Definition

Anxiety is currently the major mental health problem. Epidemiological studies show that one-third of the population may be affected. However, a great many do not receive treatment because anxiety is a subjective, complex phenomenon that is difficult to define. That is why it is important to distinguish normal anxiety from what is called pathological anxiety, and to differentiate between anxiety, fear, phobia, and stress.

Successive life cycles induce anxiety to varied degrees. Adolescence, menopause and old age are periods in life that are more likely to cause anxiety because they call for adapting to profound changes that are happening in the body. Benign anxiety is useful because it contributes to adaptation and motivates the individual to find solutions – it stimulates action and change. 

Some scientists believe that anxiety is a conditioned reflex. According to one psychoanalytic theory, anxiety is the manifestation of an unconscious conflict, an illness, fear, or troubling psychological event in infancy. For some people, the way they learned to face life events may lead to a predisposition to anxiety.

When anxiety becomes extreme and thus pathological, it alters, even paralyzes, a person’s functioning in most spheres of their life. People suffering from severe anxiety experience considerable difficulties both at work and in their familial, sexual and social life.  

Fear and Phobias

Fear is an emotion similar to anxiety, but it is normally manifested in response to a real danger or threat. It is normal to be afraid when coming face to face with a bear in a forest. But if a person worries months in advance about a routine medical examination, that is anxiety.

When fear of an imagined dangerous situation becomes intense and when it leads to avoidance of that situation, then we are talking about a phobia. In the case of a phobia, the danger is not real. There are several kinds of phobias: fear of animals, of enclosed spaces, the dark, heights, etc.

Stress and Generalized Anxiety

Stress is a popular term these days and it is blamed for many ills. We speak of stress when we can identify one or several factors that trigger it, and these are called stress agents. For example, severe financial problems, a divorce, or getting laid off are certainly stress agents that can generate a certain level of anxiety.