fun and relaxation, seeking emotional support from concerned persons when feeling tensed, good maintenance of body, reduction of responsibilities, asking help from other when needed are some of the modifications which is needed to be done in the life styles in order to escape from anxiety related problems. Self help strategies are the most helpful medicine in preventing and reducing anxiety disorders. When anxiety goes out of control, the person can seek the help from professional counselors in order to know more about countering or reducing anxiety related emotions or feelings. In some cases, medical conditions can cause anxiety disorders. Thyroid problem, hypoglycemia, or asthma can cause anxiety and before prescribing medicines for anxiety, the physician should confirm that the patient do not have any physical problems which cause anxiety problems. Behavioral therapy and medications are the most common treatment options for anxiety disorders. Behavioral therapy is conducted in two ways; cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy. As the name suggests, cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on thoughts—or cognitions—in addition to behaviors. When used in anxiety disorder treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy helps you identify and challenge the negative thinking patterns and irrational beliefs that are fueling your anxiety. In exposure therapy for anxiety disorder treatment, you confront your fears in a safe, controlled environment. Through repeated exposures, either in your imagination or in reality, to the feared object or situation, you gain a greater sense of control. As you face your fear without being harmed, your anxiety gradually diminishes (Anxiety Attacks and Disorders: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment, 2010) Like most of the other psychological disorders, negative thoughts are the main villain in causing anxiety disorder. As mentioned earlier, most of the negative thoughts would be fictions rather than facts which may force the person to connect all the negative things one by one just like the links in a chain. Connected thoughts will increase the anxiety as the patient will visualize all the negative incidents happened to others as his/her own experience. For example, suppose the patient heard about a person killed by another. The patient will somehow connect that killing with some of his fictions and thereby increases his tensions and anxiety. In cognitive behavioral therapy the psychologist will try to educate the patient about how to avoid negative thoughts and connected thoughts. Deep breathing and relaxation techniques might be helpful in countering anxiety disorders. In chronic states, cognitive therapy may not be effective. Under such circumstances medication is required. “A variety of medications, including benzodiazepines and antidepressants, are used in the treatment of anxiety disorders” (Anxiety Attacks and Disorders: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment, 2010). But medication alone may not cure the anxiety disorder completely. Once the patient was able to gather his thoughts or able to focus on what other are saying, medicines combined with behavioral therapy can reduce anxiety considerably. References 1. Amen, D.G. & Routh, L. C. (2004). Healing Anxiety and Depression. Publisher: Berkley Trade (December 7, 2004) 2. Anxiety Attacks and Disorders: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_types_symptoms_treatment.htm 3. Ball, L.J. & Birge, S.J. (2002). Prevention of brain aging and dementia, Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12424869 4. Davidson, R.J. (2000). Anxiety, Depression, and Emotion. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (July 15, 2000) 5. DR.VASUDEVAN, S. (2006). DIFFERENT THEORIES OF ANXIETY. Retrieved from http://www.shvoong.com/medicine-and-health/neurology/116671-different-theories-anxiety/ 6. Dombeck, M. Ph.D. and Wells-Moran, J. Ph.D. (2006). Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?id=9712&cn=353 7. Eysenck, M. (n. d). Anxiety and Cognition. Retrieved from http://www.cognitivepsychologyarena.com/anxiety-and-cognition-9780863774782 8. Luciani, J.J. (2006). Self-Coaching: The Powerful Program to Beat Anxiety and Depression. Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (December 1, 2006) 9. Psychoanalysis - Theory Of Anxiety And Affects. (2010). Retrieved from http://science.jrank.org/pages/10905/Psychoanalysis-Theory-Anxiety-Affects.html Read More