The concept of anxiety has recently become an integral part of our lives, as the situation of uncertainty in which we live creates expectation of something unpleasant that may occur in the future. R. May and other academics have written that anxiety is the central problem of modern civilisation and the most important characteristic of our time: “the twentieth century is the century of anxiety”, although the beginning of the twenty-first century does not change much. Constant socio-political and economic changes generate uncertainty and, as a result, emotional tension, anxiety and worry.
Р. Lazarus defined anxiety as unresolved fear that leads to a pervasive sense of danger. People often confuse states of anxiety and fear, and a psychologist should explain that fear is always specific (we are always afraid of something definite – darkness, death, illness, animals, etc.), and anxiety is always vague (we often do not know why we are anxious, we just feel a state of restlessness, excitement, expectation of something bad). Often, a person cannot even explain what exactly is disturbing him or her, but this state gives rise to a lot of troubling thoughts and prevents a person from functioning normally “here and now”.
Charles Spielberg distinguished two types of anxiety:
- “anxiety-state” is a short-term emotional reaction associated with the activation of the autonomic nervous system;
- “anxiety-trait” is a predisposition to an anxiety reaction that occurs over a long period of time and is formed as a character trait under the influence of upbringing. Anxiety is only caused by situations that are personally significant for the subject and meet his or her actual needs.
It is necessary to distinguish unease from anxiety; if unease is an episodic manifestation of concern, strong excitement, then anxiety is a stable state. Anxiety is not associated with a specific situation, it manifests itself constantly, accompanying a person in various activities. A person with severe anxiety has a tendency to view the world around them as dangerous and threatening.
When studying causes of anxiety and the factors that influence its level, researchers have found that anxiety is linked to family characteristics and family upbringing, school performance, relationships with teachers and peers, stressful situations, etc.
At the physiological level, the anxiety reaction manifests itself as an increase in heart rate; rapid and shallow breathing; increased blood circulation; increased blood pressure; increased general excitability; and decreased sensitivity thresholds, when previously neutral stimuli acquire a negative emotional colouring.
Anxiety as a signal of danger draws attention to possible difficulties and obstacles to achieving the goal, allows a person to mobilise own strengths and thereby achieve the best result. Therefore, a normal (optimal) level of anxiety is perceived as necessary to effectively adjust to reality (adaptive anxiety).
A certain level of anxiety is a natural and necessary characteristic of an active personality. Each person has his or her own optimal or desirable level of anxiety – this is the so-called useful anxiety. An excessively high anxiety is perceived as a maladaptive reaction, which manifests itself in the general disorganisation of behaviour and activities. Individuals belonging to this category tend to see a wide range of situations as a threat to their self-esteem and life. They react to such situations with a pronounced state of tension. The study of anxiety problems also considers the complete absence of anxiety as a phenomenon that interferes with normal adaptation, as well as persistent anxiety that interferes with normal development and productive activity.
The state of anxiety is an emotional state that has a range of manifestations, and our ability to measure the intensity of anxiety (using the Emotion Thermometer technique) is important here.
Anxiety is a state in which different manifestations replace each other as they increase, so we can distinguish six levels of anxiety.
The first level is the lowest intensity of anxiety. It manifests itself in certain tension, alertness, discomfort, which mobilises the body’s defences to cope with a stressful situation. This level of anxiety has the greatest adaptive value, so it is important to be able to stop here, to develop stabilisation skills and prevent anxiety from developing into more intense manifestations.
At the second level, feelings of internal tension are replaced by hyperesthetic reactions. Previously neutral stimuli become significant, and with increased anxiety, they take on a negative emotional colouring.
The third level is anxiety itself, which manifests in the feeling of an uncertain threat, a vague danger.
The fourth level is fear. It emerges when anxiety increases and is manifested in the objectification and concretisation of an uncertain danger. At the same time, the object with which fear is associated does not necessarily reflect the real cause of anxiety and is not really threatening.
The fifth level is a sense of the inevitability of an impending catastrophe, which arises as a result of a gradual increase in anxiety and manifests itself in a feeling of horror. In this case, this experience is not related to the content of the feeling, but only to the increase in anxiety. Such an experience can cause vague but very strong anxiety.
The highest level of tension is anxious and fearful arousal, which manifests itself in the need for motor discharge and panic-stricken search for help. The anxiety-induced disorganisation of behaviour and activities reaches its maximum. This condition is extremely dangerous, and a person needs external support and help.
What can we do to prevent the newly emerging unease from escalating into anxiety, fear, arousal, panic?
First of all, when initial anxiety unfolds at the bodily level, we can help ourselves in the following ways
- use deep breathing or square breathing, which will help you calm the nervous system and ease our “panic button”;
- drink water, wash your face, put a water bottle on the back of your neck, which will allow you to regain control over your own body and ease the “panic button”;
- sit or lie down so that your back gets support, “ground yourself”;
- look around, bring your thoughts back to “here and now”:
- find and name five objects that can be touched;
- find and name four objects of the same colour;
- listen and name three sounds you can hear right now;
- name two smells that you can detect;
- try to name one taste that you are currently experiencing.
After you return to “here and now”, you can recall your anxious thoughts and analyse them:
Step 1: Ask yourself: “What am I worrying about right now?”
Step 2: “Is this problem real and can I do something about it?”
Step 3: If you answered “No” in Step 2, let go of your worries and switch to something more useful.
Step 4: If you answered “Yes” in Step 2, make a plan to solve the problem.
Step 5: Ask yourself: “Is there anything I can do right now to implement my plan?”
Step 6: If you answered “Yes” in Step 5, do what you can right now and let go of your worries, turning your attention to something more useful.
Step 7: If you answered “No” in Step 5, schedule a time when you can set this plan in motion and think about how you will implement it. And then let go of the worry and switch to something more useful.
So, there are no bad or good emotional states; we need them all to live our lives, because it is like the sea – it cannot be calm all the time, waves roll in, tsunamis happen. In our life, there are different events, different people and all kinds of situations, and sometimes we cannot control this process, but we can learn to surf these waves, knowing that anxiety is a state, and it will inevitably go away. You just need to help yourself!
