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Generalized Anxiety: A Psychological Analysis

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I have a very close friend of mine who suffers from a mixture of depression and generalized anxiety disorder. The more prevalent of these from talking to her and just from having known her for quite some time now would for sure be her generalized anxiety. I have had to help her in a variety of situations when a panic attack is brought on by her anxiety and almost debilitates her completely. While sometimes she can trace back and knows what brought on panic attack often she has no idea what happened besides that the stress was just too much to handle. The depression symptoms seem to follow as a side effect of the anxiety, since it has such a hold on her, it has held her back in certain aspects and she feels horrible and devalued because …show more content…

This perspective started by Sigmund Freud believed that it stemmed from a point in childhood. In modern psychology parts of Freud’s theory on this has been questioned and challenged, however most psychodynamic psychologist still believe that this disorder stems from inadequacies in the early relationship between children and parents. (Comer, 2014). They have tested and believe that sufferers use many defense mechanisms and especially while speaking with a therapist can quickly repress memories and things they don’t want to remember. Furthermore they theorize that the disorder can grow from children who are punished harshly for id impulses. This is in stark contrast to the biological perspective. This perspective argues that the cause of this disorder lies in the biology of the brain. Specifically the slowing down of the GABA, neurotransmitter, which is in place in order to help slow down the brain. They theorize that the lack of as many GABA transmitters or the failing of some of them is the cause of generalized anxiety and help treat it with anti-anxiety medications. This backed by research where they have found identical twins twice as likely as fraternal twins to experience a co-occurrence of anxiety. (Thompson,

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