ANXIETY DISORDERS

ANXIETY DISORDERS
  It is nervous disorder that is characterized by a behavioral and mental state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, natural response and warning adaptation in human beings
that is portrayed through compulsive behavior (Stein, Hollander & Rothbaum, 2010). Additionally, it is a normal human emotion that is experienced when one is faced with problems in the environments or the stimulus such as at workplaces, before facing an examination or test or making important decision that has both desirable and undesirable outcomes to an individual. According to Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of mental disorders (DSM), anxiety is categorized as a disorder when it is excessive and uncontrollable and requires no particular stimulus in the environment. It is accompanied by a full range of physical and affective symptoms as well as cognitive and behavior change (Daitch, 2011). According to behavioral psychologist, anxiety is a mental disorder that is portrayed with a series of physical and cognitive activities in the environment, the stimulus in the environments arose a feeling in the individual that make the person to portray behaviors that are regarded and abnormal in reaction to the stimulus (Stossel, 2014).                                                 Types of anxiety disorders             Social anxiety disorder (social phobia); it is provoked by the social situations in the environment. The individual develops overwhelming worry and self-conscious about the social situations that arise in the social context of life. The worry comes from a perceptional and judgmental view of others as well as portraying of a behavior that leads to embarrassment or ridicule by others. Generalized anxiety disorder; it involves excessive and unrealistic tension and worry that is induced in an individual even if there is no stimulus to evoke the responses in the environments. Panic disorder; it is a situation that is caused by a condition and feeling of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly in the individual in the environment without any prior sign of warning. Most common symptoms of fear attacks include profuse sweating, pains around the chest area, palpitations that make an individual to develop feeling and condition of a heart attack. Obsessive-compulsive disorder; it occurs when a person develops excessive thoughts that leads to the reappearance of certain behaviors in the environments. It is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts that make the behavior portrayed by an individual to be repeated in the environments. For instances, such thoughts may develop from violence, persistent thoughts of performing sexual acts and harming loved ones (Stein, Hollander & Rothbaum, 2010). Posttraumatic stress disorder; it is caused and triggered by the experience of terrifying events. The individual that has such a disorder might have witnessed terrifying events and have an experience that triggers the anxiety feelings. It is characterized by flashbacks, nightmares and uncontrollable thoughts about such incidents in the environments. Such events could be accidents that was witnessed or engaged in (Stein, Hollander & Rothbaum, 2010). Acute stress disorder is a psychological and mental shock that is stimulated by terrifying or traumatic events. It is characterized by severe anxiety developments, dissociative, and the individual responds in a period of one month after the experiences with the stressor in the environments. Substance-induced disorder; it is a disorder that is caused by a continuous and persistent use of substances that stimulate the response in an individual in the environments. Such stimulus includes drugs alcohol or exposure to toxins in the environments (Stein, Hollander & Rothbaum, 2010). Specific phobia; it is an intense fear of particular life situations and object in the environments such as snakes, heights or situations. The level of fear that is induced in the individual makes the individual to avoid such situations in the everyday life. The stimulus intensity to evoke the response determines the behavior of the individual when faced with such a situation in life (Stein, Hollander & Rothbaum, 2010).                                              Historical context of anxiety  Until recently that the symptoms of anxiety are recognized, the belief by psychologist and sociologist that the emotion of fearful apprehension could lead to mental and physical illness has much longer history in the life of human beings. According to James Vere in the year 1778, he argues that the physical and moral inquiry of the causes of internal and behavioral restlessness in man has been compliant in all the ages (Stein, Hollander & Rothbaum, 2010). The earliest accounts of the life of human being had been associated with specific circumstances have been ascribed to two case observed from the Hippocrates and emphasis of William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice in which he presented the fear for cats. Additionally, Robert Burton in the year 1621 described various anxiety disorders witnessed in the behavior of human beings in which he presented his ideas in his book “Anatomy of Melancholy”. The anxiety disorders were recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in the year 1980 before the recognition of the individuals who experienced such disorders. The human environments presented the stimulus that elicited the anxiety disorders; the prevalence of anxiety, panic to attacks especially in the early ages facilitated the development of anxiety feelings among the people. In the world account; first and second world wars further increased the levels of developments of the disorders more especially from the individuals that witnessed the wars account in the immediate environment (Stein, Hollander & Rothbaum, 2010).                                                         Causes of anxiety              Research carried out among a samples group of the individuals in the US indicated that anxiety is caused by a mental condition, physical condition, effects of the drug or a combination of the above. Additionally, anxiety can also be caused by environments factors that operate in our environments.                                                      Environments causes of anxiety                Stress from the working environments, exposure to working tension and pressure caused anxiety to the employees engage in the work. It is often built by the nature of the works that the employees are expected to carry out and the expected outcomes that should be met in the working environments. Terms and conditions that apply to the work can also cause anxiety for the individuals in the working environments. Stress in the socials life of an individual can also cause anxiety. Personal relationships, marriage, friendship, and divorce caused anxiety to the individual. Most importantly, rejection in the social life facilitates high levels of stress disorders among individuals in the social life and society. Other environmental factors that causes anxiety are stress from school, lack of finance and money, stress from natural disaster, trauma from events that have an undesirable feedback such as abuse, victimization or death of loved ones as well as lack of oxygen in high altitude areas in the environments (Daitch, 2011).                                                   Medical factors cause of anxiety             Anxiety can be caused by medical conditions and illness such as anemia, asthma, infections and conditions of the heart or body organs. Stress from a severe illness of an individual and side effects of the drugs, the symptoms of medical illness in an individual can also cause anxiety. Added, anxiety can also be caused by lack of enough oxygen from pulmonary embolism such as blood clotting in the lungs or from emphysema (Daitch, 2011).                                             Substance use and abuse                Most patients that utilize mental health services for generalization anxiety disorders, panic disorder or social phobia are examined to have a cause that emanates from the intoxication from the elicited drugs such as cocaine, bhang, heroin or amphetamines. Further anxiety can be caused by withdrawal from the usage of one drug and joining the other; such as heroin, from prescription drugs like Vicodin, barbiturates and benzodiazepines (Daitch, 2011).                                                    Other causes of anxiety               Anxiety in individuals can also be caused by the genetics; as suggested by some researchers that a family history of the cases of the witnessed anxiety increases the chances of likelihood that an individual from that family will develop anxiety disorders. Relatively, the individual from such a family have a genetic predisposition that gives him or her high chances of suffering from such a disorder. Evidently, brain chemistry as term causes anxiety; people with abnormal levels of neutron transmitters in the brains are likely to suffer from anxiety. The communication and nervous coordination system in the brain breakdown leading to the development of disorders that compels them to react differently and inappropriately to situations in the environments. Research has also shown that personality factors contribute to anxiety disorder in an individual. Individual with some personality traits are likely to suffer from the disorders (Eifert, Forsyth & Hayes, 2005). For instances, children who are the perfectionist in nature are likely and prone to suffer from the anxiety disorders during the childhood or as adults.                                                   Treatments of Anxiety disorders             Treatments of anxiety related disorders takes various dimensions, the treatments can be either psychological treatment or medical treatment
                                                    Psychological treatment               There are several psychological treatments of the disorders; they include cognitive behavior therapy, behavior therapy, and E-therapies. Cognitive psychological therapy recognizes the individual way of thinking and behavior as the first step in the treatment measure. The individual’s way of cognitive activities, and acting in the environment makes them develop anxiety. Once the patterns are recognized, the person is deliberated to make the changes in which she or he thinks and act is the environments. The individual in encouraged to develop skills that reduce the levels of anxiety and facilitate copying behavior. Evidently, the person is nurtured to develop realistic thinking and focus on problem-solving. The individual is encouraged to identify the productive and unproductive worries and development of problem-solving skills (Eifert, Forsyth & Hayes, 2005). Furthermore, they are developed to include relaxation and breathing techniques with a lot of muscle relaxation that helps to control the levels of physical tensions and anxiety levels. The behavior therapies rely on the graded exposure treatments in which the individual is exposed to the stimulus causing the anxiety frequently until the stimulus loses its ability to cause anxiety. The learning process ensures that the individual is condition to exist with the stimuli that cause anxiety. Frequently exposure ensures that the stimulus causing the anxiety is presented until it loses its intensity to cause anxiety in the individual. E-therapies seek the face to face connection with the professionals that help the individuals to learn and develop a pattern changes in reasoning and behavior. The individual is taught how to reduce anxiety by developing a different thinking and behavior trends that overcome anxiety in the environments (Emilien, Dinan, Lepola & Durlach, 2007).                                                             Medical Treatments                 Medical treatment of anxiety includes antidepressant medication, and it is meant to restore the chemical imbalance in the brain. The chemicals that caused the imbalance include serotonin, noradrenalin and dopamine that create an abnormal behavior for an individual. However, the period in which is administered varies depending on the severity of an individual. It aims at restoring the balance of the hormones in the brain and thus, behavior changes. Additionally, benzodiazepines are some of the drugs that are administered over a short period; they helped individuals to cope up with anxiety and panic attacks in the environments. Therefore, the drugs create a balance of all the brain hormones and chemicals to restore normal behavior (Emilien, Dinan, Lepola & Durlach, 2007).                                       Relaxation training, exercises, diet and family participation               Individuals with anxiety are facilitated to carry out exercises that aim at a relaxation of the muscles of the body. It teaches an individual to relax specific muscles by voluntarily tensing and relaxing. One of the most vital is progressive muscle relaxation and thinking of relaxed scenes in the environments. Physical Exercises and activities increase the rate of blood flow in the body, pumping of the heart that increase blood and oxygen supply to all the body parts and helps to reduce the tensions. On the other hand, good diet creates a balance of the mental health and physical health that aims at wellbeing of the individual. Nutritional strategies increase and improve moods, maintaining brain functioning and reduces anxiety levels. Family acts as a support mechanism in which the individual socializes to improve the behavior. The family as a social setting increases the ability of the individual to cope up with the anxiety in the environment (Emilien, Dinan, Lepola & Durlach, 2007).                                                                Prevention of anxiety                   The first step to prevention of the anxiety disorders is awareness to the stress in the environments and determining the ability to develop a strategy to cope up with the changes is the environments. The preventions measures include regular exercises that reduced the imbalance of the chemicals in the body organs and create physical fitness as well as the mental health. Secondly, mediation plays a fundamental role in the anxiety relieve process, medications reduces the intensity of the stimulus to cause anxiety and improves on develops problem-solving skills to deal with the factors in the environments that are creating the anxiety feelings. A relaxation exercises that predisposition the thinking levels in the brains helps to reduce brain chemical imbalance that causes anxiety in individuals. An individual should also create enough time to rest the body and the mind from the tension in the environments. Resting lowers the levels of hormones that are secreted in the body (Mavissakalian, 2006). Health diet and nutritional keeps the body physically and mental fit, an individual, should take a proportionate ratio of all the components of a balanced diets that balances the minerals and iron levels in the diet. Imbalance of minerals and irons in the body creates a condition in which some of the chemicals are secreted at high levels while the suppressing secretion of some thus causing an imbalance of chemical constituent of the body leading to anxiety. Developing Interpersonal skills in dealing with the difficult situations and people in the environments reduces the risks of environmentally induced risks and ensure coordination and expectations are met. An individual should avoid taking of caffeine such as coffee and tea or energy drinks that increase the levels of arousal in the body. Besides that, an individual should also avoid drinking and smoking. Nicotine stimulates many physical and psychological processes that induced an individual to develop feelings of anxiety, the blood vessels in the body constrict, oxygen supply is reduced, and the working of the heart is increased (Mavissakalian, 2006).                                                    Cross-cultural issues pertaining anxiety                 Culture dictates the standard of evaluation of behavior whether as a disorder or order in the society. The societal ethics and norms dictate the criteria to underlie the behavior that is portrayed by an individual as socially allowed or not allowed. Societal ethics provide the norms that must be met by a behavior for it to be qualified as a normal behavior (Stossel, 2014). Additionally, the societal judgment of the behavior of a person acts as a stimulus to create anxiety; the expected judgment of an individual in society increase the levels of anxiety. The validity of behavior and the societal expectations, as well as the norms, dictates the anxiety levels (De, 2004). The races, on the other hand, determine the acceptability of an individual in various environments. Race and ethnic acceptance of the diversified grouped of individuals creates a feeling of anxiety since the every society and race is based on different societal norms that are evidently different from other races. For an individual to fit in society and socialize with individuals from different cultural backgrounds increases the levels of anxiety in an individual. Social anxiety and social anxiety disorders are expressed in the degree of the set norms in the society that guides the individuals from various races in their socialization (Stossel, 2014).                                                     Biblical view of anxiety          According to the biblical teaching of anxiety disorders, they are caused by the human personal selfish nature and the relationship between human lives to the world. The surrounding environments of human create the feeling that moves to the extreme to cause the feeling in human life. According to the biblical teaching of work, man has the obligation to work and eat. However from the book of Phillipian4: 6, the verse explains that human should not be worried about his or her currents situation but remain hoping for all the struggle will come to pass. Paul explains to the humanity that they should not struggle, but with prayer, supplication and thanksgiving let the request be known to God (Winter, 2012). Biblically, the treatment for any health problems is solved through prayers and thanks giving. The situations that accrue to the human life have their destiny preceded over by the Lord. According to Smith, he argues that when the human life is discouraged against anxiety in life then the conclusion has is that there is something wrong with the Christian faith (Anderson & Miller, 2008). Further explains that God uses anxiety to draw mankind closer to him and allowing us recognize our need, basic requirements in the environments and limitations as anchors to God who is sufficient enough to intervene in all our situations. Prevention of anxiety is based on Jesus Christ as a constant line of communication to God that practically and helpfully reconciles the experiences of anxiety of an individual to the reality of God’s goodness (Winter, 2012).                                                             Conclusion               The scientific view of anxiety as a disorder has developed measures in which they should be handled in the human life; anxiety disorders like any other complications have grounded their roots in the origin and history of mankind. The standard and levels of measures to which the behavior is regarded as disorders haves a difference view in the societal setting. According to societal view, any behavior that is against the set norms is regarded as a disorder. Most importantly, the causes of anxiety depend on the ethics, races and society judgments as well as the expectation of its members. Biblically, anxiety is a tool that draws humankind to the Lord and the channels of communication of the human zeal is Jesus Christ. Thus, it remains to be a conceptual concept in the life of human being in the environments.





                                                                   References
Anderson, N. T., & Miller, R. (2008). Freedom from fear.
Daitch, C. (2011). Anxiety disorders: The go-to guide for clients and therapists. New York: W.W. Norton.
De, B. A. (2004). Status anxiety. New York: Vintage International/Vintage Books..
Eifert, G. H., Forsyth, J. P., & Hayes, S. C. (2005). Acceptance & commitment therapy for anxiety disorders: A practitioner's treatment guide to using mindfulness, acceptance, and values-based behavior change strategies. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Emilien, G., Dinan, T., Lepola, U. M., & Durlach, C. (2007). Anxiety Disorders: Pathophysiology and Pharmacological Treatment. Basel: Birkhäuser Basel.
Mavissakalian, M. (2006). Long-term treatments of anxiety disorders. Washington, DC [u.a.: American Psychiatric Press.
Stein, D. J., Hollander, E., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2010). Textbook of anxiety disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Pub.
Stossel, S. (2014). My age of anxiety: Fear, hope, dread and the search for peace of mind. S.l.: InstaRead Summaries
Winter, R. (2012). When life goes dark: Finding hope in the midst of depression.