Certain levels of anxiety are normal, human and necessary. These levels of anxiety are existentially necessary to protect us and ensure our survival. For example, if you had to make an important presentation at your workplace next week and you were quite relaxed about it, you would either not make any preparations or make an ordinary preparation. In this case, the presentation at work will not be important to you and if you do not take precautions about it, you will not make the necessary effort. Think about it; you are just learning to drive. Having some anxiety and fear will increase your learning effort, encourage you to make the least mistakes, and enable you to take precautions. If there were no anxiety, the brain, which does not calculate the risk of danger well, would not be afraid, and you would be able to drive easily without learning enough, and of course, you would be exposed to dangers in the meantime. Some anxiety is normal and necessary for survival.
There are two areas in our body's nervous system.
a) Sympathetic nervous system
b) Parasympathetic nervous system
The brain is a worrying situation. When it senses stress, it will cause some chemicals to emerge. This will primarily activate the sympathetic system. The sympathetic nervous system is the main system that creates the fight or flight response. With the activation of this system, the brain will become even more alarmed. Further stimulation of the sympathetic system affects the body through chemicals released. Physical symptoms such as accelerated heartbeat, palpitations, sweating, rapid breathing, nausea, tremors, muscle tension, dizziness, shortness of breath are the body's preparation for fight or flight with the activation of the sympathetic system. Activation of this system should not continue when the danger passes. For this reason, the parasympathetic system comes into play to balance the sympathetic system. Heart rate slows down, muscles relax, breathing returns to normal, and the brain relaxes. In anxiety disorders, the healthy functioning of these systems that balance each other is disrupted. When the sympathetic system dominance is at the forefront and is not balanced with the parasympathetic system, anxiety becomes unmanageable, the functioning of the parasympathetic system is almost impaired. It has now become an anxiety disorder that affects life and functionality.
Everyone experiences anxiety and worry He experiences regular symptoms, but they are not permanent, they are occasional and short-lived. Its severity is not intense and it does not impair the person's functionality. But when the symptoms of anxiety are long-lasting and their severity increases, and this severe anxiety begins to negatively affect the person's life, then it is necessary to talk about a disease or a situation that needs to be dealt with.
Life is not possible without fear and anxiety. Every emotion is normal and human at certain levels. As I mentioned above, certain levels of fear and anxiety help us survive, protect ourselves, stay motivated, and take action to deal with problems. So, when does it become a disease?
How can it be understood that there is a transition from normal anxiety to anxiety disorder?
The main determining point here is whether anxiety disrupts our work, academic, private and social functionality in daily life.
If anxiety does not disrupt daily life and the physical symptoms, restlessness and distress caused by anxiety If it is not severe and can be handled, it is considered as normal level anxiety. However, if the person cannot focus on his/her work, social life, academic performance or private life due to anxiety, cannot do what he/she did before, if there is a decrease in the previous level of tolerance and interest in his/her children, in short, if there is a deterioration in daily functionality, the physical symptoms brought on by anxiety, such as distress, restlessness and excitement, are severe. should be evaluated for anxiety disorder.
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