Anxiety is described by Nitschke (2013) as an unpleasant emotion that not only includes anticipation and uncertainty, but also elicits affective, cognitive, and behavioral changes in response to a perceived future threat. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary provides a medical definition of anxiety that includes synonyms such as “apprehension” and “fear;” feelings that are accompanied by self-doubt regarding one’s coping abilities (“Anxiety,” 2017). The American Psychological Association (n.d.)…
Anxiety is something I have struggled with my whole life especially social anxiety. It has really effected the relationships I’ve had and the way people treat me. So I took a great interest when we covered this topic. Information-processing biases based on the cognitive and cognitive behavioral models have been reported in social anxiety disorder (SAD). The article uses two methods to asses and examine the functions of attention bias, tests such as the dot-probe paradigm and modified Stroop…
When someone is an extremely anxious individual, there something in them that cannot stop their worry of typically malicious thoughts. These thoughts manifest themselves in their minds and create more anxiety. On occasion enough anxiety has been created to allow it to affect their lives. One such disorder is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). GAD is the excessive worry of a variety of situations. When an individual is unable to control this worry, it creates physical symptoms such as…
Mental Health A person is considered to be mentally healthy if he is emotionally, psychologically and socially fit. According to Wakefield (2005), the only way to fully understand the concepts of function, dysfunction, and disorder is through natural selection. It is through national selection that people are now able to understand how species change over time (SparkNotes, 2015). However, one perspective brought about by evolution is mental disorder. Evolutionary psychology explains why there…
Alertness affects interpersonal relationships in daily life. Characteristics often decide the ways people view a person. When people express alertness, they always have a reason to do so. Fright stands as one of the most common reasons for alertness. Listening to a frightening news story, watching a horror movie, or something simpler such as fearing the dark will cause nerves to stand on edge and keep someone looking over their shoulder, jumping at every noise, and watching their surroundings…
The future is the unknown, hence the uncontrollable. As anxiety is a future-oriented mood-state, many individuals may be nervous of not knowing what may or may not happen, causing worry and nervousness. Two prominent anxiety disorders that focus on the feeling of worry are generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), is the lack of control over of the worry process (Brown et al, 1994). When the concern over future events becomes severe and…
The fear of speaking public is one of the greatest fears people have. Statistics show that more than 41% of people have a degree of fear or fear of public speaking. This fear often manifests itself as excessive sweating, moist hands, increased heart rate, the elimination of memory loss (memory loss), nausea, and sometimes difficulty breathing. There are many players who have been in front of the public for years and still struggle with the fear to some degree. Because this fear often have no…
There are multiple misunderstandings and stereotypes about general anxiety disorder that are quite damaging. The most common one I have encountered is that GAD is just worrying about stuff. People tend use the word anxiety when referring to everyday stress. Due to this, those who encounter stressors that lead to a feeling of anxiety assume that they have an anxiety disorder. On the other hand, those who are truly experiencing GAD are told by others to simply stop thinking about what is causing…
The article “Psychological treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: A meta-analysis” discusses what Generalized Anxiety Disorder happens to a person and what it is. Generalized Anxiety disorder is also known as GAD. GAD is known to be a very chronic and costly mental disorder. The characteristics are a lot of persistent worrying and anxiety about activities internally and externally. They are also characterized by restlessness, fatigue and problems concentrating of certain activities. In the…
Life with Generalized Anxiety Disorder Marisa A. Cinquepalmi Lindenwood University- Belleville Author Note Marisa A. Cinquepalmi, Department of Psychology, Lindenwood University- Belleville. Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Marisa A. Cinquepalmi, Department of Psychology, Lindenwood University- Belleville, Belleville, IL 62226. E-mail: MAC583@lionmail.lindenwood.edu. Life with Generalized Anxiety Disorder Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects approximately 3.1%…