Causes, Development, and Analysis of Anxiety Disorders - Essay Example

Anxiety is a term that is used to describe a full range of psychiatric disorders. Whereas in times past, individuals may have characterized anxiety merely as stress, the way in which professionals now understand and can characterize the symptoms of anxiety has become greatly more nuanced. Ultimately, rather than making the individual’s life less fulfilling, chronic anxiety has the ability to cause a litany of other health problems in addition to shortening the individual’s overall life expectancy in the most extreme cases. As a means of better understanding anxiety, this brief analysis will seek to define the two different categories of anxiety that exist as well as to briefly discuss some of the many different types of disorders that fall under this umbrella definition of psychiatric issues. Furthermore, the analysis will also consider the case of PTSD and the ramifications that this has for the way in which anxiety disorders are understood and treated. Firstly, anxiety disorders ultimately break down into the following two categories: continuous or episodic. As the name implies, episodic anxiety disorders are generally ones which afflict the individual for a brief period of time. Comparatively, continual anxiety disorders are those that are chronic; and only therapy and/or pharmaceutical intervention is able to lessen or reduce their occurrences. Moreover it can and should be understood that anxiety itself relates to four different aspects of experience that an individual might have. These differentials of experience relate to the following physical tension, dissociative anxiety, mental apprehension, and physical apprehension. This is indicated with regard to research engaged by Bogels et al. (2010). Still further, anxiety disorders are almost invariably differentiated between phobic disorders, panic disorders and generalized anxiety disorders. As a function of the vast level of differential that exists within the definition and understanding of anxiety, the reader can come to a more complete and profound understanding of the way in which such an occurrence impacts upon a multitude of levels of personal health and well-being (Lews-Fernandez et al., 2010). As with many psychotic episodes, anxiety and the many disorders that are defined by it oftentimes do not have any type of cure. Rather, they can only be treated by a combination of therapy and pharmaceuticals. Of these two means of treatment, therapy is oftentimes the most effective if it can be integrated within the very first few months or years after the anxiety is first evidenced. The increase of effectiveness of therapy within this brief window of time is mainly attributed to the fact that the individual is able to relearn, reclassify, and redefine the way in which this anxiety integrates with their life and an understanding of reality. Similarly, Brown et al. (2001) denote that if anxiety cannot be effectively reduced or eliminated with the proper application of therapy, it is oftentimes necessary for pharmacological means to be utilized. Ultimately, as with all use of pharmaceuticals, such an application of drugs only masks the symptoms and cannot provide any level of sure to the individual. Yet, stress in and of itself is not often the only culprit of anxiety disorders. Scientists have recently come to understand that anxiety disorders are oftentimes the result of that have occurred at some point during the life of the individual that suffers from them. Although it is not always true, such, can oftentimes be result of physical or sexual violence or having witnessed a particular action or series of situations that made a profound and lasting impact upon the individual. As such, as these situations are recalled, remembered, or referenced with respect to the experience that a person has within their day-to-day life, anxiety attacks and panic disorders can be exhibited. For instance, as the paper has discussed, the case supposed to manage stress syndrome is oftentimes triggered by similar situations, sights, sounds, smells, or experiences that mimic those that were represented with respect to the situation that initially caused the poster medics stress to be exhibited in the first place. Yet, apart from situations that have been referenced with respect to prior issues or experiences, medical researchers have also recently come to understand that panic attacks and stress disorders are oftentimes genetic with respect to their ultimate origin. Within such an understanding, even if an individual does not have a particular experience that causes them to feel panic or to suffer from an anxiety disorder such as PTSD, they may have a genetic predisposition to witnessing these very same symptoms. Although medical science has yet to definitively conclude that there is a genetic link to anxiety attacks/disorders, much of the recent scholarship has purposefully indicated that the likelihood of this is something that must be considered and cannot be dismissed out of hand. With this being understood, cognitive behavioral therapy has come to be recognized as a particularly effective and useful means of engaging with an individual that suffers from any of a litany of different types of anxiety disorders. As the name implies, cognitive behavioral therapy employs a dual approach that engenders both cognitive and behavioral elements. The cognitive component usually assist the individual with helping to question how they are interpreted by others and the behavioral complement usually seeks to engage the individual with respect to the way in which reactions to anxiety provoking situations come to be represented within their own life. Depending upon the severity and type of anxiety disorder in question, the cognitive and behavioral approach might be effective in and of itself. However, in terms of more severe anxiety disorder/panic attacks, the practitioner may find it necessary to incorporate medical intervention in the form of pharmaceuticals and/or therapy in tandem with one another. Ultimately, regardless of the scope and nature of the anxiety that a person is feeling, if it in fact can be determined as anxiety disorder, either of these two approaches or both together can be utilized as a means of effectively treating the symptoms they are facing and seeking to increase the overall quality of their life. In terms of the actual medication that is oftentimes utilized to treat anxiety disorders, these are invariably related to the benzodiazepine family of drugs. As such, these drugs assisted the individual in leveling out their mood and approach to stress inducing situations and help to provide a baseline through which cognitive and/or behavioral therapy can assist the individual towards creating and adapting useful mechanisms by which they can engage with “stress sources”. It is at this juncture that the analysis should focus specifically upon the stress sources and the means by which they are interpreted/engaged with the individual that suffers from anxiety disorders. One of the most referenced forms of anxiety disorders that is currently represented throughout the media is that of PTSD. With regards to why this particular topic has been chosen, the reason for this centers upon the greatly increased prevalence that PTSD has experienced within society due to the fact that armed forces of the United States have been actively engaged in combat operations for over 10 years now; armed forces for which I was an active member for some period of time. As a result of this combat induced PTSD, a far greater level of individuals are forced back into the society once their combat tours have completed and must seek to find ways to live with the conditions that they have sustained. Although it cannot be understood that all PTSD is defined by or impacted upon by military service, the fact of the matter is that this is where the majority of the disorder within the current society is evidenced. With regards to the etiological theory that best defines and describes PTSD and why it exists, it is the understanding of this student that this approach is necessarily that of the “conditioning” theory. Eng (2002) relates that even though conditioning theory is incomplete with respect to differentiating PTSD from a range of other anxiety related disorders, it does however uniquely define the means by which the disorder is evidenced within the life of the individual who suffers from it and helps the researcher to understand what needs based approaches can be engaged to create a positive impact upon their life as a result. Although there are a range of therapies in existence for PTSD, the fact of the matter is that one of the best approaches, as well as the most effective, is with regards to what is known as cognitive behavioral therapy. In this way, Bystristsky (2006) illustrates that the individual who utilizes such a treatment is interested in “re-wiring” or “re-approaching” the way that they think with regards to key issues. In such a way, it is possible to relearn an older approach reminiscent of a time in which PTSD did not define the life of the individual or constrain his/her responses to stimuli. With regards to changing the way in which the medical profession seeks to treat and understand PTSD, it would be the recommendation of this student that the profession seek to approach PTSD first and foremost from a means of addressing the root causes rather than merely prescribing medication to cover the symptoms. Although it might be easier and quicker to treat the symptoms rather than strike at the root clinical causes of PTSD, seeking to ameliorate these triggers at their very basic level can have a lifetime positive approach with regards to the way in which the individual integrates with such a disorder (Borden et al, 2013). Finally, due to the broad level of different psychiatric issues that anxiety necessarily entails, it must be understood that the broad majority of these cases go undetected, undiagnosed, and underreported. As a means of better understanding this, the reader should realize that anxiety and the many disorders associated with it are likely one of the most undiagnosed and underrepresented of the psychiatric issues that plague the current generation. Similarly, with respect to changing the way in which society stigmatizes PTSD, it would be the recommendation of this author that the stakeholder within society realize that PTSD is very much a real, clinical and verifiable disorder that has absolutely nothing to do with an “imagined” disorder. All too often, PTSD is incorrectly understood as somehow not legitimate or indicative of an individual that is not courageous enough to face their fears; approaches that are categorically false and uninformed. References Bogels, S., Alden, L., Beidel, D., Clark, L., Pine, D., Stein, M., & Voncken, M. (2010). Social anxiety disorder: questions and answers for the DSM-V. Depression And Anxiety, 27(2), 168-189. doi:10.1002/da.20670 Brown, T. A., Di Nardo, P. A., Lehman, C. L., Campbell, L. A. (2001) Reliability of DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders: implications for the classification of emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110(1), 49-58. doi: 10.1037/0021- 843X.110.1.49 Bystritsky, A. (2006). Treatment-resistant anxiety disorders. Molecular Psychiatry, 11(9), 805- 14. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001852 Eng, E. L. (2002). Recognizing anxiety disorders in the aftermath of the world trade center crisis. Journal of Religion and Health, 41(1), 27-31 Lewis-Fernandez, R., Hinton, D., Larua, A., Patterson, E., Hofmann, S., Craske, M., & Liao, B. (2010). Culture and the anxiety disorders: recommendations for DSM-V. Depression And Anxiety, 27(2), 212-229. doi:10.1002/da.20647 Read More