Deals with anxiety and fear

(Published in the Upson Home Journal April 3, 1990)





KEEPING IN TOUCH
By Aubrey Hammack

Fear and Anxiety


All of us have, at times experienced feelings of fear and anxiety. In fact, a certain amount of this is normal. Having some fears can be life-saving and protecting. None of us can live without a certain amount of fear in our lives. But sometimes people have abnormal fears that develop, either through some unexplained physiological condition or as a result of some traumatic event that has take place in their lives.

Some fears are such that they can be crippling. When examined, fears that are so severe are usually referred to as agoraphobia. The word agora refers to marketplaces where people assemble. Phobia refers to an irrational, excessive, and persistent fear of some thing or situation, according to Webster’s New World Dictionary.

This condition has an added dimension in some people. That is, they not only have the fears, but when in touch with this severe anxiety, they have panic attacks. Some of the symptoms of these are: chest tightness, pain, choking or smothering sensations, dizziness, numbness, and tingling feelings of fingers, toes, or lips, feelings of unreality, hot or cold flashes, vertigo, sweating, feeling of faintness, trembling or shaking, nausea, fear of vomiting or losing control of bladder, fear of dying, going crazy or doing something uncontrolled.

The most personal example of a phobia that never reached the panic stage resulted from an experience, which happened to me when I was a child of about 8 years of age. I recall climbing on top of a garage and slipping and falling. Landing on the side of my face, I felt a terrible pain, which I still recall. A few days ago, suddenly, when thinking of making repairs to the roof of our house, I became scared. Soon after this, I recalled the fall and realized that my fear of heights was associated with this childhood experience.

Now, this type of fear is bad enough, but when teamed with panic episodes, some people become almost immobile. They literally become housebound at times. On of the most successful treatment approaches for some time has been a combination of medication and behavior therapy. The drug Imipramine(Tofranil) was used in some successful work by Dr. Donald Klein of the Columbia Medical Center in New York in the early 1970/s. It was discovered that using this medication could block the panic attacks. Later, in the 80s, it was discovered that alprazolam (Xanax) could be used with this problem. The behavior approach, which has been successful, has to do with a process called flooding, or as some call it, exposure therapy. This idea calls for the person to meet the fears head-on by putting themselves in continuous confrontation with situations that cause the attacks or at least those that the person feels are the precipitating stressors. For example, if the person is afraid of going to the mall, instead of pulling back and not going, they force themselves to go. They continue to repeat this until the fear and anxiety lessens or disappears.

Densentization is also a part of behavior therapy. The best example of this that comes to mind is the child who is afraid of being in a swimming pool in water over his head. Some years ago I worked with a young man who had this fear. He was encouraged to start putting his head under the water in the shallow end of the pool a few seconds at a time. This person was terrified of going into the deep end of the pool. It was quickly discovered that it was being under the water that caused him so much anxiety. He was, in about three weeks, desensitized to this fear of being under the water. After this, he was able to swim in the deep end of the pool with no problems.

On lady, who has successfully begun to overcome panic attacks stated, “I decided that I would face the attacks when they come, deal with them and go on.” She related that when she took this attitude, she immediately saw improvement in dealing with this problem. This of course seems like a simple solution, but it was much more complex than it sounds. She confronted her fears-over a period of several months.

Agoraphobia, with or without panic attacks, can be a terrible menace. The simple joys that we take for granted could be taken away from us, and these phobias can occur at any time. They are the most treatable of all psychiatric illnesses, we are told. There are numerous support groups usually found in larger cities, and material on this subject is available at bookstores. Of course, many television talk shows from time to time accent this topic. Some people with the right materials are able to deal with this problem without outside intervention, except for the medication. Some people will need more intensive help for the problem. However; as usual, change can not be made unless the person affected is motivated by it. Then and only then can this problem be arrested.