Anxiety: Learning = Relief

Anxiety – it’s something everyone experiences from time to time. But for some it’s an ongoing, life-disrupting pain in the tush. Aside from understanding anxiety purely within the context of how it feels – well - just what exactly is it? See, I believe finding the answer to this question is the longest first step toward learning to manage anxiety and its fallout.

Now, coming to know the concept of anxiety at a healing level calls for a bit more than a quick glance at a dictionary. Yes, it calls for a bit of psycho-babble. But hang in there, as I think you’ll find these two theoretical points of view interesting and relevant.

The fans in the psychoanalytic section of the stadium would more than likely root for the theories of Sigmund Freud, who just happens to be the father (you’ll make him neurotic if you even imply “mother”) of psychoanalysis. Of particular note is Uncle Siggy’s structural theory, which proposes the human psyche has three components - the id: home of our inborn primitive desires, which stomps its feet and demands immediate gratification and release no matter the consequences (the “pleasure principle”); the superego: our active conscious, which maintains a sense of morality and prohibits the practice of social taboos; and the ego: our great internal mediator, managing the interplay of the id, superego, and our external world.

Now, according to Freud, the ego is especially significant because it strives to establish a state of balance and peace between our primitive drives, morals, and world-reality. So the ego has its work cut out for it as it deals with some incredibly powerful forces. All of this said, when our id demands some sort of immediate primal satisfaction, and our superego responds that such behavior is totally inappropriate, our ego gets put to the test and can easily become overwhelmed. According to Uncle Siggy, it’s this dynamic that generates anxiety. And anxiety is all about sounding a 150-decibel alarm so the ego knows it, as well as its designated-human, is in peril. There are other paradigms (foundational philosophical/theoretical frameworks of a school of thought or discipline) I find attractive. Here’s one of them.

The cognitivists, who subscribe to the notion that emotional distress is generated when we fail to identify the details of our thought patterns and make indicated adjustments, would submit anxiety is not a direct cause of this distress. Indeed, the seemingly endless waves of anxiety many endure are the result of a faulty internal fear response system that demands immediate attention to real or perceived danger. Now, the keyword in the last sentence is “perceived.” Come on - it’s no great secret that in the vast majority of cases our sensed dangers aren’t based in rational fact. Right? And if the present danger isn’t rationally-real then the subsequent anxiety becomes inappropriate and counterproductive to our immediate and future functioning.

So, then - according to the cognitivists issue numero uno isn’t the generation of anxiety, because in the midst of dangerous circumstances it’s supposed to make an appearance. And if you think about it, doesn’t it make sense that human genetics would foster a leaning toward the anxious? Sure. And that’s because an alarm system that doesn’t give a rip about what exactly set it off provides maximum protection in any situation where disaster may well be lurking. And having a leg-up on such disaster is well worth the cost of troublesome false alarms.

See, the cognitivists would propose the issue that causes all the problems within the realm of anxiety are the thought patterns that are foundational in the misinterpretation of internal and external stimuli (a shortened breath, a heart palpitation, boarding an airplane, crossing a bridge) leading to overreaction to a perceived reality. You see, the true threat here actually becomes the creation and impact of faulty thinking patterns, misinterpretations, and overreactions. And that’s what makes anxiety a major liability.

To assist you in organizing and understanding the two anxiety theories I’ve just reviewed, how ‘bout this summary.

Psychoanalytic
Unconscious forces collide as the id pushes toward immediate gratification of a primal desire, and the superego tells it to chill-out because it isn’t socially acceptable. The ego, in a frantic attempt to mediate, becomes overwhelmed and anxiety is generated. Anxiety is a message – an alarm - to the ego that it, and the individual, is in danger.

Cognitive
Anxiety is not a direct cause of distress, but the result of a faulty internal fear response system. It’s an emotional reaction in response to the cognitive process of fear. The generation of anxiety is designed to be a call to action – an alarm - to deescalate a world-real threat. But the threat may be a perceived reality based upon misinterpretation

So there’s the scoop from just two theoretical perspectives regarding the origin of anxiety. And as you can well imagine there are many more points of view floating around out there. The importance of such formal definitions is in learning all we can about icky stuff that impacts our lives. And the more we know, the better armed we become. Right?

Anxiety – learn and find relief.