Psychological Healing: Menace of Anxiety

Introduction:
Anxiety is painful distraction of mind by which a person’s mental, physical and behavioural attitude is affected. Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. It is also associated with feelings of restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, and muscle tension. Anxiety is considered to be a normal reaction to a stressor. It may help an individual to deal with a demanding situation by prompting them to cope with it. However, when anxiety becomes overwhelming, it may fall under the classification of an anxiety disorder. Anxiety is the paranoia of something out there that seems menacing but may not be menacing, and, indeed, may not even be out there.

Anxiety is a generalized mood that can occur without an identifiable triggering stimulus. As such, it is distinguished from fear, which is an appropriate cognitive and emotional response to a perceived threat. Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is related to situations perceived as uncontrollable or unavoidable.

Anxiety is defined as long acting, future focused, broadly focused towards a diffuse threat, and promoting caution while approaching a potential threat. While most everyone has an experience with anxiety at some point in their lives, as it is a common reaction to real or perceived threats of all kinds, most do not develop long-term problems with anxiety. When someone does develop chronic or severe problems with anxiety, such problems are usually classified as being one or more of the specific types of Anxiety Disorders.

Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering several different forms of a type of common psychiatric disorder characterized by excessive rumination, worrying, uneasiness, apprehension and fear about future uncertainties either based on real or imagined events, which may affect both physical and psychological health. True anxiety disorders seem to have a variety of psychosocial causes; and may involve a Genetic Predisposition. A genetic predisposition is a genetic affectation which influences the phenotype of an individual organism within a species or population but by definition that phenotype can also be modified by the environmental conditions. In the rest of the population, conditions cannot have that effect. Genetic testing is able to identify individuals who are genetically predisposed to certain health problems.

Symptoms of Anxiety Disorder:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. For diagnosis of this disorder, symptoms must last at least 6 months. These excessive worries often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals suffering GAD typically anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, death, family problems, friendship problems, interpersonal relationship problems, or work difficulties.

Each person has a unique chemical makeup, the type, number, intensity, and frequency of anxiety symptoms will vary from person to person. For example, one person may have just one mild anxiety symptom, whereas another may have all anxiety symptoms and to great severity. All combinations are common.

Individuals often exhibit a variety of physical symptoms, including fatigue, fidgeting; it is the act of moving about restlessly, headaches, nausea, numbness in hands and feet, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, bouts of difficulty breathing, difficulty concentrating, trembling, twitching, irritability, agitation, sweating, restlessness, insomnia (sleeplessness), hot flashes, and rashes and inability to fully control the anxiety (ICD-10). These symptoms must be consistent and on-going, persisting at least six months, for a formal diagnosis of GAD to be introduced. Approximately 6.8 million American adults experience GAD, and 2 percent of adult Europeans, in any given year, experience GAD.

Panic disorder sufferers usually have a series of intense episodes of extreme anxiety during panic attacks. These attacks typically last about ten minutes, and can be as short-lived as 1–5 minutes, but can last twenty minutes to more than an hour, or until helpful intervention is made. Panic attacks can wax and wane for a period of hours (panic attacks rolling into one another), and the intensity and specific symptoms of panic may vary over the duration.
In some cases the attack may continue at unabated high intensity, or seem to be increasing in severity. Common symptoms of an attack include rapid heartbeat, perspiration, dizziness, dyspnoea (shortness of breath), and trembling, uncontrollable fear such as: the fear of losing control and going crazy, the fear of dying and hyperventilation. Other symptoms are sweating, a sensation of choking, chest pain, nausea, numbness or tingling, chills or hot flashes, faintness and some sense of altered reality.

In addition, the person usually has thoughts of impending doom. Individuals suffering from an episode have often a strong wish of escaping from the situation that provoked the attack. The anxiety of Panic Disorder is particularly severe and noticeably episodic compared to that from Generalized Anxiety Disorder. There are instances when panic attacks are provoked by exposure to certain stimuli e.g. seeing a mouse. Other attacks may emanate out of nowhere or in specific settings e.g. the dentist's office. Some individuals deal with these events on a regular basis, sometimes daily or weekly. The outward symptoms of a panic attack often because negative social experiences (e.g. embarrassment, social stigma, social isolation, etc.).

Dyspnoea is shortness of breath, which is highly symptomatic causing distress among anxiety ridden minds, which is an uncomfortable awareness of breathing. An estimated 55-70% of patients near the end of life experience this. It can be more distressing than pain to some patients and must be treated promptly. Anxiety is common with dyspnoea and can make it worse. Anxiety could strike anyone irrespective of age and the symptoms of dyspnoea could be observed and felt by the prone individuals. For such individual’s anxiety, anger, and depression can increase symptoms of breathlessness out of proportion to the impairment in cardio respiratory function. But it has also been argued that the stress of a chronic respiratory illness and the associated physical disability may be the cause of mood disorders. In either event, it is clear that a variety of emotional changes can intensify dyspnoea. Insofar as breathing is under considerable behavioral control by cortical and sub cortical brain centers, anxiety, anger, and depression may lead to an increase in ventilation and a worsening of dyspnoea.

Beside anxiety disorder, one of the earliest and most common symptoms of heart disease is dyspnoea, or shortness of breath. Whilst it may be healthy for an individual to feel short of breath after heavy exertion, this should not normally happen after routine walking or while at rest. It should be of particular concern when the onset is sudden, as this may indicate heart failure.

Improvements in dyspnoea and anxiety have been shown following distraction interventions such as music during exercise. Relaxation training may also improve dyspnoea in the short term but has not been shown to have long-term effects. Under any circumstances, individual suffering dyspnoea must be exposed to open atmosphere under the sky or least to a less crowded areas of the building with abundance of fresh and cool air. Such would be the best to alleviate the condition of the affected person.
Muscle tension triggered by anxiety disorder gives the feeling as muscles are tight or strained, sometimes to the point of frequent pain, or even persistent and ongoing pain. Some may also find the pain so restricting and debilitating that it prevents physical activity, and sometimes to the point of becoming bed ridden. It's also common to experience pain or cramps in any of the body's muscles. Muscle tension and tension related problems are very common. Feel that stiffness in your neck and upper back? In your jaw? In your hands? In your back? Anxiety is often the cause of pain and can lead to other more serious problems like muscle spasms and knots or trigger points in your muscles.

Impatience (Hastiness) is the lack in the state of endurance to a situation. Patience (forbearing) is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. Patience is the level of endurance one can take before negativity. It is also used to refer to the character trait of being steadfast. Antonyms include hastiness and impetuousness.

A tendency to be impatient is considered a major personality flaw. People who suffer from severe impatience are often considered to be arrogant, insensitive, and overbearing. Impatience can cause a person to cut others off mid-sentence and to make what appear to be uninformed, quick judgments. Impatience can lead the impatient person to snap at others in response to questions or requests. Impatience is considered to be a career stopper for many major corporations. Impatient people are not considered to be good managers or leaders for a company. Many factors can lead a person down the road to impatience. One of the biggest causes is stress. The more stress a person feels, the more likely they will be to react impatiently to additional requests for time.

Impatient people generally know that they suffer from impatience. Some people are lucky enough to only suffer from impatience when their impatience triggers have been pulled. For these people, controlling their impatience depends on learning what their impatience triggers are and learning to recognize the signals that patience is about to be lost. For people with chronic impatience, more intense therapy and retraining may be necessary.

Healing & Eradicating Anxiety Disorder:
Treatment options available include lifestyle changes; psychotherapy, which is a general term referring to therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client, patient, family, couple, or group. The problems addressed are psychological in nature and of no specific kind or degree, but rather depend on the specialty of the practitioner.

Education, reassurance and some form of cognitive-behavioral therapy should almost always be used in treatment. Research has provided evidence for the efficacy of two forms of treatment available for social phobia: certain medications and a specific form of short-term psychotherapy called cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), the central component being gradual exposure therapy. Self-help books can contribute to the treatment of people with anxiety disorders.

Certainly meds are quicker but with long lasting side effects while non-medicinal options require patience with a time based improvements but no side effects. For example, physical exercise and meditation are prime of the list. Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefits or as an end in itself of the anxieties.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); which has been shown to be effective in the treatment of all anxiety disorders. A basic concept in some CBT treatments used in anxiety disorders is in vivo exposure, a term describing a technique where the patient is gradually exposed to the actual, feared stimulus. The treatment is based on the theory that the fear response has been classically conditioned, and that avoidance of it negatively reinforces and maintains the fear. This "two-factor" model is often credited to O. Hobart Mower. He (January 23, 1907 – June 20, 1982) was an American born psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Illinois from 1948 to 1975 known for his research on behavior therapy. Through exposure to the stimulus, this harmful conditioning can be eradicated.

Dyspnoea is the symptom which must focus on relieving the feeling of breathlessness. The administration of oxygen is usually the first line of treatment. If the cause of dyspnoea is a chronic illness like COPD, medications for that illness may be revaluated and adjusted if necessary. Morphine is commonly used to relieve breathlessness. Morphine works in several ways to decrease the sensation of breathlessness; by dilating blood vessels in the lungs, reducing respiration rate, increasing depth of breathing, and reducing levels of anxiety. Anti-anxiety medications such as lorazepam can also reduce anxiety, which can make dyspnoea worse, and increase comfort levels.

Non-medical interventions are very important in treating dyspnoea and can be implemented during medical treatment or while waiting for help to arrive. Some things you can do include:
 Cool the room and make sure patient has on light weight clothing.
 Use a fan to blow air directly at the patient's face, as long as it is tolerated well.
 Open a window to provide a breeze and fresh air.
 Have the patient sit upright in bed and focus on deep breathing.
 Try relaxation techniques – Play relaxing music, use massage or other relaxing touch of the patient's choice. If you are familiar with guided imagery and meditation, both techniques may help.
 Provide emotional support – Listening closely to what the patient has to say and providing reassurance can go a long way.

Natural Remedies; many other natural remedies have been used for anxiety disorder. Regular aerobic exercise is recommended for anyone especially with Anxiety Disorder. Improving upon sleep hygiene, which is the controlling of "all behavioural and environmental factors that precede sleep and may interfere with sleep are the remedies to fulfil with". Beside, reducing caffeine is often useful in treating anxiety.

Yoga is one of the body stretching exercise which relaxes the stressed muscles. There is tentative evidence that yoga is an effective exercise on day to day basis. Yoga is a commonly known generic term for physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines which originated in ancient India. In a more simplistic way of understanding, every muscle of the body must be stretched once in a day especially in the morning hours. Such is a necessity to main the tone up and removal of mental stress.

Hugging the loved ones like children, grand children, spouse and other emotionally attached would heal the body under stress. Elisha Goldstein (2012) believes that a genuine hug is transference of energy for the relaxation of stressed muscles in the body. A good hug gives a feeling of safety, security and belonging. These are all things that we need at the core of our being, they breathe of acceptance. Even a comforting hand on the shoulder in times of crisis has its origins in the biology of touch, the British Association's Festival of Science, in Liverpool, heard.

In a marital bond of love, touch of energised bodies plays a relaxing role to the mind and body. Research also shows that our skin is teeming with nerve fibres which spring into action when we are cuddled, stroked or gently touched. They transmit the information back to the brain's emotional hub, creating feelings of pleasure. Activation of these 'pleasure fibres’, or C-fibres, stops other fibres from delivering messages of pain to the brain. Professor Francis McGlone, of food and beauty firm Unilever, whose team discovered the C-fibres, said hugging and grooming such as brushing our hair, all play an important part in making us feel good.

Hugs certainly feel good, both on the giving and receiving end, and it turns out their effects are more than skin deep. A study by University of North Carolina researchers found that hugs increase the "bonding" hormone oxytocin and decrease the risk of heart disease.
Indeed, a previous study, also led by Grewen, found that hugging and handholding reduces the effects of stress. Two groups of couples were asked to talk about an angry event, but one group had previously held hands and hugged, while the others sat alone. It was found that:
• Blood pressure increased significantly more among the no-contact group as compared to the huggers.
• Heart rate among those without contact increased 10 beats a minute, compared to five beats a minute for huggers.
What's more, Grewen suggests that warm contact such as hugs and hand-holding before the start of a rough day "could carry over and protect you throughout the day."

Spiritual Remedies are available to religious people where evidence is sufficient regarding meditation to make any remarkable change in the condition of a person. Meditation is the modern term in non-religious society for the Zikr which is an Islamic term where a believer in Islam induces God consciousness (Taquwah) through focus of mind upon the verses of The-Qur’an being recited in its original form. Through continual training upon reverence (Qhushoo’a) and concentration of mind (Qhudoo’a) one attains closeness with The Creator Lord Almighty God and eradication of anxiety gradually follows and a person is filled complete trust and confidence with satisfaction.