Imagine walking alone through a deserted parking garage at night. With a queasy feeling in your stomach, your steps quicken and you’re glad to be in your car. But does that already make you a morbidly anxious person? Not at all. This reaction is completely normal, as psychologist Frank Meiners explains: “People usually feel fear in situations that they perceive as threatening, uncertain and uncontrollable. Fear is a protective mechanism of the body to be able to react quickly in dangerous situations accordingly.”
Fear as a biological response
In this process, a biological reaction takes place: Heartbeat and blood pressure increase, muscles tense and bronchial tubes dilate. In addition, blood sugar is released to provide energy quickly. The hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol ensure maximum readiness to perform.
Now the body can react to the threatening situation – either in the form of flight or fighting readiness. In this sense, fear also ensures survival.
When does fear become a disease?
However, it becomes problematic when fears go beyond normal levels. They become a disease when they:
- Occur inappropriately strongly,
- Occur frequently,
- Last too long,
- And are associated with the feeling of no longer having control over the occurrence and persistence.
Anxiety disorders at a glance
In anxiety disorders, doctors and certified psychologists distinguish between panic disorder, phobias and generalized anxiety disorder. In panic disorder, attacks occur suddenly, as if out of the blue – in contrast to generalized anxiety disorder, which is characterized by constant worry about everything and everyone. Phobias are further subdivided: Agoraphobia describes the fear of being in public places or in confined, crowded spaces. It also includes the fear of using public transportation or going shopping. In social phobia, sufferers fear interacting with other people – especially being devalued by them. And those who suffer from a specific phobia panic at the sight of spiders, dentist drills, in exams or on airplanes.
Great suffering pressure
As different as the various anxiety disorders are, they have one thing in common: sufferers feel a great deal of suffering. They try to avoid the anxiety-provoking situation that is perceived as unbearable. As a result, they are so restricted in their daily activities that the anxiety eventually dominates their lives.
