How to come back from the Bottom of the Well.

ANXIETY: If you are suffering from Anxiety it is an unpleasant emotion characterized by a feeling of vague, unspecified harm. Like FEAR, it can cause a state of physical disturbance; unlike fear, it is a characterized by the absence of an apparent cause – the circumstances that precipitates anxiety is hidden and unknown to the person. When the cause for anxiety becomes known but the feeling of apprehension remains, it is called worry.

Anxiety has many symptoms, most of which masquerade as genuine physical ailments. Included are rapid or pounding heartbeat, difficult breathing or breathlessness, tremulousness, sweating, dry mouth, tightness in the chest, sweaty palms, dizziness, weakness, nausea, diarrhea, cramps, insomnia, fatigue, headache, loss of appetite, and sexual disturbances. In addition to the uncomfortable bodily sensations associated with fear, anxiety results in narrowing of one’s time perspective so that only the present matters; it also results in an inability to attend to more than one task at a time or to organize thoughts and plans effectively. Anxiety lowers one’s ability to perform most tasks, although low levels of anxiety may temporarily increase a person’s ability to do a simple task. This is due to a greater vigilance and narrowing of one’s ATTENTION that are associated with anxiety. As Anxiety increases, however, behavior becomes more disorganized and ineffective. When it comes to that point or even before that, you need to seek medical help.

There are two types of anxiety that are recognized in psychoanalysis. The first type, traumatic anxiety, results from over stimulation, like a person with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, like the Vietnam War vets, childhood abuse and so forth. Events happen faster than the mind can comprehend them; this produces a feeling of crisis. Sigmund FREUD believed that this feeling was a physical basis in the capacity of the nervous system and that birth throws every child into a state of traumatic anxiety. In his view, his birth trauma becomes the model for later episodes of anxiety. I do not necessarily believe that yet he is a wiser person than I.

The second type of anxiety in psychoanalysis, signal anxiety, is believed to arise from a person’s need to guard against the disorganization of traumatic anxiety. The EGO appraises its own ability to cope with both external demands and the push of these pressures threaten to fail, the ego responds with anxiety, which then mobilizes the person to take new action. The small-sale discomfort of signal anxiety helps to avoid a larger, more devastating experience.

Learning Theory –

In Learning Theory, anxiety is seen both as a response to learned cues and as a drive, or motivator, of behavior. Although the origin of anxiety is not certain, most leaning theorists maintain that it is derived from reaction to PAIN. Anxiety can thus be reduced by removing or avoiding the source or sources of the situations that have produced pain. Avoidance may become firmly established and lead to constricted or bizarre behavior like PHOBIA’S. A better way to reduce anxiety is to pair a strong positive reinforced such food with the frightening situation so that the stimulus that formerly elicited anxious responses becomes associated with positive feelings.

Cognitive Theory –

In the control of anxiety, psychologists have recently focused on the role of cognition as the origin of anxiety. Incorporating features from the psychoanalytic theory and learning theory, cognitive theories emphasize the process of appraisal. Experiments have shown that the interpretation of a situation determine whether a person feels anxiety or some other emotion. Most feelings of anxiety require no specific treatment. An explanation of the probable cause of the feelings may be all that is needed to dissolve them or make them more bearable. For severe symptoms tranquilizers may be prescribed. Phobias can often be treated effectively by behavior therapy, using relaxation techniques, among others; sometimes, however, the anxiety reaction may reemerge in a different form.

More information on these topics can be found in books published by Dr. Dyckman, Charles Costello-Anxiety and Depression (1976) John Dollard and Neal Mill – Personality and Psychotherapy (1950), Sigmund Freud – The Problem of Anxiety (1966) Rollo May – The Meaning of Anxiety (197) Charles Speilberger - Anxiety and Behavior and M. Zuckerman and Charles Sielberger – Emotions and Anxiety.

I am not suggesting these books, yet the theories that these people came up with many years ago have not changed that much in all these years. Years ago, especially women were put in to institutions without understanding the problem. Maybe had the Medical community took some of the above Doctors seriously and not just rode these people off as being insane a lot of lives would have been different. I do not believe that the Medical community as a whole took any of these problems seriously and never really comprehended or chose to ignore these THEORIES….

To cure myself, I did COGNITIVE Therapy, it was hard yet it worked. It took a long time but I had to take back my life and I figured it out all by myself. Not the cause just the fact that this was not normal yet something caused it and I was not going to let it keep controlling my life. Thank God I believed in myself and trust me it was no easy task. The PAIN, PHOBIAS, FEAR AND ANXIETY were real but I had to learn how to harness them so I could get rid of them…

mary menopause