What exactely is Anxiety? We know what the symptoms associated with anxiety are, I wrote about them in a previous article, but what is anxiety itself? Is it an emotion? A feeling? A thought process? Is it something we are born with or is it self created and learnt?
Anxiety is essentially a combination of a few different things that produce the over all experience.
According to Wikipedia, anxiety is a psychological and physiological state of being that is characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components. These components combine to produce an unpleasant feeling that is typically associated with uneasiness, fear or worry.
That definition seems a little confusing, so let’s break it down into manageable chunks of information to better understand what exactly it is trying to tell us.
ANXIETY AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL/PHYSIOLOGICAL STATE
If we look at the definition and break it down, we see that that anxiety is a psychological and physiological state, this simply means that it is a state of being that is brought about by the human mental functions and behaviors ( the way we think and act) and and its materialization in our physical and biochemical functions ( our physical body/inherent predispositions).
This still seems a little confusing, so let’s take an even closer look at the definition in order to try to better understand the complexities of what anxiety is.
- Cognitive
What exactly does cognitive mean? Well, in simple terms it means “the process of thought”. This can be expanded to include self-talk ( what you internally say to yourself), how you think ( negatively or positively) and what you think about most. It is the how, what , when of your thinking patterns. Thoughts are powerful, they create your feelings which influences your behavior, which develops your habits, and your habits create your life. Your thoughts and the way you think is the most important influence on your anxiety, it has the power to create a joyful experience or one full of worry, fear, and panic.
- Somatic
The term somatic in simple terms refers to the cells of the body. It is essentially the art and science of the relationship between awareness ( the ability to perceive, feel, and be conscious of events), biological function, and environment — all three factors being interconnected and whole. Let’s make this easier to understand, its the relationship between your thoughts and their influence over your physical body. Or we can state it as pertaining to the body experienced and controlled from within. - Emotional / Emotions
Your emotions are based on the collective state of your varied feelings, thoughts an behavior. It is a complex reaction between yourself and varied events or objects. Emotions are subjective experiences, meaning that what you may think is sad, someone else may not). that are influences by an individuals point of view or perception. This is commonly seen when two people watch a particular movie, one individual may cry and think the movie is sad, while the other person may not be emotionally affected by it. - Behavioral / Behavior
Your behavior is essentially your actions or reactions to certain events or objects in relation to your environment. Your behaviors can be conscious, meaning you are aware of what it is you are doing, or unconscious which means that you unaware of what it is you are doing. Habits tends to be unconscious behaviors.Your behavior can also be overt, meaning to be open or out-there where others can see it, or your behavior can also be covert which means it is secret or hidden. It can also be voluntary or involuntary.
If we take a step back for a moment and try to boil down the very essence of what anxiety is all about, you can see from reading the above definition that it is essentially comprised of the psycho (mental) and the physio (physical) of a person.
It is the cumulative disorder of your thoughts, feelings, behavior, and perception and the physical manifestation or inherent predisposition ( heredity) of your physiology.
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