Literature Review On Anxiety Disorders

Childhood anxiety is quickly becoming the most challenging of all childhood problems. As the root of most problems, anxiety covers a long range of stressors that spread quickly if not treated or relieved early in life. Anxious feelings in children varies from children of all backgrounds. All people feel anxious at one point or another, and it is only when children are affected daily and unable to be calmed when people should become concerned. Many times, children are feeling overwhelmed and cannot express themselves or struggle to understand his/her feelings. Social and emotional development then plays a big part when facing concerns like anxiety in a young childhood environment. Teachers and caregivers need to take a step back and focus on what the child needs rather than what he/she can do to make children calm down. Through interventions, patience, and caring teachers, a young child does not need to be known as "The Child Who is Anxious", he/she can just be a child.

Alternatively Hadley (1995) puts forward the view that contrary to popular belief, anxiety actually arises out of thoughts of potential danger and not the actual danger that produces the symptoms of anxiety. In support of this view the document by Chrysalis states that “feelings of anxiety come from apprehension or fear, the source of which is not always recognisable”. Feeling anxious at certain times in our life is a normal instinctual response that serves as a protection to aid survival. It teaches us to avoid dangerous situations and in this way is a learning process however the subconscious can sometimes work overtime resulting in response to all situations that feel remotely similar to the one that has made us feel anxious in the first instance (Chrysalis 2010 1-5 pp7). This document describes how anxiety will affect our whole being, our emotions, our behaviour and our physical health. Anxiety becomes a problem when its level rises above normal and interfere with a person’s life, associated physical symptoms include, trembling, tense muscles, churning stomach, nausea, diarrhoea, headache, heart palpitations, pins and needles, sweating or flushing (Chrysalis 2010 1-5 pp7). These feelings coupled with the physical symptoms experienced make a person want

Current epidemiological data suggest anxiety disorders are the most prevalent type of childhood psychological disorders. Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD is described by excessive worrying about a variety of events, including those in the past, present, and future. Children with this disorder worry excessively about a number of issues, including past conversations or actions, upcoming events, school, family health, their own health, competence in sports or academics, and world events. Typically, children experiencing such excessive worry find it difficult to control the amount of time that they worry, and the worrying interferes in their daily life. Sometimes children don’t realize their anxiety is excessive considering the situation.

Adolescence is a difficult time period in a young person’s transition into their later stage of both physical and mental development. Mood disorders are often overlooked during this time for the brain becoming more developed; however among children, anxiety disorders seem to be the most common disorders to be experienced (Nelson; Israel, pg 112). Barlow (2002) defines anxiety as a future-oriented emotion that is characterized by the inability to be in control and predict future events that can be potentially dangerous to the individual. Anxiety shares commonalities with fear, but the difference between the two being that fear is the initial response made from a present threat, where anxiety is due to a unknown future event. A common

To experience any form of anxiety, such as interviews, a drive in traffic, or even a first date is a natural- human experience. For instance, one begins to undergo a feeling of failure regarding specific class. Nevertheless, sometimes, the emotion, keeps us motivated and school work-orientated. Yet, now and then, anxiety can take a hold on one when intense fear and distress becomes too overwhelming; it can prevent one from doing everyday thing. As a result, anxiety disorder can be the cause (B. T. Anxiety Disorders, 2016). According to National Alliance of Mental Illness, known as NAMI (2016), anxiety disorders are a common mental health concern in the United States. Roughly, forty million adults in the United States, and eight percent of children and teenagers face some sort of a negative impact of an anxiety disorder. Consequently, people develop symptoms of anxiety disorder before the age twenty-one.

Anxiety disorders involve fears that are uncontrollable, unreasonable to the actual danger the person might be in, and interferes with their ordinary life. Symptoms associated with anxiety involve jumpiness, nervousness, trembling, hyperactivity, and agitation. Anxiety causes distress and as a result can intensify symptoms of ASD and cause behavioral difficulties including tantrums, aggression and self-injury. Not all children with ASD will develop anxiety, therefore there are potential benefits of understanding the mechanisms whereby anxiety develops and of identifying which young people are most vulnerable (Conner, C., Maddox, B., & White, S.,

While anxiety disorders seem to be among the most common of childhood disorders, most children with a diagnosable anxiety disorder are not receiving any assistance (Stallard et al., 2014). Further, many studies indicate that anxiety disorders in children do not tend to dissipate without treatment; rather, these disorders continue to affect a child’s well-being and functioning as they grow and can have negative consequences on school performance and social functioning in later years (Saavedra, Silverman, Morgan-Lopez & Kurtines, 2010). It appears that if effective interventions are not implemented to address diagnosable childhood anxieties, the symptoms can progressively become more severe and debilitating (Girling-Butcher & Ronan, 2009).

There were two studies that examined the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). The Hale III et al. (2014) prospective cohort study was conducted to determine if frequent administration of the SCARED further distinguished between false positives and true positives with regard to DSM-5 diagnostic symptoms of anxiety disorder. While the Simon et al. (2009) prospective study was conducted to determine if results relating to high-anxious and median-anxious on the SCARED could be used to distinguish and predict various anxiety disorders. Both authors believe that anxiety disorders can take a serious toll on the quality of life and can financially drain the society. Simon et al. goes on to say that anxiety disorders that

Anxiety, also known as generalized anxiety disorder, is categorized by Mayo Clinic as “ongoing anxiety and worry that are difficult to control and interfere with day-to-day activities”(“Generalized”). According to Mayo Clinics article Generalized Anxiety Disorder that not only adults but also children and adolescent who have this disorder that “Your anxiety, worry or physical symptoms cause you significant distress in social, work or other areas of your life.” Everyone experiences anxiety at one point in their life it; however, becomes a disorder once it starts to interfere with the everyday life of that person. The symptoms of anxiety in adults are persistent worrying over normally insignificant details in life, overthinking, having difficulty

The research question for this paper is: what are possible origins of or influences contributing to anxiety? Anxiety is a disorder where the individual experiences fear greater than what the situation warrants, and is currently the third largest psychiatric disorder in the United States (Schneier, 2003). However, the origins of anxiety is not entirely clear yet, and different schools of thought have formed different theories and explanations for this disorder. Knowing and understanding the possible origins of anxiety can assist in the development of treatments.

Research has shown that early exposure to circumstances that produce persistent fear and chronic anxiety can have lifelong consequences by disrupting the developing architecture of the brain (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2010). Changes in the brain activity and have been shown to have long-term, adverse consequences for learning, behavior, and health (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2010). Research as shown that several parts of the brain are key actors in the production of fear and anxiety (National Institute of Mental Health, 2014). Using brain imaging technology and neurochemical techniques, scientists have discovered that the amygdala and the

Children tend to be more high strung than the average patient in a psychiatric ward was back in 1950, and a school psychologist must take this into account when working with students. In fact, this trend expands to the entire population. It is estimated that half of the human population is suffering from substance abuse, depression or anxiety. What many fail to realize is that anxiety disorders do more than affect a person's mental health. A panic disorder, for example, could lead to a variety of medical conditions, including hypertension, diabetes or thyroid disease.

Thesis Statement: Early Anxiety is stemmed from many factors, however the main cause of anxiety in adolescents is directly related to parenting and/or family influences.

The difference between social anxiety disorder and other disorders is that a person is capable of enjoying themselves. This is because they are not impacted as severely physically since their fear is only stimulated in the event that they will have to be

Anxiety is termed as a number of complicated negative thoughts such as fear, worryness, and apprehension. Individuals are capable to sense and feel the presence of anxiety in numerous situations connected to their culture and community. In addition, scholars attempted to find out the nature of anxiety from different perspectives. Spielberger and Rickman (1990) read about anxiety, depending on the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud, saying that anxiety is a nasty sensational state that is followed by the worriness and apprehension. However, too many authors have studied anxiety in regard to psychological or personal theory to learning and perceiving (Spielberg, 1966 a).in the beginning of the 1960s, the two ideas which are the state of being anxious and trait, were introduced by the two authors (ahell and scheier 1961) . The features of the anxiety condition are closely