Anxiety is a very common emotion. In healthy individuals, it generally has a positive impact. However, when such emotions interfere with normal functioning, they may result from anxiety disorder. The anxiety disorders represent a heterogeneous group of diseases of variable etiology. While their effects can be quite devastating, these conditions do respond well to several treatment approaches. In fact, anxiety disorder therapies are probably the most effective of the psychiatric treatment options. Despite this fact though, the need persists for long term anxiety disorder research.
A complex emotion, anxiety is ubiquitous among human beings. Basically, it involves feelings of apprehension or nervousness which often focus on some future event. Adaptive anxiety serves to increase a person's alertness and vigilance. Such anxiety increases both motivation and physiological responsiveness. This helps people anticipate, prepare for, and, possibly, avoid harmful situations.
Subdivided into its component parts, anxiety may be found to have cognitive, physiological, and behavioral dimensions. Common cognitive symptoms include psychic distress or dread. In addition, physiologic arousal may be evidenced by increases in heart rate, breathing, and muscular tension. Behavioral signs of anxiety may include pleading for help or attempts to escape (1:65).
In most individuals, these tendencies comprise a normal part of their psychological framework. In certain people, however, the symptoms attain pathologic proportions. The anxiety disorders are a group of diseases characterized by excessive, maladaptive anxiety (1:65). Such emotion generally interferes with psychosocial functioning, and is often a cause of great distress. The American Psychiatric Association's, DSM III R (1987), classifies the anxiety disorders as follows: overanxious disorder, separation anxiety disorder, avoidant disorder of childhood or adolesce...