Anxiety and anxiety disorders: characteristics, symptoms and treatment

I am anxious! Laconic phrase that is easy to hear people say in the most disparate environments as well as the most frequent in the psychotherapist's office. Anxiety is the most searched word on the web after depression. It has been described abundantly in the literature by the psychological and medical disciplines as an alarm reaction and also in common sense it means tension, often constant, due to worry; this becomes pathological when it takes on a pervasive and uncontrollable character. The anxious symptoms then become an anxiety disorder.

This way of perceiving reality and reacting with concern and alarm is now a full-blown psychopathological picture if it has persisted for at least six months (DSMV) and can cause considerable stress and significant discomfort such as to affect the quality of life. Worry can cause significant impairment in interpersonal, social, and professional relationships. Relationships in couples are often complicated by the disorder.

Thoughts are negative, catastrophic, and can also trigger somatic reactions. If anxiety is excessive, symptoms such as:
restlessness and a feeling of strong tension; fatigue; difficulty concentrating; irritability; muscle tension; sleep problems, difficulty breathing, heart rhythm and gastrointestinal tract.

Anxious people tend to constantly monitor the environment in search of potential dangers for himself or for the closest people. As there is no immediate real danger, their concern shifts to the future.
Constant worrying to avoid danger results in:

a) the attempted dysfunctional solution to avoid:

to be taken by surprise or at least to prepare for the worst;
an increase in negative emotions related to the possibility of something feared happening;

b) the attempted dysfunctional solution to ask for help:

to avoid the possibility of feeling bad from an anxiety crisis;

c) the attempted dysfunctional solution to repress one's reactions.

These people do not live life in the present, because they are constantly preoccupied with thinking threatening imaginaries projected into the future and constantly striving to avoid situations that they consider dangerous.
Numerous studies have highlighted the correlation with physical condition: in particular with physical pain (fibromyalgia for example and chronic rheumatic diseases), asthma, irritable bowel syndrome. It represents a risk factor in the onset of heart disease. Anxiety symptoms are transversal to various psychological disorders and in particular to:

Panic Disorder: where fear is perceived as an extreme threat, in an escalation in which the person is terrified of his own feelings. Fighting one's reactions ineffectively increases the reactions themselves instead of reducing them, activating a dysfunctional device that maintains the problem (Nardone G. Panic attack therapy 2016)

Specific phobias: that is, the uncontrollable fear of coming into contact with the feared object that the person must avoid. There are as many as there are things in the world but the most widespread are related to the person's environment (phobias of animals, of height, of flying, agoraphobia, etc.) but not only (Nardone G. Paura panico phobie 1993)

Hypochondria and pathophobia: anxiety is the result of the attempt to keep one's body under control, generating a dysfunctional process that generates new alarm (Nardone G ,. Beyond the limits of fear 2000).

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: where anxiety is sedated with pathological rituals (Nardone G., Portelli C. Obsessions, compulsions and manias 2013).

Relational dynamics: in which anxiety is the product of the feared judgment of others: the fear of not being up to par; to be rejected; of not knowing how to control oneself, etc. (Muriana E., Verbitz T. Psychopathology of love life 2010).

Post-traumatic stress disorder: here the anxiety and / or panic are symptomatic reactions to the trauma that will extinguish once the disorder is resolved (Cagnoni F., Milanese R. Cambiare il past 2009).

Depression: anxiety is associated with the difficulty of regulating emotions and ends when renunciation becomes the prevailing attempt at a solution (Muriana E., Pettenò L., Verbitz T. The faces of depression 2006).

Sexual disorders: where performance anxiety is often the generator of the persistence of the problem (Nardone G., Rampin M. When sex becomes a problem 2015).

Eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, vomiting syndrome and binge eating): in which anxiety manifests itself both as a specific fear and as an attempt to control food (Nardone G. Verbitz T., Milanese R. The prison of food 1999).

Higher Mental Disorders (Psychosis, Borderline, Paranoia and Bipolar Disorders): in which anxiety is almost always present even in conjunction with delusions. (Muriana E., Verbitz T., Nardone G. forthcoming)

RESULTS OF EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF SHORT STRATEGIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

Brief Strategic Therapy has specific protocols for the treatment of anxiety and the disorders that often underlie it, capable of solving the problem with a rate of effectiveness and efficiency higher than any other psychotherapy.
The efficiency relative to complete recovery from the disorder (which includes three follow-up meetings) stands at an average of 7 sessions for the entire treatment. If, on the other hand, we consider the elimination of the disabling disorder, or the release of the symptoms, in the totality of the sample this was achieved within the first 4 sessions, or 2/3 months from the beginning of the therapy.
Effectiveness results of the treatment protocols:

Phobic and anxiety disorders (95% of cases)
Obsessive and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (89% of cases)
Eating disorders (83% of cases)
Sexual dysfunction (91% of cases)
Mood disorders (82% of cases)
Disorders of childhood and adolescence (82% of cases)
Internet addiction disorders (80% of cases)
Presumed psychosis, borderline and personality disorder (77% of cases)

As can well be understood, the fact that psychopathologies can be decidedly suffered and persisted for years does not mean that the therapy must be equally painful and prolonged over time. With the words of William Shakespeare we like to remember that "There is no night that does not see the day".

Dr. Emanuela Muriana, (Official Psychotherapist and Teaching Professor of the Strategic Therapy Center)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Cagnoni F., Milanese R. (2009). Change the past. Ponte alle Grazie.
Muriana E., Pettenò L., Verbitz T (2006). The faces of depression. Ponte alle Grazie.
Muriana E., Verbitz T. (2010) Psychopathology of love life. Ponte alle Grazie.
Nardone G. (1993) Fear panic phobias. Ponte alle Grazie.
Nardone G. Verbitz T., Milanese R. (1999). The food prisons. Ponte alle Grazie.
Nardone G. (2000) Beyond the limits of fear. Ponte alle Grazie.
Nardone G. De Santis G. (2011) Cogito ergo I suffer. Ponte alle Grazie.
Nardone G., Portelli C. (2013) Obsessions, compulsions and delusions. Ponte alle Grazie.
Nardone G. (2013) Correct me if I'm wrong. Ponte alle Grazie.
Nardone G. (2016) Panic Attack Therapy. Ponte alle Grazie.
Watzlawick P, Nardone G. (1997) Brief Strategic Therapy. Ponte alle Grazie.