Some people wake up anxiously in the morning, with a nervousness that keeps them awake like a hungry cat, followed by an unwavering worry that keeps them more and more alert (without the need for coffee), and persists throughout the day. , without the individual being able to discover the reason. This is the case of my patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), who wake up anxious, spend the day worrying and extend their bulimic worry until the night, feeding it with the thought “why can’t I sleep?” Other individuals experience panic attacks that come on suddenly, or (as I do) are woken up in the middle of the night. Others worry regarding specific issues or issues, yet remain undaunted by other events or categories that are supposed to make them nervous.
Obviously, it would be very antipsychiatric of me not to mention that there is a long list of anxiety disorders. Despite my medical training, I feel certain doubts when it comes to labeling something as a disorder or ailment, because, as we will see shortly, a good part of these situations manifest as a consequence of a slight misalignment of the natural processes (and normally useful ) of our brain. It’s like labeling “human being” as an ailment. When a “disorder” manifests, I think of the mind/brain as a violin string slightly out of tune. In this situation, we do not consider the instrument to be faulty or dispose of it, but rather check what is wrong and tighten (or loosen) the strings to continue playing.
However, to simplify diagnosis and billing, anxiety disorders run the gamut from specific phobias (for example, fear of spiders) to obsessive-compulsive disorder (for example, worry regarding germs, which translates into constant handwashing), and generalized anxiety disorder (which is basically what it sounds like: excessive worry regarding everyday things).
What flips the switch and transforms everyday anxiety into a “disorder” belongs to the gaze of the clinical judge. For example, to cross the threshold and qualify for a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder, someone must have excessive anxiety and worry regarding “a wide variety of issues, events, or activities,” and this must occur “for at least six months and in a remarkably excessive way.
I love the last part: “remarkably excessive”. Perhaps I fell asleep in the class where they explained how to determine exactly when worrying goes from being insufficiently excessive to clearly excessive and signals that it’s time to get out the prescription pad and resort to medication.
Because anxiety is an internal process that doesn’t show up as a large visible growth on the side of the head, I have to ask my patients a whole battery of questions to find out how it manifests in them. I certainly didn’t know I had anxiety until I added two plus two and ended up linking the exhaustive location of restrooms on my jogging route to worry.
According to medical manuals, typical symptoms of anxiety include nervousness, agitation, tiredness, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle aches, and trouble sleeping. However, as is easy to understand, these symptoms alone do not put a sign on your back that everyone can read “this person is anxious.” Similar to my college experience, when I was in denial regarding my anxiety, I have to help my patients make the connection between these manifestations and what is going on in their mind before moving forward.
To help understand how differently anxiety can manifest itself in a person’s life, let me offer you two examples of strong and dynamic women. (…)
In our modern world, with technological advances helping to produce a more stable food supply in a quarter-millennium-old nation, we might expect fewer reasons to be concerned. Before covid-19, the American Association for Anxiety and Depression estimated that some 264 million people worldwide suffered from an anxiety disorder.
In a study that seems old now, since its data was collected between 2001 and 2003, the National Institute of Mental Health reported that 31% of American adults experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives, and that 19 % of the population has suffered one in the last year.
In the last two decades, the situation has worsened. In 2018, the American Psychological Association (APA) surveyed 1,000 adult Americans to find out the source and level of their anxiety. The study found that 39% of Americans reported feeling more anxious than they did in 2017, and an equal number (39%) reported the same level of anxiety as the year before.
*Author of Undo Anxiety, Paidós publishing house. (Fragment).
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