Post by Admin on Jun 12, 2022 9:27:20 GMT
A new approach to therapy promises to tackle neuroticism head-on
psyche.co/ideas/a-new-approach-to-therapy-promises-to-tackle-neuroticism-head-on
Beth has always been a worrier; she currently spends the better part of each day thinking about her finances, her ability to complete her schoolwork, and her health and safety. Marty experiences panic attacks (an intense rush of fear, accompanied by racing heart rate, shortness of breath, a lump in his throat, nausea and sweating) several times a week. He is especially likely to have them in situations where he feels it would be difficult to escape. Amira has long struggled to make friends, worrying that other people will find her ‘awkward and weird’. Since starting university, she has held back from asking questions in class because she is afraid her teachers will think she is stupid. These difficulties have been weighing on Amira, and she has been feeling increasingly down.
How can the challenges faced by the people described above be best understood? A mental health professional will likely recognise symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder in Beth, panic disorder and agoraphobia in Marty, and social anxiety disorder and depression in Amira. Indeed, focusing on the differences between these people is one way to think about them.
However, there are similarities among these presentations that offer an alternative – and potentially more effective – path for understanding their difficulties. Beth, Marty and Amira all experience frequent and intense negative emotions. In other words, they exhibit high levels of neuroticism, or the tendency to have strong surges of negative emotions (such as anxiety, fear, guilt, anger or sadness) in response to stressors. Additionally, neuroticism is characterised by the sense that the world is a dangerous and threatening place, along with the belief that stressors, when they come up, cannot be managed.
psyche.co/ideas/a-new-approach-to-therapy-promises-to-tackle-neuroticism-head-on
Beth has always been a worrier; she currently spends the better part of each day thinking about her finances, her ability to complete her schoolwork, and her health and safety. Marty experiences panic attacks (an intense rush of fear, accompanied by racing heart rate, shortness of breath, a lump in his throat, nausea and sweating) several times a week. He is especially likely to have them in situations where he feels it would be difficult to escape. Amira has long struggled to make friends, worrying that other people will find her ‘awkward and weird’. Since starting university, she has held back from asking questions in class because she is afraid her teachers will think she is stupid. These difficulties have been weighing on Amira, and she has been feeling increasingly down.
How can the challenges faced by the people described above be best understood? A mental health professional will likely recognise symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder in Beth, panic disorder and agoraphobia in Marty, and social anxiety disorder and depression in Amira. Indeed, focusing on the differences between these people is one way to think about them.
However, there are similarities among these presentations that offer an alternative – and potentially more effective – path for understanding their difficulties. Beth, Marty and Amira all experience frequent and intense negative emotions. In other words, they exhibit high levels of neuroticism, or the tendency to have strong surges of negative emotions (such as anxiety, fear, guilt, anger or sadness) in response to stressors. Additionally, neuroticism is characterised by the sense that the world is a dangerous and threatening place, along with the belief that stressors, when they come up, cannot be managed.