| There are at least two causes of
anxiety: conflict and stress. As an example of the former, we can rarely predict
the precise consequences of what we do, but we are awarded (oz cursed) with the
intellectual capacity to anticipate the advantages and disadvantages which may
arise for any action we may be contemplating. Very commonly we axe faced with a
choice between several courses of action, all of which we have reasons for or
against. This state of affairs -- in psychological jargon, multiple
approach-avoidance conflict -- accounts for a great deal of our worrying:
worrying, that is, about what to do. The other major source of worry is the dreadful things which may happen or have happened to us or to those we care for. Among the most stressful of these are death, illness, loss of work, money problems, marital problems and retirement. Such worries have a rational basis, but we are curiously irrational in the way we pursue them. For example, fear of death is as strong among young adults as among the elderly and it does not seem to be reduced by any sort of religious faith, including the belief that there is life after death. It is equally surprising that objective measures of anxiety suggest that we are as worried the hour before having a tooth filled as when we face a major medical operation. How do we deal with worries? Psychiatrists point to a number of defensive devices we can use to turn them aside. We can avoid the situations which induce them, one of the example being that some people refuse to fly in airplanes. We can deny that we have the worry at all, which may be risky if the worry is well-founded. Alternatively, we may repress it. These are hazardous; the former may lead to free-floating, clinical anxiety, while the latter is a way of saying that many physical troubles seem to be primarily emotional in origin. Temporary relief from anxiety can be obtained through engaging in a variety of coping behaviors. These include many of the commonest items of our behavioral repertoire. Smoking, drinking, sleeping, eating, taking physical exercise, daydreaming: all can be used to reduce anxiety when the occasion demands it. It is when they fail that worrying or anxiety threatens to become a clinical problem. Of course, some people worry more than others, whatever the circumstances. So far I have been discus- sing the state of anxiety, which is largely the product of the amount of stress an individual experiences. But anxiety is also a personality trait, closely related to Eysenck's neuroticism dimension, and the genes we inherit may make us likely become worriers. The importance of constitutional factors is underlined by the fact that people rarely have breakdowns for the first time later in life, despite the fact that stress-inducing events become more frequent as we get older. |