Anxiety disorder causes

Anxiety disorder – causes

There are 2 different types of anxiety disorders:

–Anxiety disorders with concrete, specific triggers, such as fear of conflict, fear of failure, fear of being abandoned or phobias such as claustrophobia. These are referred to as bound fears.

–Anxiety disorders without a specific trigger, such as generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder, are also known as unattached anxiety.

This section will now focus on the causes of anxiety disorders with specific triggers (fear of punishment, separation anxiety, etc.).

Causes of anxiety disorders

There are normal fears that have the task of warning of a situation or danger. These fears occur in such dangerous situations and then disappear again. These fears do not need treatment. Then there are fears from the past, also known as pathogenic (pathological) fears. These cause bound anxiety disorders. Such fears come from childhood and are split-off or repressed fears.

Anxiety disorders, causesfrom childhood

Many of these fears arise particularly in early childhood, between birth and 4 years of age. At this age it is also the case, especially for a young, tender and open being, that the external reality can often be too harsh, too overwhelming, unbearable and also completely overwhelming. But the inner world can also be harsh and unrelenting in these young years. Be it deprivation, the deprivation of important basic needs such as love, recognition, attachment, affection, tenderness, etc., the overwhelming helplessness, the strong intensity of pain or never-ending, agonizing fears of loss, existential fears or other anxieties. Such influences can be extremely stressful and harmful, even leading to a breakdown of the psyche or even death. Also, at this age, up to 4 years, the mind is not yet fully developed, i.e. it cannot absorb, reinterpret, rationalize, etc. such fears and situations well. They are usually not in a position to protect the affected person from such situations and lack foresight and understanding. There was also no faith or hope that could have made the situation understandable or explained it. For the young child, there is only the now, with the terrible pain, the horrible, overwhelming fear, without knowing whether this moment or these overwhelming feelings will ever end.

In such traumatic or overwhelming situations, an emotion (fear, grief, anger, etc.) can become so overwhelming that it can no longer be processed or integrated. This jeopardizes the stability of the psyche and the physical survival of the person affected, so a life-threatening situation has arisen. The psyche must now provide stability in order to ensure survival. An emergency function is used for this , that of splitting off/repression. This splits or represses the overburdening, specific emotion (e.g. fear of loss) into the subconscious.

Splitting/repression is intended to deal with excessive, overwhelming, unendurable emotions (such as fears, anger, shame, sadness, etc.), unacceptable cognitions (cognitions/beliefs) and also internal and external injuries (e.g. mentaland physicalabuse, emotionalandphysical stress). mental and physical abuse, humiliation, devaluations), the non-fulfilment or violation of basic needs that are so strong that they can no longer be integrated/processed, can be split off into the subconscious or repressed. This is also about protecting and relieving the psyche, building up and preserving inner stability and security and maintaining general functioning. This saves the situation and survival, but another unconscious part has been added to the subconscious.

This is where the fear has a destructive effect. The effects always depend on how strongly this fear is charged. If the burden of fear or the tension of fear is sufficiently great, the effects can become dysfunctional and pathological. In such cases, fears or the effects are so strong that such fears shape and determine a person’s life and dominate them.

The symptoms of anxiety disorders can be found onthis page .

There has always been the “wisdom of the people” about the possibility and tendency in humans to block out what is overwhelming or unpleasant. Eastern wisdom teachings, the Bible, South and Central American shamans and North American Indians, as well as Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860, German philosopher, author and university lecturer) all contain points where he pre-formulated the concept of suppression. But nowhere has it been studied as scientifically and in such detail as by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939, neurologist, depth psychologist, cultural theorist, critic of religion and founder of psychoanalysis). His concept of splitting off/repression became a central component of psychoanalytic theory and has since been confirmed empirically (“Psychoanalyse und Empirie.”, Arnold Langenmayr (ed.), Christoph Werner (ed.), Vandenhoeck Ruprecht Verlag”). According to Freud, psychoanalysis aims to make these unconscious aspects conscious again.

It is important to realize that we can also free ourselves from such fears in later life.