The Issue of Anxiety and Avoidance - Research Paper Example

? Attachment and Daily Life Experiences The issue of anxiety and avoidance has been under research for the past decades. Many people disregard anxiety and avoidance as serious disorders. However, when anxiety is not accorded the required attention, it may lead to other complex complications including negative emotions and depressed mood. This paper will focus on characteristics associated with anxiety and avoidance. These characteristics influence the way people think, feel, and behave. This paper will also assess ways through which these characteristics articulate themselves in the lives of people. Attachment and Daily Life Experiences Introduction Anxiety has been in existence since the beginnings of mankind. However, anxiety was not regarded as a serious disorder until in the past few decades. Anxiety is easily detected as it is associated with feelings (Brown & Barlow, 1994). However, these feelings vary from one individual to another. Anxiety is common and may affect any person. Once one is affected by anxiety, one is subjected to a state of worry and fear (Andrasik, 2006). The general characteristic of anxiety is associated with the feeling of excessive thinking of the outcome of events eagerly waited for (Otto & Smits, 2011). Persons with anxiety feel preoccupied, and always encounter problems in and attempt to get out of it. Persistent anxiety may bring some complications which later lead to more complex complications like negative emotions and depressed moods (Ainsworth, 2000). People with anxiety tend to worry about several issues at the same time. Characteristics associated with anxiety Although not all worries lead to anxiety, an exaggerated worrying accompanied with fear that exceeds six months becomes a serious problem. Actually, people who have serious anxiety disorder expect worst. Simpson, et al., (2010), noted that some of the worries that these people have include excessive worry about money, family problems, or stressing work. They find it to be difficult to relax, something that may lead to insomnia (Simpson, et al., 2010). The symptoms associated with anxiety intensify their worrying, and they may find it difficult to let off their concern. However, anxious behaviors vary from one individual to another. The situation worsens when people fail to accept that they are suffering from a disorder. They strongly oppose to seek medical attention (Andrasik, 2006). They believe that the cause of their condition is the only solution to their problem. People with anxiety suffer from low self-esteem (Otto & Smits, 2011). They blame the things they worry about for causing low self-esteem. Just like other disorders, anxiety partially results from genetic make up or developmental vulnerabilities, and environmental exposure. Characteristics associated with avoidance Avoidance behaviors are common to people experiencing post distress disorder. This can be argued to be true because people tend to avoid consequences of things they are not sure about (Fonagy & 2001). Most of avoidance behaviors are related to fear. Due to experiences relating to stress disorders, they tend to adopt avoidance behaviors to get them through each day (Andrasik, 2006). People with avoidance behaviors have the desire to be in relationships, but they lack necessary skills required for social interactions. In order to evade any conflicts emanating from these relationships, they withdraw from such relationships, and get into other relationships. Their behaviors are characterized by social withdrawal, distrustfulness. The first form of avoidance is total or true avoidance. An example of this is when people are afraid of public speaking, and they tend to avoid showing up in public places. Their fear is what people would talk about them concerning an issue that might have attracted public attention. Another form of avoidance is escape. When the mission to use avoidance fails, many people use escape behaviors (Andrasik, 2006). This is used to deal with issues related to feared situations. This may involve leaving social gatherings or places that one may be required in one way or another to participate in social matters like performance or addressing people. Some examples of escape behaviors include leaving a gathering in the middle of speech, commitment in other activities, for example, attending to some chores during dinner time among others (Andrasik, 2006). When both avoidance and escape are impossible, individuals use partial avoidance. (Andrasik, 2006). Some of the common behaviors associated with partial avoidance include avoiding direct eye contacts, or sitting at the back of the gathering or classroom. How Characteristics associated with anxiety and avoidance influence the way people think, feel, and behave Anxiety has a lot to do with behaviors of affected persons. However, anxiety may influence the behavior of a person either negatively or positively (Simpson, et al., 2010). For example, anxiety could be useful in situations where the affected person is anxious about eagerly waited situations. A student eagerly waiting for the final exam may be anxious about the outcome of the exam, and this may force him or her to put more effort to pass the exam. Some people feel emotional about passing a job interview. This may trigger some efforts to have a thorough rehearsal. This way, anxiety will have shaped the way these two categories of people behave in order to achieve their objectives. Due to the nature of anxiety situations, anxiety sufferers may attempt to keep away from circumstances that make them fearful. When in high anxiety, they are more likely to have negative emotions. In this regard, a sufferer might become snappy, develop sadness moods, others start drinking, and others become bad-tempered (Simpson, et al., 2010). They are more likely to be hostile and show cohesive behaviours but more likely to reconcile with conflicts. They have low feelings of acceptance and experience fluctuations between days, or low sense of belonging. They are fully dependant on others and less satisfying. People with prolonged anxiety may develop a pessimistic attitude towards almost everything. They always think of the worst eventualities. Untreated anxiety disorder may intensify and lead to panic disorder. At this point, people with this condition are overwhelmed by terror. Some people with anxiety may change drastically. People they cared for, a few minutes with them might lead to quarrel and confrontations, and making worst conclusions on simple situations (Worell & Goodheart, 2006). In the day to day life, these people become restless and lack concentration on their work (Otto & Smits, 2011). Some of them are faced with many risks in their daily activities. For example, when walking in the streets, their mind is always preoccupied and overwhelmed by the unfulfilled anxiety situations, something that may risk them to be knocked down by vehicles as they fail to pay attention when crossing the road. When attending to their duties, they are unable to follow instructions (Silverman, 2011). However, people who are high in avoidance tend to behave differently. Even if they don't feel acceptance from others, they think it is okay; they have low relationship satisfaction and don't care about sense of belonging (Silverman, 2011). They are also more likely to ignore conflicts and show emotional withdrawal. These people have problems forming romantic relationship. They do not care much about emotional bonding. They tend not to have a feeling of having to permanently depend on others, thus, they rarely have permanent relationships (Fincham & Cui, 2011). Characteristics associated with avoidance also tend to make affected persons not to experience any remorse when they undergo relationship breakups. It is also apparent that people affected by avoidance, and due to the nature of lack of emotional bonding, they engage in casual sex (Fonagy, 2001). Avoidance also makes people desist from sharing their inner feelings, emotions and thoughts with the people they associate with. Due to this fact, these people can not be able to reassure their partners during stressful moments (Fonagy, 2001). It has also been argued that people with avoidance behaviours tend to develop a tendency of not involving themselves in work or social activities. Additionally, they tend to run away from their responsibilities. They also tend to over-analyze actions of their friends. They exaggerate general comments made by others, and use them as an excuse to walk away from them (Worell & Goodheart, 2006). They do not seem to care about misunderstandings with their friends; instead, they walk away as they do not find any reasons to engage in any form of negotiations or reconciliation (Worell & Goodheart, 2006). This means that they do not wholly depend on others. What others perceive about them does not affect the way they live. For this reason, they do not involve themselves much with others. Rationale for my prediction My prediction is that when comparing how anxiety differs in a romantic relationship and close relationship, anxiety is linked to negative emotions and then that leads to depressed mood in both romantic and close relationships. When anxiety is evaluated in terms of its relation with the two relationships, concern is how anxiety sufferer relationship with their partner is affected, and how anxiety is related to negative emotions and depressed moods in both romantic and close relationships. It can be argued that prediction is based on the fact that anxiety is associated with causing different problems to the sufferer, and which might develop negative emotions and then later depressed moods, especially if the sufferer fails to seek medical attention. Literatures have indicated that severe and prolonged anxiety can lead to more psychological complications. Results According to the results, in a romantic relationship, anxiety was found to have moderate relationship with negative emotions, and negative emotions were also found to have moderate relationship with depressed moods. Therefore, it can be argued that anxiety is highly linked to negative emotions, which later leads to depressed moods in a romantic relationship. This could have been attributed to the fact that in a romantic relationship, there is only one person to rely on. This implies that even when they feel neglected or ignored, they have no one else to depend on. So, anxiety intensifies and develops into negative emotions and depressed moods. In close relationships, the situation is a bit different, probably due to the level of attachment between the partners. It can be argued that the reason why there were no associations between anxiety, negative emotions and depressed moods in close relationships could be because they always have many close people to depend on. So even if the relationship seems not to work, or when they have misunderstandings with their partners, they can easily seek refuge from other people. They can socialize with other people who would take place of the other person. Therefore, it becomes impossible for anxiety to be liked to negative emotions and depressed moods in close relationship Discussion Although initial concern of attachment theory developed by John Bowlby (1907-1990) was on the relationship between infants and their caregivers, interests of how attachment theory is applicable in adult relationships have been high in the past decades (Fonagy, 2001). Bowlby attachment characterizes human experience. With such deliberations from Bowlby, researchers begun to investigate the attachment process and the role they play in adults. Much of these researches are in the contexts of a romantic and close relationship. Studies have, however, found that the context of a romantic relationship is somehow the same attachment behavioral system that generate emotional bond between infants and their caregivers (Fonagy, 2001). The same features that characterize the attachment of infants and their care givers are the same features that characterize the romantic relationships (Fincham & Cui, 2011). For example, in both attachments, both partners engage in baby talk, both feel insecure when the other is away, both feel safe in the presence of the other, and both share discoveries with one another. However, the attachment bond of romantic partners is intensified by the fact that apart from emotional attachment that exist between infant and care givers, a romantic love is cultivated by attachment behavioral system which give rise to sexuality (Simpson & Rholes, 1998), due to this attachment, anxiety in a romantic relationship is linked to negative emotions and depressed modes because romantic partners are committed to one another and have no other such partners. In relation to the results of first prediction, concerning romantic relationship, it can be argued that anxiety had moderate relationship with negative emotions and also depressed mood due to the fact that the sufferer had limited options in terms of seeking consolation. In this regard, the sufferer developed negative emotions and depressed moods. It is apparent that when persons affected by anxiety fail to have people to support them emotionally, they develop negative emotions and depressed mood (Fincham & Cui, 2011). The situation is worsened when the other partner fails to give room for consolation, comfort or reconciliation. Due lack of other options, the affected partner is compelled to remain in the relationship, even when things are not working out between them. However, this worsens the situation because the state of anxiety continues to pile day after, thus, leading to severe anxiety characterized by negative emotions and depressed mood. In regard to close relationship results, the reason why there was no association between anxiety and negative emotions and depression moods could be because people in close relationships have no attachment that abides them together, and that they have other people to turn to. Therefore, even if they are abandoned by these friends, they can still get other people to rely on. So, their state of being anxious is not affected by this course in any way. The probability of developing negative emotions and depressed moods is reduced as long as they can seek refuge elsewhere (Fincham & Cui, 2011). One of the recommended treatments of anxiety is interpersonal psychotherapy (Mayer, 2005). This treatment articulates on interpersonal relationship that involves communication with ones romantic and social partners (Vye, Scholljegerdes & Welch, 2007). With the help of a therapist, individuals with anxiety can be offered with tips on how to improve their relationships. This normally involves relaxation techniques that give the patient the feeling of well being (Mayer, 2005). This may involve daily use of imagery and meditative breathing exercises. Persons with anxiety are able to monitor their tensions once these techniques have been identified to enable them deal with anxiety situations (Kearney, 2005). Through repetitive application of these techniques, patients are able to view such worries as short term irritations rather than realistic long term problems (Mayer, 2005). It is also evident that the way couple solves their problems triggers anxiety of one partner or both. Conclusion Once one is affected by anxiety, one is subjected to a state of worry and fear. The general characteristic of anxiety is associated with the feeling of excessive thinking of the outcome of events eagerly waited for. Persistent anxiety may bring some complications which later lead to more complex disorders like depressed mood. Avoidance behaviors are common to people experiencing post distress disorder. Anxiety may influence the behavior of a person either negatively or positively. In regard to the results of research, persons with anxiety tended to maintain moderate relationships with their romantic partners with negative emotions and depressed moods characterizing the relationship. The relationship in close relationship was not affected when compared to the relationship between partners in a romantic relationship. References: Ainsworth, P. (2000). Understanding depression. N.Y.: Univ. Press of Mississippi. Andrasik, F. (2006). Comprehensive Handbook of Personality and Psychopathology Volume 2. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Brown, D. & Barlow, H. (1994). The empirical basis of generalized anxiety disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151:1272-1280 Fincham, D. F & Cui, M (2011). Romantic relationships in emerging adulthood. Cambridge [U.K.]; New York: Cambridge University Press. Fonagy, P. (2001). 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