Anxiety

Saturday, 8 August 2009

Anxiety can be defined as emotions which are typically negative in nature. It will often consist of fear and worry
and some organisms may even experience physical signs such as nausea or chest pains. Anxiety is a complex emotion
and is composed of a number of different elments. Some of these elements are somatic or cognitive
and the body will prepare itself to deal with an external threat. The heart rate speeds up
and the blood pressure is increased. The various muscles in the body will also receive elevated levels of blood. At the same time
the functions of the digestive system will slow down.

People who have anxiety will generally have a sense of dread. A number of voluntary and involuntary processes will take place in the body
and the goal of these processes is to get the organism away from the source that is causing it to have anxiety. Anxiety is an important emotion
and is designed to increase the survival rate of organisms. In humans it appears that anxiety comes from the hippocampus and amygdala
two regions of the brain. When a person senses bad odors or tastes
there will be a large amount of blood flow which will be present in the amygdala. The evidence also shows that medium levels of anxiety will be present in this situation as well.

Based on these studies
it appears that anxiety is designed to keep humans and other organisms from eating food or objects that may be harmful to their well being. While anxiety is normal
a person that has excessive amounts of it may have what is called an anxiety disorder. In extreme cases
people with anxiety disorders may have strong cases where they are terrorized. Anxiety disorders are broken down into phobias
panic disorders
generalized anxiety disorders
and obsessive compulsive disorders. Someone who is suffering from a phobia will have an abnormal amount of fear of a specific object or situation. People who have phobias tend to have extensive imaginations
and realize that their fear is often irrational.

When a person suffers from a panic disorder
they will have extreme panic attacks
and may have dizziness or breathing problems. These attacks will typically reach their height in about 10 minutes. Generalized anxiety disorders are common
and effect a much larger portion of the population. It is prevalent in both men and woman
and is characterized by long periods of anxiety that are not related to any specific object or situation. With the obsessive compulsive disorder
the individual with have an obsession or compulsion when it comes to specific types of behavior. People who suffer from this disorder will see the need to do something obsessively in order to reduce their anxiety.

Many people who have this disorder need to be extremely clean
and are afraid of germs. To reduce their anxiety
they will wash their hands numerous times in a single day. There are two primary methods that are used to help those who are suffering from anxiety
and this is either therapy or prescription medicaitons.

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