Areas of Focus

Anxiety

Anxiety arises in response to threats perceived as uncontrollable or unavoidable. It is accompanied by marked physiological arousal such as feeling on edge, butterflies in the stomach, and a racing heart. It takes several recognisable forms.

Generalised anxiety can be thought of as a blanket of worry. It envelops you and does not pass. You wake up with anxiety and go to sleep with anxiety. Social anxiety centres on the fear of being judged or criticised, and typically surfaces in social settings; events that should be enjoyable become something to dread or avoid. Panic attacks arrive without warning and are acutely frightening. The symptoms can mimic a heart attack closely enough to prompt visits to the Emergency Unit.

A further distinction matters clinically: state anxiety versus trait anxiety. State anxiety is a temporary reaction following an adverse experience, for example panic when driving after a motor vehicle accident. Trait anxiety is a more stable feature of personality, a settled tendency to respond to life events with worry. State anxiety often resolves with focused, shorter-term work. Trait anxiety typically requires longer-term therapy.

Therapy addresses anxiety by identifying the perceived threats that drive it, examining how earlier experiences shaped the sense that the world is unsafe or one's own resources insufficient, and gradually building the capacity to meet uncertainty without becoming overwhelmed by it.

References

Barlow, D. (2000). Unraveling the mysteries of anxiety and its disorders from the perspective of emotion theory. The American Psychologist, 55(11), 1247–1263.

Davison, G. (2008). Abnormal psychology. Toronto: Veronica Visentin.

Schwarzer, R. (1984). The self in anxiety, stress and depression. Advances in Psychology, 21, 1–16.