WHAT EXACTLY IS ANXIETY?

Firstly, what exactly is stress?

a) Life threat e.g. lion, car crash, violence

b) Unplanned change e.g. “discrepancy occurs between what is expected and what is happening” [4]

Why I hear you ask is an unplanned change a danger?

Well it is quite simple, things in our life that just happen out of the spur of the moment or that we have not planned for or seen in foresight are threatening to us because we cannot see what will happen or the outcome and this causes uneasiness.

Lazarus and Folkman [2] see stress as a person-situation interactions, which is why one person will be stressed or stress out about something compared to another. This person-situation interaction is dynamic and bi-directional [1], where the situation is being continually appraised as it unfolds and more input is added. This means the brain is continually analysing the situation, using the individuals’ schema – which is our individual database of information that we collect and store since we are born.

When we appraise a situation, we either categorise it as [2]

1) Problem-focused

2) Emotion-focused

A problem-focused situation is one that we can rationally find a solution and therefore proceed and solve it. - normally

An emotion-focused situation is one that we cannot rationally find a solution and therefore need to manage our emotions associated with something we are uncertain of the outcome.

Now is a good place to ask, What is anxiety?

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