What is anxiety for health
Everyone, occasionally, worry about their own health and are afraid of physical diseases as well as Fear of mental diseases. Each of us wondered if a certain symptom, such as a headache, could depend on the tiredness of the day just spent or on something much more serious. The concern is functional to our health. Exceeded certain limits and transformed into anxiety (with all its physiological, cognitive and behavioral correlates) it gives rise to a real anxiety disorder.
Health anxiety, more commonly called hypochondria, is a well -known disorder. It is classified in diagnostic manuals and affects a population percentage between 1% and 5%. The main symptom is represented by concern to be able to have or to be able to contract a disease in the future.
According to Salkovskis and Warwick (1986), hypochondriacs have a continuous tendency to interpret physical symptoms in a catastrophic way, physiological variations and health information. This trend is maintained by various factors. Among these:
- Selective attention to information that could confirm the feared disease
- A series of protective behaviors that include control, the search for reassurances and the avoidance of situations that can trigger concerns
Concerns about mental diseases
Recently it has been suggested that people may have extreme or persistent concerns also for their own mental health. This in a similar way to how other people worry about their physical health (Anderson, Saulsman and Nathan, 2011; Rachman, 2012). Rachman states that, in addition to cancer, infarction, AIDS and stroke, the fear of mental illness It is a more common variant than it is believed. The threats perceived to one’s own mental health They can be painful and disabling as much as threats to their physical health. Studies claim that the concept of health anxiety must be increasingly frequent must include the fear of mental diseases (Anderson et al., 2011).
The concerns that concern mental health can be present in some DSM 5 disorders such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depersonalization disorder (APA, 2013). The “fear of losing control or crazy” is listed as a possible symptom of panic attacks in panic disorder. Individuals with depersonalization disorder can worry that the feeling of not being in full control of their actions may mean that they are going crazy. In the same way, people with obsessive compulsive disorder fear that having certain intrusive thoughts mean that they could be “out of control” or “crazy” (Rachman and de Silva, 1978; Salkovskis and Harrison, 1984). However, in these disorders, the Fear of mental diseases It is considered a possible symptoms or an associated characteristic rather than the main problem.
Characteristics of the fear of mental diseases
Rachman provides clinical examples of fear of mental diseases. For example, the fear of becoming crazythe fear of losing control of one’s mind or thoughts and the fear of being institutionalized. The characteristics of theanxiety for mental health They seem to be compatible with what Salkovskis and Warwick for hypochondria.
Being forced since childhood to visit a seriously ill and confined relative in a clinic is an example of an etiological factor. A dysfunctional belief could be the idea that “mental illness can be contagious”. Learning information on mental diseases or proximity to people with serious psychiatric disorders are examples of triggering factors. The avoidance of people with psychiatric disorders or places where these reside are examples of maintenance factors.
Viziosi maintenance circles of anxiety for mental diseases
Like those who have anxiety for physical health, those suffering from anxiety for mental health often captures signs of confirmation of his own fear. For example:
- unwanted thoughts that prevent a “correct” concentration;
- the feeling of loss of control of one’s thoughts;
- The tendency to put almost any mental event to be examined to seek the sign of the possible mental illness.
This intensifies concerns, leads to reassurance, control or avoidance search behaviors. Also triggers a vicious circle of erroneous interpretations and catastrophic thoughts.
Often these people spend a lot of time a worry about one’s mental health brooding for a long time on the catastrophic consequences of this eventuality. They frequently have images of themselves suffering from a serious mental illness and abandoned, isolated, in a psychiatric clinic. It becomes difficult, as in anxiety for physical health, to divert the thought from the fear of a disorder, even if a professional tries to downsize its risk. Often what is aspired is the absolute certainty that the possibility of a mental illness will never occur.
To this are strongly linked the beliefs concerning mental health. These may depend on previous experiences that may have generated stable beliefs about the irreparability of a life affected by the presence of a psychiatric disorder. It is often believed in the impossibility of receiving adequate help and you imagine the serious personal consequences that this event could trigger.
Research regarding the fear of mental diseases is still limited. But as we have seen, those who deal with health anxiety consider it important to widen the field of investigation also to this type of concern.
Treatment of fear of mental diseases
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can also help us with this variant of HEALTH ENGLISH DISORDER. Standard cognitive treatment, according to Salkovskis and Warwick model, can in fact go and change the beliefs that support the symptoms. In addition, the metacognitive therapy of Wells (2009) can help, which places metacognitions at the center of psychopathology. This can operate significant changes in the processes implicated in the disorder, such as brooding and metacognitive beliefs about thoughts.
Other third generation cognitive therapies are also such as ACT and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy based on Mindfulness, although they only have clinical findings, can be a valid aid in Treatment of mental health anxiety disorder.
Bibliography
- American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
- Anderson, R., Saulsman, L. and Nathan, P. (2011). Helping Health Anxietyy. Perth, Western Australia: Center for Clinical Interventions.
- Commons D, Greenwood Km, Anderson Ra (2016). A Preliminary Investigation Into Worry About Mental Health: Development of the Mental Health Anxiety Inventory. Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapy44, 347–360
- Rachman, SJ (2012). Health Anxiety Disorders: A Cognitive Construal. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 50 ,
- Rachman, SJ and de Silva, P. (1978). Normal and Abnormal Obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 16232–248.
- Salkovskis, PM and Harrison, J. (1984). Abnormal and Normal Obsessions: a replication. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 22549–552.
- Salkovskis, PM and Warwick, HMC (1986). Morbid worry, Health Anxiety and Reassurance: A Cognitive-Behavioral to Hypochondriasis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24597– 602.
- Wells, A. (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression. New York: Guilford. Trad. It. Metacognitive therapy of anxiety disorders and depression. Florence; Eclipse
