Extent of Problem :-

                 The lifetime prevalence of the anxiety is about 15 percent.

Causes :-

There are four major theories to explain causes of Anxiety.

•   Psycho-analytic,
•   Behavioral
•   Cognitive
•   Existential.

Psycho-analytic Theories :-

Freud proposed that anxiety is a signal to the ego (Self Consciousness) to take defensive action against the pressures from within. If anxiety rises above the normal level, it may emerge with all the fury of a panic attack. Ideally, the use of repression alone should result in a restoration of psychological equilibrium without symptoms formation, because effective repression completely contains the drives by rendering them unconscious. If repression is unsuccessful it may result in producing the picture of a neurotic disorder.

Id or impulse anxiety is seen as being related to the primitive, diffuse discomforts of infants when they feel overwhelmed with needs and stimuli over which their helpless state provides no control.

Separation anxiety refers to the stage of somewhat older children, who fear the loss of love or even abandonment by their parents if they fail to control and direct their impulses in conformity with their parents’ standards and demands.

Superego (Consciousness of values) anxiety is the direct result of the final development of the superego that marks the advent of the prepubertal period of latency.

Sullivan placed emphasis on the early relationship between mother and child and on the importance of the transmission of the mother’s anxiety to her infant.

Behavioral Theories :-

The behavioral theories of anxiety have suggested some of the most effective treatments for anxiety disorders.

These suggest that anxiety is a conditioned response to specific environmental stimuli. Persons may learn to have an internal response of anxiety by imitating the anxiety responses of their parents. Treatment is usually with some form of desensitization with cognitive psychotherapeutic approaches.

Cognitive Theories :-

These theories suggest that faulty, distorted, or counter-productive thinking patterns accompany or precede maladaptive behaviors and emotional disorders. Patients suffering from anxiety disorders tend to overestimate the degree of danger and the probability of harm in a given situation and to underestimate their abilities to cope with perceived threats to their physical or psychological well-being. This model asserts that patients suffering from attacks of anxiety often have thoughts of loss of control and fears of dying that follow inexplicable physiological sensations. Patients with anxiety are viewed as holding distorted, disabling thoughts with regard to events perceived as threatening to their physical or social well-being.

Existential Theories :-

Existential theories provide models for anxiety in which there is no specifically identifiable stimulus for a chronically anxious feeling. The central concept of existential theory is that persons become aware of a profound nothingness in their lives, feelings that may be even more profoundly discomforting than an acceptance of their inevitable death. Anxiety is the person’s response to this vast void of existence and meaning. It has been suggested that existential concerns have increased since the development of nuclear weapons.

Biological Theories :-

Central Nervous System :

Anxiety is represented within the brain as a biological entity. Some combination of neurochemicals and neurohormones affects an array of brain regions whenever a person experiences anxiety. Biological theories are partially based on observation that brain function in patients with anxiety disorders represents overstimulation of an otherwise normal system. It is possible that certain persons are more susceptible to the development of an anxiety disorder on the basis of a biologically based sensitivity to the development of this affect.

Autonomic Nervous System :

Anxiety disorder patients, especially those with panic disorders, have an ANS that exhibits increased sympathetic tone, adapt more slowly to repeated stimuli, and responds excessively to moderate stimuli.