Anxiety- Literature Review

Definition

According to the American Psychological Anxiety Association, anxiety is "an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure."

People with anxiety disorders may experience recurring and/or iterruptive thoughts or worries. This can lead to avoidance of some situations due to extensive preoccupations. Some physical symptoms that may occur include:

• Sweating
• Trembling
• Dizziness
• Rapid heartbeat

(Kazdin, 2019)

Population

• Average age of onset for many health conditions including anxiety: 18-24.

• According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 75% of all people with an anxiety disorder will experience some of the before mentioned symptoms before the age of 22.

• They also say it's also important to note that Universities and colleges have experienced in increase in student demand for services regarding anxiety disorders as well as students seeking services to anxiety management.

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(Knowles, 2016)

Graph

Background

Knowles states that during college, “students deal with a unique amount of stressors". It becomes a place where “students experience many firsts, including new lifestyle, friends, roommates, exposure to new cultures and alternate ways of thinking,” according to said Hilary Silver, a licensed clinical social worker and mental health expert.

• Students face and deal with social, parental, and internal pressure to perform at a higher level than their peers.
• Students also are faced with identity issues since they are no longer in a familiar environment and may feel disoriented without the support of family or friends.
• Stigma surrounding anxiety is high, and is a large contributor to lack of treatment and/or medication amongst students.

According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), 45% of University students binge drink and nearly 21% abuse prescription or illegal drugs to cope with feelings of anxiety.

(Knowles, 2016)

Prevalence

• Anxiety Disorders are the most form common of mental illnesses in the U.S. It affects about 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older ~18%
• Anxiety disorders are relatively treatable, however, only 36.9% of people are being treated.
• Anxiety disorders occur due to a variety of factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events.
• Those who suffer from anxiety also often suffer from depression. Nearly 50% of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
• Types of Anxiety Disorders
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Panic Disorder (PD)
• Social Anxiety Disorder
• Specific Phobias
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Major Depressive Disorder

(ADAA, 2018)

How does anxiety affect the mentality and functionality within one’s work environment, education and independent living?

Research Methods

Employment

• Search engine:
• psycINFO,psycARTICLES
• Keywords used:
• Workplace anxiety, anxiety while working, anxiety with employment, working with anxiety

Education

• Anxiety in the classroom

Independent living

• QOL and Anxiety
• Living and Anxiety

Employment

(Cheng & Mccarthy, 2018)

(Mccarthy, Trougakos, & Cheng, 2016)

(Macdonald & Levy, 2016)

Employment

• Commonality of research shows...
• Theory of Workplace Anxiety
• 2 different types of workplace anxiety
• Situational
• When employees are placed with a difficult task and anxious about the outcome
• Dispositional
• Everyday workplace anxiety
• Affects job performance leading to emotional exhaustion
• The workplace environment also can be a cause of workplace anxiety

Education Findings

Education

• Anxiety & Speaking English as a second language
• Issue: The rise in number of students acquiring second language speaking anxiety and second language performance.
• Population: 275 students studying advanced english for academic purpose (EAP) courses. Majority of the students were from Asian countries, but students from China represented the largest group.
• Relevant Background Info: Second language anxiety is defined by Horwitz who states that ‘it is a distinct complex of self-perception, beliefs, feelings and behaviors related to classroom learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process.’

(Woodrow, 2006)

Education Findings

Education

• According to (Cheng & Mccarthy, 2018), individuals who deal with anxiety:

“Have hyper vigilant cognitive schemas that define situations as threatening.

• 2 types
• Bright: worried about critique of an outcome and spends more time trying to perfect the situation.
• Dark: worried about something bad happening and spends more time being afraid of the situation.
• According to Lindy Woodrow (2016), students who experience learning English as a second language experience:
• Difficulty or inability to positively interact with native English speakers
• 2 types of anxious language learners emerged
• Retrieval interference
• Skills deficit

Quality of Life

• Research shows that those with anxiety report less satisfaction with their quality of life than those who do not have anxiety.
• Individuals with GAD, Social Phobia, and Panic Disorder all report the same degree of quality of life.
• If depression is present, there can be a more negative impact on the quality of life.
• The research shows that subjective quality of life assessments can be used as indicators of a patient’s satisfaction with their lives and can be a valuable measurement of the impact of treatment based on severity of the disorder.

Quality of Life

(Barrera, 2019)

(Harnam, 2011)

Living Situation

Living Situations

• Research shows that living alone can make symptoms of anxiety and depression worse.
• 1993: 19.9% vs. 13.6%
• 2000: 23.2% vs. 15.5%
• 2007: 24.7% vs. 15.4%
• While not all those who are lonely experience anxiety, it is more common for those with anxiety to feel lonely.
• People who live alone are more likely to be overweight, smoke, use drugs, and lack social support- all of which can make anxiety worse with the proper help or treatment.

(Newman, 2019)

Summary

In conclusion, anxiety disorders, regardless of which ones, can significantly affect those who suffer from it. This manifests itself in employment, education, and quality of life. Anxiety causes a cyclical impairment to the quality of education a student may experiences, as well as the quality of their workplace life, all of which that leads to a poorer quality of living. That is not to say that all those who suffer from anxiety have a poor quality of life- those who seek out treatment often find beneficial coping mechanisms and lead happy and productive lifestyles.

Future Research

• More studies on how anxiety manifests itself in teens leading up to adulthood.
• Research on how depression and anxiety feed off of one another- is it more likely to have one of the two develop after the first one does?
• What are some ways to help students in the classroom who experience anxiety?
• What health benefits do those with anxiety have in their workplaces?
• How does living alone affect willingness to be treated? What are the pros and cons?

Future Research