It paradoxically overcame depression in online searches. Since 2014, Italians have searched the web for more information with the keyword anxiety, compared to depression. Although, as reported by Psicoadvisor, the word anxiety is typed on search engines 27,200 times a month and depression 49,500 times (SemRush estimates), they analyze all the terms of related searches (queries) and there are only 13,043 for depression and 19,654 for anxiety (SeoZoom estimates), so it can be said that the psychological distress most felt or in any case most sought after by Italians is anxiety and not depression.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is the body’s natural response to stress. It is a feeling of fear or apprehension for what is to come. The nervous feeling before a major life event during a difficult situation is a natural echo of the original “fight or flight” reaction triggered by an adrenaline rush. It is a normal emotion developed by the body as an alarm mechanism to avoid dangers that directly or indirectly threaten survival.
Over time, the concept of threat has expanded, so much so that currently the anxiety is not triggered by poisonous snakes or werewolves. Anxiety now revolves around health, work, money, family life, and other crucial issues.
Any event or situation, even in perspective, that is perceived as a threat, from job loss to the outcome of an exam, can trigger an anxious malaise. When this sensation occurs with a certain regularity and with levels disproportionate to the stimulus, a problem can develop that can compromise the quality of life on a psychic and physical level.
Symptoms
Anxiety can come on suddenly, like panicking, or gradually, over the course of several minutes, hours, or days. It can last anywhere from a few seconds to years, although a longer duration is more characteristic of anxiety disorders.
Anxiety is perceived differently, depending on the person experiencing it. Feelings can range from butterflies in the stomach to a heart that is beating too fast (tachycardia).
The discomfort is due to the fact that one feels out of control, as if there is a disconnect between mind and body. The person has a general feeling of fear and concern, or fears a specific place or event.
Anxiety and depression
- A panic attack and an anxiety attack have symptoms in common, but they are different problems.
- Anxiety disorders can be so stressful and disruptive that they lead to depression.
- Alternatively, anxiety disorder and a depressive disorder may coexist or depression may arise first, while the signs and symptoms of anxiety disorder may occur later.
Pathological anxiety, in addition to being a disorder in its own right, accompanies many diseases, especially psychiatric ones: dementia, schizophrenia, depression and mania, sexual, personality and adaptation disorders.
When does anxiety need treatment?
Normal anxiety, physiological or alarm, is a state of psychological and physical tension that implies a generalized activation of all the resources to react to a really existing stimulus, often well known, represented by difficult and unusual conditions or perceived as such.
Summary
Anxiety disorders are the most common form of emotional disorder and can affect anyone at any age. The duration or severity of an anxious feeling also affects the physical plane and can be disproportionate to the original trigger or stress. The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V), an international reference text, classifies anxiety disorders into several main types. In previous editions of DSM, anxiety disorders included obsessive-compulsive (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in addition to acute stress disorder. The fifth edition no longer places these conditions under the umbrella of anxiety disorders which are classified into: generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks and panic disorder, specific phobic disorders.