Anxiety disorder symptoms

Anxiety disorder – symptoms

There are two different types of anxiety disorders:

1. anxiety disorders with concrete, specific triggers, such as fear of rejection, fear of dying, fear of losing control, phobias such as arachnophobia, etc. These are specific fears, also known as “bound” fears.

2. disorders without a specific trigger, such as panic disorders and generalized anxiety disorders. These are also referred to as “unattached” fears.

This is about symptoms of anxiety disorders with specific triggers (fear of being alone, fear of loss, fear of punishment, etc.). The causes are usually overwhelming or traumatic situations in early childhood, from birth to 4 years. In these emergency situations, where psychological stability and physical survival are at stake, emotions (fear, anger, sadness, shame, etc.) that cannot or must not be processed/accepted are repressed into the subconscious. There they develop destructive and pathological effects that dominate the person and can determine their life. The affected person is then rescued from this overwhelming situation, but now has one more unconscious fear.

How strong these effects are is always a question of how high the stress/tension of the anxiety is. If it is only weakly pronounced, the effects are also weak; if the burden of fear is strong, then the effects are also strong and can guide and direct an entire life.

For the person, dysfunctional effects are something pathological, something harmful; for the subconscious, they are signs and indications that there is still something to heal.

Symptoms of anxiety disorder

In general, it can be said that all symptoms of an anxiety disorder come with compulsion. Everyone has such unconscious parts within them, whether they are aware of it or not. Some more, some less. But we have all become accustomed to these effects because we have grown up with them (they emerged in early childhood) and now often take them for ourselves (“I’m just like that”).

Now that the split-off part is literally amputated, it is also an alienated part of us. The specific fear or other emotion is thus excluded from our world of experience. From then on, we will no longer be able to think about it so easily, or it will normally no longer occur to us. This is also due to the defense mechanisms that block or ward off access to this unconscious part . There are many different defense mechanisms that try to prevent the repressed part from entering our consciousness under any circumstances. The thematic side of the fear is blocked. In the case of a strong fear of criticism, the person affected cannot respond to criticism or can only respond to it to a limited extent, the subject of fear is blocked. Each split-off part thus becomes an unconscious pattern of behavior and experience.

This new structure of defense is then also called the neurosis structure or personality structure . If, for example, the fear of loss is strongly suppressed, then greed can easily develop. This is why Wilhelm Reich already said in Freud’s time that character is defense. Another example would be if a strong fear of being alone develops in early childhood. This fear or effect can lead to a strong neediness and dependency, i.e. to behavior that seeks to avoid the fear of being alone. This can also lead to a lot of clinging to others. Fear of missing out can easily turn into impatience, castration anxiety can lead to the blocking of natural aggression and sexuality.

The unconscious blocks and hinders us, but also us and our abilities and characteristics, sides, sexuality, love and compassion, relationships or our development, weakens our self-esteem and our well-being.

Anxiety disorder symptoms head

If the defense mechanisms fail to protect a split-off emotion from being accessed and it is nevertheless activated or triggered, this leads the person affected to short-term outbursts of anger and hatred.

Since the fear issue, or the blocked or repressed issue, is now excluded from the world of experience, there is virtually no further developmentin this area . Think of someone with a strong fear of criticism. You can’t get them into a discussion about criticism of themselves. He won’t think any further, he is blocked there.

You can’t talk about clarity either, as their perspective is distorted. Many studies have confirmed that people with a lot of anxiety have a distorted view (in the area of anxiety). This comes from the co-repressed cognition that is inherent to fear, which is believed in deeply and firmly, irrationally or not.

Other symptoms of an anxiety disorder include re-enactments. These have the task of re-experiencing (re-enacting) the events and emotions that could not be processed in the past and had to be split off, old things in new “clothes”.

Furthermore, trauma research has shown that severely traumatized people have no access to the here and now, to the moment, i.e. vitality is restricted when unconscious fears are pronounced.

Fears that have been split off become trapped in the body as energy blockages and can reach deep into the muscle layers. Fears can therefore also lead to physical symptoms, such as chronic back pain.

The higher a person’s anxiety level, the more this leads to chronic restlessness and tension.

“Most people’s existence is characterized by the fear of living their lives to the full.” Alexander Lowen, US physician and psychotherapist

If we have repressed/split something off, then this part of us is blocked inside. Generally speaking, what we can no longer give ourselves on the inside, we seek and need on the outside. You can see, for example, how people with blocked parts, e.g. fear of closeness, are very interested in the topic of closeness and everything that has to do with it. Of course, those affected are rarely aware of where this attraction comes from, that the part is unconscious.

Such anxiety disorders can also be inherited psychologically. If a mother cannot be close to herself or to others, then she cannot be close to her children. Fear of closeness and similar fears can then develop in them.

Each fear also has other deeper, individual effects. This is difficult to generalize. For a good overview, it is worth taking a look at the book “Basic forms of fear” by Fritz Riemann, who explains the whole book through the effects of just 4(!) fears.

“At the core of every symptom, stress and illness are feelings and memories, traumatic perceptions buried in our subconscious.” Dr. Darren Weissmann, biologist, author

Furthermore, at a higher level of anxiety, i.e. when several strong fears are present, one also has the following additional psychological symptoms:

Discomfort/discomfort
Stress, nervousness
Reduced resilience
Feeling of anxiety
Inner restlessness
Despair
Inability to react normally/meaningfully
Lack of concentration
Irritability

Physical symptoms of anxiety
Sweating, clammy hands
Palpitations
Shortness of breath/accelerated breathing
Nausea
Flushing
Tightness in the chest
Trembling