Prevalence of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders create disruption and distress for a large number of people in the US. Anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety, social anxiety, all of the categories of phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Some trauma specialists consider the dissociative disorders to be extreme manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder, a position that has significant support in brain-imaging research on trauma. With this perspective, anxiety disorders include the dissociative disorders as well: these include dissociative fugue (psychogenic amnesia), depersonalization, derealization, and dissociative identity disorder.
What Happens in the Brain When Anxiety is Created:
Current brain-imaging research shows that anxiety is typically created by either or both of the following conditions:
The first category of causes for anxiety are single-event or repetitive trauma events in which a person’s coping mechanisms are overwhelmed; this occurs when something happens that is “too much” or it happens too quickly for the psyche to adjust and prepare. As a result an emotional shock is created which the brainstem interprets as very threatening, or even “life threatening.” The result is the creation of a “trauma freeze cycle” in the brainstem–a cycle of arousal that continues to replay over and over until it is discharged or released.
This cycle of arousal does not go away over time. It only goes away if it is discharged. Some individuals discharge their freeze cycles naturally. A discharge usually produces a period of rapid breathing, some shaking and trembling or a deep shudder, and a conscious re-experiencing of the uncomfortable fear emotions. Tears and sobbing may also occur, but are not always produced. Somatic discomfort is also often present, in the form of headaches, a tightness in the chest, stomach aches, or muscle tension, muscle pain and joint pain.
The discharge of a freeze cycle is uncomfortable. If the experience that caused the freeze was very intense, or if several freeze cycles come up at once, an unsupported freeze discharge can produce symptoms that strongly resemble a panic attack.
As a result, most individuals try to repress their discharges and prevent them from happening. This attempt to repress fear and anxiety experiences results in a state of chronic arousal in the brain stem. Because the brainstem regulates so many body functions, chronic arousal affects HPA axis, producing symptoms such as high cortisol levels, elevated blood pressure, chronic feelings of tiredness, chronic muscle tension (producing muscle aches and pains, and the chronic symptoms of anxiety disorders–fearfulness, nervousness, hypervigilance, tendency to startle easy, difficulty sleeping, changes in eating habits, etc.
