Anxiety Neurosis: What Is It And What Symptoms Is It Linked To?
Over the last two centuries, psychology and, especially, its clinical application, has been modifying several of its postulates and concepts used to establish topics of scientific study and analysis.
Among them are the diagnostic systems, which have not only been adding and removing psychological disorders, but have also renamed the existing ones in terms that one might think are something else.
One of these disorders is anxiety neurosis, a term which today would be rare to find in a patient’s anamnesis Despite being outdated, its definition and coinage are very interesting, and they tell us about the development of behavioral science (psychology) and psychiatry. If you want to know more about this, keep reading.
The term anxiety neurosis is an expression, now out of use, originally coined by Sigmund Freud With this term, the famous Austrian psychoanalyst referred to when a person suffered periods of deep anxiety and a lot of body tension. When a person was diagnosed under this label, it meant that she suffered from a state of high excitability and also felt very worried about his future, especially seeing it as very dire (anxious waiting).
Although today no psychologist would give someone the diagnosis of anxiety neurosis, it is worth noting that it has been of vital importance when it comes to understanding anxiety disorders and the classifications that have been made of them. The current equivalent of this type of neurosis would be a panic attack
Neurosis in the history of Psychology
As we were already saying, before the current development of the classification for anxiety disorders, the term neurosis was used with a definition very similar to the current definition of this type of disorders.
Freud dedicated part of his work to developing a detailed description of disorders that shared the label of neuroses, such as phobic neuroses, obsessive-compulsive neuroses, depressive neuroses… and, being the main topic of this article, anxiety neuroses. Nowadays, all these neuroses have been renamed under different categories, especially within anxiety disorders.
However, the person who first used the term ‘neurosis’ was not the most famous psychoanalyst of all time, but a Scottish doctor and chemist, William Cullen, who first used the term in 1769 He used this word referring to sensory and motor disorders that were caused by diseases in the nervous system.
In this way, the word neurosis referred, in those times, to any mental disorder that implied some type of distortion in the rational thinking of the person who suffered from it, in addition to reducing their functioning at the family, social and work level.
Nowadays The word neurosis has been practically forgotten in the academic field No clinical psychologist, no matter how psychoanalyst, would use this term when diagnosing someone.
However, this does not mean that the word has been completely forgotten in popular culture. Its use at a colloquial level is synonymous with obsession, nervousness and eccentricity, although it cannot be taken seriously as a relevant term in a clinical sense.
What are your symptoms?
As we saw, anxiety neurosis is no longer a current diagnostic label in clinical practice and, therefore, saying that it has some symptoms would not be entirely correct, given that really, as it was conceived at the time, this pathology I would not exist. However, it may overlap with the concept we have today of what panic disorder is.
Thus, anxiety neurosis can be understood as a pathological problem in which The person has episodes in which they feel great fear and anxiety, appearing suddenly and without any prior warning. The crisis begins suddenly, without there having been a clear factor that explains why the episode is beginning to occur.
These episodes typical of this type of neurosis coincide with panic attacks, which have a variable duration, from about 10 to 20 minutes to hours Their frequency of appearance also varies, and it is possible to manifest them every once in a while or, in the most worrying cases, several times each month.
The anxiety that the person suffers is very high, their heart speeds up and they usually feel chest pain, which often makes them think they are having a heart attack.
Below we will see a list of symptoms that, although they are taken from the DSM-5 for panic disorder; Most of its symptoms coincide with the original conception of anxiety neurosis
During the crisis, not all the symptoms shown here appear, but a significant number of them do. The discomfort that the person suffers while having the panic attack is very high, which can even increase anxiety itself, which is already high. This is one of the factors that can make the episode last longer.
Since the attacks are not predictable, the person lives in fear of experiencing them in situations in which, if something happens to them, their physical integrity may be in danger. People who would suffer from this anxiety neurosis would find themselves on constant alert.
As has already been said, many of the symptoms suffered during the crisis They have no apparent biological cause On many occasions, those who suffer from panic disorders, despite the fact that their doctor has told them that they do not have any type of health problem that explains the chest pain and shortness of breath, continue to fear that they may die from an attack. to the heart or suffocation.
Impact on daily life
Although, given that the term anxiety neurosis is outdated, it is not possible to know statistics and studies that talk about how it interferes in the daily life of patients who suffer from this disorder, it is possible, just as we have done in the section on symptoms, extrapolate it with how people with panic disorder live their daily lives.
Panic attacks can occur in a unique way, especially in high-stress situations. The person may be overwhelmed by the demands of everyday life especially if there has been some event that has put you in special tension.
However, the interference is very serious when panic attacks occur frequently and without warning. The person does not have the ability to know what is going to activate all the previously mentioned symptoms, making them afraid of doing everyday actions that, perhaps, lead to the unpleasant situation.
The person constantly lives in a state of hypervigilance and tension He is afraid that the future is going to be worse than how he is living in the present. She also fears that it will happen to her just when she is in a situation in which they will hardly be able to help her, which causes her, as a side effect, to develop agoraphobia.
With agoraphobia, unlike the popular idea that it is the fear of leaving the house, it really refers to the fear of finding yourself in a situation in which you suffer some problem and no one can help you.
As a consequence of this, the person with panic disorders combined with agoraphobia begins to restrict his behavior, avoiding certain places or avoiding leaving his safe place usually being at home always with someone’s company.
The treatment for anxiety neurosis would be the same for panic attacks. It would consist of helping the person who suffers these episodes of anxiety to develop and perform more functionally in their daily life, to be able to enjoy a family, social and work life as close to normal as possible. For it it is necessary to combine psychopharmacology with psychotherapy
Firstly, pharmacologically, SSRI antidepressants are usually used, especially paroxetine, sertraline and fluoxetine, which selectively inhibit the reuptake of serotonin, elevating the mood. SNRIs, specifically venlafaxine, would also be prescribed.
Other drugs that are prescribed are sedatives such as benzodiazepines, which are depressants of the central nervous system and induce a state of calm. The most used for this condition are alprazolam and clonazepam although its use would be limited in short-term treatment due to its high risk of addiction.
Secondly, there is psychotherapy, which would focus on working on the distortions in the person’s mind that make them think that they are going to suffer an imminent panic attack that will end their life. It is also intended to make him see that there are not as many dangers as he believes and that, if something were to happen to him, it is quite likely that someone will end up helping him if he were, for example, on the street or in a public space.
Stress management strategies, relaxation, breathing control are taught, and ideas that can serve as anxiety activators are also worked on. For it, cognitive-behavioral therapy is often used (CBT), in which the person is encouraged to express their feelings and ideas regarding their problem and how it affects their daily life, to gradually introduce changes in their way of thinking, feeling and behaving.
Thus, under the umbrella concept of anxiety neurosis there is a complex reality that can be reflected in many different types of problems and that require a specific and personalized approach. That is why as applied psychology evolves, it attempts to go beyond the old clinical categories and focus more on the symptoms linked to a specific context, to from there establish what type of psychotherapeutic intervention would work best.
