The Fear Course Dictionary of Emotional Resilience, Emotion Regulation, Fear and Anxiety

There are 30 entries in this glossary.

A

Anxiety

n. 1. A state of uneasiness and apprehension, for example about future uncertainties. 2. A cause of nervousness or fear. 3. A state of intense apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from the anticipation of a threatening event or situation, or memory of a past often traumatic event, often to a degree that normal physical and psychological functioning is disrupted.

Symptoms include:

A. The somatic or physical symptoms of anxiety include headaches, dizziness or light-headedness, nausea and/or vomiting, diarrhea, tingling, pale complexion, sweating, numbness, difficulty in breathing, and sensations of tightness in the chest, neck, shoulders, or hands. These symptoms are produced by the hormonal, muscular, and cardiovascular reactions involved in the fight-or-flight reaction. Children and adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder show a high percentage of physical complaints.

B. Behavioural symptoms of anxiety include pacing, trembling, general restlessness, hyperventilation, pressured speech, hand wringing, or finger tapping.

C. Cognitive symptoms of anxiety include recurrent or obsessive thoughts, feelings of doom, morbid or fear-inducing thoughts or ideas, and confusion, or inability to concentrate or think and negative thinking.

D. Feeling states associated with anxiety include tension or nervousness, feeling "hyper" or "keyed up," and feelings of unreality, panic, or terror. Feeling like they want to run away or of aggression or displacement behaviour such as playing video games rather than solving the problem. A form of flight.

E. In psychoanalytic theory, the symptoms of anxiety in humans may arise from or activate a number of unconscious defense mechanisms. Because of these defenses, it is possible for a person to be anxious without being consciously aware of it or appearing anxious to others.

F. FFFs - Flight, fight or Freeze syndrome.