Determining the Causes of Anxiety Disorders
Determining the Causes of Anxiety Disorders
The causes of anxiety disorders are as diverse as the sufferers of those disorders. Some individuals are very hearty and can take tons of stress without batting an eye. Others are very fragile in the presence of some stressors and essentially are driven to distraction by being unable to find a healthy way of coping with the most common of life’s difficulties. These disorders, in any case, have a way of becoming worse over time and of crescendoing until they reach their climax at which point individuals are usually put in a position where they have to seek one sort of help or another.
The causes of anxiety disorders, from the physiological perspective, consist of the body putting into motion its flight or fight mechanisms for no real cause. This may mean being fully prepared for an attack by a tiger when one is only receiving a bit of bad news from their college guidance counselor. A meeting with one’s superiors at work may make one feel as if their heart is about to explode. It is the inappropriateness of these reactions, not the reactions themselves, that are the problem. Given the right circumstances, these reactions are life-saving.
The mental causes of anxiety disorders are related to brain chemistry which is, professionals will admit, not entirely understood. The amygdala is that part of the brain which is responsible for directing the body’s responses to danger. Unfortunately, this part of the brain does not consult with any other part before sending one’s body into panic-mode. This overreaction of the brain makes it almost impossible for sufferers to calm themselves as all of their attempts at rationality are being overridden by complete and all-encompassing fear. Understanding a phobia provides some insight into the causes of anxiety disorders.
Enough people have a phobia of clowns to make it a good example. In reality, clowns really pose no threat—except, perhaps, to good taste. Some individuals, however, experience a psychological trauma that causes their brain to associate clowns with a threat to life and limb. Faced with one, these individuals go through all the sensations related to panic and their fight or flight reflexes being triggered no matter how much they try to rationalize. Anxiety disorder symptoms are similar, but worse. Take those awful feelings and put them in a vacuum. Imagine that they manifest for no reason at all but are just as intense as what one experiences when in the presence of a phobia-inducing stimuli and one has an idea of the sensation.
The causes of anxiety disorders are physical, psychological and situational and must be addressed from all of those fronts. Professional help is often required to develop strategies to deal with these issues. On a self-help level, support groups, books that address anxiety and taking up activities such as healthy exercise and meditation may help to alleviate some symptoms. Making necessary changes to one’s lifestyle is usually an excellent place to start an overall change.
