Anxieties – How to Detect Them, and How to Cure Them Effectively

© Copyright 2003 by Foreign Correspondent Ulrike Banis, M.D., N.D.; Austria
(Explore Issue: Volume 12, Number 2)

Introduction:
Fear is one of our basic human feelings, and feeling fear may be a warning to keep us from danger and harm. The feeling of fear or anxiety is always linked to a number of physical reactions that are supposed to help us to cope with upcoming dangers, like

• our heart beat rate rises- our blood pressure goes up
• our hands become cold or wet
• we breathe more deeply
• we take in more oxygen
• our muscles become tense and ready to move.

In short, we show all signs of stress in our body. As soon as the dangerous situation has passed, the body returns to normal.

It is quite different, though, when anxiety becomes a disease. Anxiety forces the body subconsciously to remain within the “alarm reaction.” The result is that the body lacks the times of relaxation that it desperately needs to stay healthy.

The following symptoms may appear:

• fatigue, unease, sleeping disorders
• chronic muscle tensions and cramps
• difficulties of breathing, chest pain, palpitations
• high blood pressure, hypertension
• sweating, vertigo, dizziness
• abdominal pain. Pain of any kind
• difficulties to swallow
• lack of concentration, feeling “empty” in the head

All these symptoms have one thing in common – they also show in cases of physical disease, and often lead to physical examinations.

Persons suffering from an anxiety disease have forgotten that fear was once the root to their physical problems. But they feel all of their physical disturbances very well – and they tell their therapists mainly about the physical part.

Therefore it’s most important for all therapists to know about the symptoms of an anxiety disease, and to ask the patient if he or she worries a lot, or if he or she is constantly in fear of something bad happening.