The Necessity of Emotional Regulation in Anxiety – Part II

Reference to the previous article on emotional regulation is here.

Anxiety-related circumstances are some of the more common expressions of mental health needs within our societal landscape. The current statistical significance indicates that a multitude of Americans are being impacted, spanning across ages, with an anxiety-related circumstance. American author and journalist Scott Stossel remarks: 

Anxiety and its associated disorders represent the most common form of officially classified mental illness in the United States today, more common even than depression and other mood disorders. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, some 40 million American adults, about one in six, are suffering from some kind of anxiety disorder at any given time; based on the most recent data from the Department of Health and Human Services, their treatment accounts for more than a quarter of all spending on mental-health care. Recent epidemiological data suggest that one in four of us can expect to be stricken by debilitating anxiety at some point in our lifetime. 

Anxiety has dramatically become the nation’s most common mental health ailment. Whether the form might occur as walking out from taking an exam, breaking down during a job interview, paling out and keeling over during a date, or collapsing with existential dread through nausea, shaking, vertigo, and sweat due to a public speaking engagement – these are all symptoms that cater to acute episodes in the buffet of worry. Fears and phobias also contribute to anxiety-induced experiences of discomfort as stomachaches, dizziness, and other manifestations representative of the common flu. To name a few fears and phobias: enclosed spaces (claustrophobia); heights (acrophobia); fainting (asthenophobia); being trapped far from home (a species of agoraphobia); germs (bacillophobia); cheese (turophobia); flying (aerophobia); vomiting (emetophobia); blushing in public (erythrophobia) and, naturally, vomiting while flying (aeronausiphobia) all encompass the anxiety-related circumstances. 

Within the medical community, private sector, as well as the public school system, anxiety can be considered as excessive when there are three factors that are at interplay: the individual’s physical resources and physical arousal are being peaked, there are specific cognitive responses and irrational distortions, and coping mechanisms that are beyond the scope and ability of the individual needed to navigate the anxiety-related circumstances overall. Dr. David Harrison Barlow, American Psychologist at Boston University and Founder of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, defines how anxiety can look within an individual: 

Anxiety is a mood state wherein the person anticipates future danger or misfortune with apprehension. This response causes a markedly negative affect primarily consisting of tension and somatic features… people often experience anxiety as a vague feeling of apprehension manifested as worry, unease, or dread. Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time. One might feel a sense of discomfort, “butterflies in the stomach,” a rapid heart rate, or “nervous” fidgeting.  

Contemporary studies have reported that moderate levels of anxiety serve a functional purpose to improve performance, but too little anxiety can impair performance overall. Even if excellence in performance can suffer, creativity will diminish, and tasks will not be accomplished to the degree of completion that they could – anxiety has some redeeming value attached to a myriad of expressions. History’s greatest artists and playwrights that possessed literary genius and creative exhibition would attribute their success to the outcome of being riddled with anxiety. Emily Dickinson was housebound after age 40 and produced great fictional accounts of poetry with much posthumous publication and attention for her vivid life themes. The novelist Frankz Kafka was able to override his neurotic and emotional sensibility with his artistic achievement and leave behind a legacy for his ethnicity. T. S. Eliot’s personal bouts with anxiety and highly reactive temperament helped make him a great poet. Eliot was seen as a a timid, fearful, and sensitive child —but because he also had a very supportive family, good education, and unusual verbal abilities according to the modern American standard, Eliot was able to use his anxious temperament as a gift. Another example is found in the French novelist, Marcel Proust. He was able to tie together in harmony a neurotic disposition with his creative genius through writing and publishing at an early age. Dean Simonton, a psychology professor at the University of California at Davis, spent decades studying the psychology of genius. He has previously reflected that “exceptional creativity” is often linked to psychopathology. In retrospect, it may be that the same cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms that predispose certain people to developing anxiety also promote creative thinking.

Many highlight that anxiety can lead to experiences that are altogether intolerable, and ultimately conclude with avoiding risk-taking opportunities and seizing moments of personal advancement in growth and development. We generally know that having some level of anxiety can be good, but not an overwhelming amount that is difficult to navigate at once. Experiencing anxiety is normative for the human experience, but having too much anxiety can promote maladaptive responses to the current stressors. Many agree that when anxiety interferes with daily life functioning, social standing, and occupational performance, then intervention is needed to address the subjective nature of its effects. Being unable to predict future events, having no sense of control, and experiencing emotional spirals with depression as well as bodily complaints are some of the more common features when experiencing anxiety. When in consideration with the emotional regulation of anxiety, the medical community understands that the core emotions being experienced serve as an alarm to escape danger or harm. Competency-based assessments that promote healthier emotional regulation for individuals experiencing heightened anxiety include a comprehensive understanding of the individual’s strengths as well as the individual’s responses to the circumstances overall.

Here are four common personality styles that flow together and need to be addressed within the process toward self-management and recovery: 

• Perfectionism: This can be a very common cause for low self-esteem in which expectations about yourself, others, and life circumstances can be unreasonably large. Nothing seems to be ever good enough, and personal criticism of small flaws as well as mistakes related to accomplishments are all part of maintaining perfectionistic standards. Your worth is not determined by your achievements and accomplishments. You can read more about the rise of perfectionism on college campuses and this generation here. 
• Excessive need for approval: Everyone needs to experience approval. However, chronic anxiety and tension can arise when the concern for approval and maintaining approval-seeking behaviors lead to consistent pleasing of others and accommodating their needs at the expense of ourselves. Part of the current trend in the workplace for needing excessive approval results in a work-life imbalance, and you can read more on this here.   
• Tendency to ignore physical and psychological signs of stress: Those that regularly struggle with anxiety-related circumstances are seen as out of touch with the rest of their bodies and “live in their heads” rather than being connected with the rest of their bodies. Many often push themselves to a state of inner exhaustion and illness rather than slowing down to experience life. Additionally, pervasive and persistent stress that accumulates leads to a malfunction of the neuroendocrine regulatory systems in the brain and lead to panic attacks, generalized anxiety, depression, mood swings, and a combination of other physiologic effects. The theme of anxiety recovery from these stress-related symptoms and pursuing a flow state is imperative, and you can read more here.  
• Excessive need for control: Rather than simply letting go and trusting in the process of life, control causes momentum for the ideal that everything in life needs to be predictable. It can be understandable to fight for everything due to a traumatic personal history. Experiences of being frightened, oppressed and vulnerable, and powerlessness bolster and support this excessive need for control rather than acceptance of the unpredictable and unexpected changes in life. 

The origins of these personality traits that perpetuate, sustain, and increase the presence of anxiety within individuals can include hereditary factors, developmental components, and parenting practices. There are numerous evidence-based and well-researched interventions that cultivate a greater acceptance of anxiety circumstances as well as foster healthy skills to navigate anxiety with willingness, nonresistance, and surrender. Seeking recovery from anxiety includes movement toward radical honesty while developing greater self-respect, knowledge of your basic needs, willingness to receive what you want, and an ability to nurture yourself.