The anguish It is an affective state that appears as a reaction to an unknown danger or an impression interpreted as dangerous. It is usually accompanied by intense psychological discomfort and slight alterations in the functioning of the body.
The main symptoms of distress are increased heart rate, tremors, excessive sweating, a feeling of tightness in the chest, and shortness of breath. These sensations are accompanied by a series of thoughts and a tense state of mind..
The sensations referring to the anguish and the psychological state generated usually appear unexpectedly. Likewise, it can transform into a psychopathology known as panic disorder when it occurs in a very intense and recurrent way..
The causes of distress can be very varied; there is no single factor that can cause its appearance.
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When defining and delimiting anxiety, it is important to differentiate it from fear.
Fear is an emotion that appears at certain times. Normally, when the person is exposed to some type of danger that threatens their integrity.
Anxiety, on the other hand, is an affective state that is characterized by the generation of multiple thoughts and feelings about the harm or negative things that can happen to oneself.
Although the generation of feelings of fear tends to predominate in anxiety, both elements refer to different concepts.
Fear is characterized by referring to an object; that is, it is a feeling that appears in response to a certain stimulus.
Anxiety, on the other hand, does not refer to the psycho-physiological reaction caused by a specific object, but to a mental state that leads the person to worry about a large number of nonspecific elements.
Anguish is characterized by the generation of anxiety symptoms. The manifestations can vary in intensity depending on each case, but they are usually always unpleasant for the person who experiences them..
Anguish affects all three areas of functioning of people (physiological functioning, cognition and behavior) and usually manifests itself through all these pathways.
Anxiety usually generates significant changes in the functioning of the body. These alterations are related to an increase in the activity of the autonomic nervous system..
The increased activity of the autonomic nervous system occurs in response to fear or perceived fear and the brain's response to said threat.
The autonomic nervous system is responsible for controlling and regulating a large number of functions of the body. For this reason, when their activity increases, a series of physical manifestations usually appear. The most typical are:
Anxiety is considered a psychological condition because it mainly causes the alteration of thinking and cognition of the person. It appears as a consequence of the generation of a series of distressing thoughts that modify both the psychological state and the physiological state of the individual.
The thoughts referring to anguish are characterized by being precisely distressing. That is, anguish generates a series of cognitions related to fear, fear and the expectation of living and suffering negative things for oneself.
The specific content of the cognition regarding anxiety may vary in each case, but they are always characterized by being highly distressing and related to negative elements.
Likewise, anguish can cause the appearance of a series of sensations related to thought, such as:
Anxiety is an alteration that, although it does not do so in all cases, usually affects the behavioral functioning of the person. It is usual for both the distressing thoughts and the physical sensations that they cause to affect the behavior of the individual in one way or another..
The behavioral condition of anxiety usually manifests itself especially in the most severe cases, and is usually characterized by the appearance of behavioral paralysis. The highly distressed person may become paralyzed, unable to perform any of the acts that he wants or intends to carry out.
In some cases, anguish can also generate highly elevated feelings of escaping, being alone, or receiving contact with someone. These sensations appear in response to the need to acquire tranquility and security through a specific element, and in most cases it modifies the normal behavioral pattern of the individual..
In cases of extreme anguish, the person can initiate behaviors of escape or flight from the situation in which they find themselves in order to reduce their distressing feelings.
The causes of anxiety are very varied and depend in each case on relatively different factors. Likewise, sometimes it is difficult to detect a single cause of the alteration, since it is usually subject to a combination of different factors..
In general, anguish is a reaction that appears in situations where the individual faces a difficult situation, or interpreted as complicated by the person himself.
Anguish appears when there is one or more elements, whether psychological or physical, that are interpreted as threatening to the person. On these occasions, the body reacts automatically by activating different defense mechanisms.
On the other hand, multiple studies postulate the presence of genetic factors in the development of anxiety. In this sense, panic disorder presents a high comorbidity with other disorders.
In particular, panic disorders are very closely related to distress and major depression; every four subjects with panic disorder would also suffer from mood disorders.
The most effective treatment to intervene in anxiety is the combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy.
With regard to drug treatment, anxiolytic drugs are often used. The ones that seem to be the most effective are the benzodiazepines, and their administration allows a rapid interruption of the distressing symptoms.
Cognitive behavioral treatment is often used in psychotherapeutic treatment. The intervention focuses on finding the psychological factors related to the appearance of anxiety, and training in skills that allow it to cope.
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