The Relationship Between Fear And Anxiety

Today anxiety disorders are recognized as one of the most common mental health disorders. Anxiety has been around since human’s worried about being eaten by saber tooth tigers. “It’s important to note that at its core level, anxiety is a part of evolution. Anxiety is the activation of the fight or flight system the system your body uses to keep you safe from harm (Calm Clinic)”. Oddly, anxiety is a normal part of life; you may feel anxious when having to make a significant decision or taking a test, for most people these normal feelings usually fade, however for those who suffer from an anxiety disorder, these feels never subsides. They can cause such distress that it interferes with an individual’s ability to lead a normal healthy life.

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

According to DSM-V, “anxiety disorders include disorders that share features of excessive fear and anxiety and related behavioral

Children may feel apprehensive about any changes no matter how small these may be. Children generally feel apprehensive of the unknown. Such changes may include moving home, moving into a new setting etc. The worries children have will range from being simple worries such as where the toilets are located or more complex worries such as bullying etc. If any of the worries of a child are not recognised and addressed by a practitioner then this may directly impact and affect a child’s learning and development.

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.

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

Dr. R.W. Rogers created the Protection Motivation Theory in 1975. He proposed this theory to explain the effects of fear and how they can affect behavior. Rogers explained that fear initiates a cognitive process where the person takes into account a threat appraisal and a response appraisal which results in an adaptive or maladaptive behavior. Much of his work was based on Richard Lazarus and Howard Leventhal’s work on how people cope with fear. Their work focused on fear reaction divided into two processes: danger control (threat appraisal) derived from environmental cues and fear control (coping appraisal) an internal process. Rogers created the first three constructs of PMT based on environmental cues. They are referred to as threat

General anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent, debilitating disorder recognized by the DSM-5. Some of the symptoms that are associated with GAD are restlessness/ feeling keyed up, being easily fatigues, difficulty concentrating/ having a blank mind, irritability, muscle tension, and disturbed sleep. Excessive anxiety, the most common mental health problem experienced in average youth, causes individual distress and functional impairment throughout children’s lives (Gross & Hen, 2004). Anxiety is also a mental status that is elicited in anticipation of threat of some kind. Sensations of anxiety are a normal part of human experiences, but excessive or inappropriate anxiety can become an illness. High levels of anxiety can be accompanied by a set of behavioral and physiological responses including avoidance, vigilance and arousal from a stimuli or stimulus. Children and adolescence of both genders usually experience anxiety symptoms at different levels of intensity that frequently afflicts their everyday life. Anxiety has been treated with drug therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), relaxation training and even systematic desensitization. To diagnose general anxiety disorder, one would look for many presenting symptoms, characteristics, and treatments.

Anxiety Disorder is a sudden feeling of qualms, uneasiness, nervousness, and anxiousness. Symptoms vary for each person. In the adolescent years anxiety shines the most. With school work, and social interaction. In our society, many people diagnose themselves with anxiety, because they are nervous, they believe they have an anxiety disorder. In the adolescent years anxiety is there, but usually mild, in today’s society, because studies show that anxiety has increased over the years. The denotation of anxiety is a sudden feeling of sickness, apprehension, paranoia. Eager and anxious are often used incorrectly, using the opposing one as the other. Anxiety means anticipation of an impending event. However, eager implies that the person looks

Anxiety is a common reaction in the human body. So becoming a little scared when watching a movie, or beginning to become nervous right before a test, or maybe even a little shy talking to your crush is completely normal. It starts to become a problem when anxiety takes control and cuts out important things in our life. Children with anxiety might start to feel more often than usual fear, nervousness, shyness, and often will try to avoid social events. Anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and usually the child is just going through a phase and will grow out of it. But when it continuously keeps recurring it begins to become a problem. There are a multitude of anxiety disorder ranging from General Anxiety Disorder(G.A.D), Panic Disorder, Social

“Homework” is not a work any individual who attends school wants to hear, especially those with an anxiety disorder. This thought bring on the fear and the anxiety is so pronounced it basically makes you freeze. Individuals who have this fear sometimes tries to live up to unrealistic expectations or may want everything to be perfect. This fear is an emotions response to an immediate threat and is more associated with a fight or flight reaction, either staying to fight or leaving to escape which one may feel danger.

There are many common types and conditions of anxiety disorders that can be diagnosed based on the symptoms present. The four most prevalent anxiety disorders among teenagers include social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder; many other forms of anxiety exist such as phobias, and panic attacks (Foa and Andrews 3). In a teens life, having anxieties such as social and panic attacks can form habitual actions such as not going anywhere or doing specific things. Social anxiety particularly begins between late childhood and early teens (Foa and Andrews 14). With this anxiety, fear is provoked when thinking about or interacting in a social setting or situation.This discomfort can be specific or general to a certain idea or situation (Foa and Andrews 13). Most types of anxiety disorders can coordinate to another. Like social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder can be directed principally a situations or nothing in particular (Foa and Andrews 14). It can be challenging for teens to explain the source of their anguish especially if they are not diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Generalized anxiety disorder is the most commonly