Anxious-phobic neurosis is a condition characterized by the appearance of obsessive thoughts, fears and memories. These phenomena, which are called obsessions, bring discomfort and unpleasant sensations to patients, but they are not able to get rid of them on their own.
It is worth noting that anxiety-phobic, obsessive-phobic, obsessional neurosis are all different names for the same pathology. Why does it appear and how to recognize it? You will find the answers to these questions below.
Who gets the disorder?
The predisposition to the development of such a mental disorder is transmitted at the genetic level.
Some character traits may favor the development of phobic neurosis. These include: excessive suspiciousness, responsibility, anxiety, pedantry, excessive caution. People with such personal qualities prefer to live by reason rather than by simple emotions; they are accustomed to weighing every step well and thinking through all actions in detail. They are usually overly demanding of themselves and tend to engage in self-analysis regularly.
Neurosis almost never occurs in people who can easily transfer responsibility for any actions to other people, are prone to aggression, and achieve their goals at any cost.
At a certain age, the risk of developing phobic neurosis increases significantly. This is predominantly adolescence, the stage of early adulthood (25-35 years) and premenopausal time.
As for gender, it is worth noting that such neurosis is diagnosed with equal frequency in both women and men.
Anxiety neurosis - biological and genetic causes
The occurrence of anxiety neurosis is sometimes also explained by a violation of the brain's secretion of important neurotransmitters responsible for our emotional state, including adrenaline and norepinephrine. Their elevated levels can be a source of stress, causing anxiety.
In the case of anxiety neurosis, the causes can also be genetic - a predisposition to this type of disorder is passed on in the family. If not directly, then indirectly. It is extremely important to note that certain personality types predispose them to developing anxiety neurosis. These, in particular, include the so-called fearful personality , which is characterized by a focus on oneself with special emphasis on one’s own unattractiveness and shortcomings, as well as a lack of resistance to criticism, looking for problems where there are none, and avoiding social contacts.
About
Reasons for appearance
Phobic disorder, like any other neuroses, most often occurs against the background of mental trauma in combination with too strenuous activity, severe lack of rest, and constant lack of sleep. In addition, various infections, endocrine pathologies, unhealthy diet, addictions and alcohol abuse are factors contributing to this phenomenon. All these conditions entail a significant weakening of the entire organism, and this, in turn, can lead to the development of neurosis.
Often this disorder appears against the background of another illness: psychasthenia, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder.
What is obsessional neurosis?
The thing is that this is how some mental disorders make themselves felt. The term “obsessiveness,” which is used for the manifestations described above or similar to them, perhaps speaks for itself. It refers to the involuntary occurrence of thoughts, memories, doubts, fears, actions or rituals in a person.
According to psychotherapist Timur Moldagaliev , from a medical point of view, it is more correct to talk about such a condition as obsessional neurosis.
In everyday life, we often use the term “neurosis,” but not everyone knows that this condition is a borderline mental disorder. Simply put, this is no longer the norm, but it is not yet a disease.
Obsession neurosis arises as a result of long-term, often chronic mental trauma. This is not the “outcome” of fright or catastrophe, but the result of a much longer “longer tension.” An unfavorable environment, constant conflicts at work, quarrels and misunderstandings in the family... Often these factors become the cause of a neurotic disorder. Especially if a person tends to keep emerging emotions to himself. Obsessions can become “symptoms” of such disorders.
Statistics say that about 4% of the total population of the Earth suffers from obsessional neurosis. “Some people constantly adjust their glasses, someone periodically rubs their nose, smoothes their mustache, touches their hair, someone develops a nervous tic,” says the doctor, “the cause of such manifestations may well be a mental disorder.”
Such problems are not uncommon among people whose rhythm of life is tense to the limit. Constantly being in a stressful situation in the modern world is perhaps the most natural state. Therefore, most of us are at risk. Lack of sleep, insufficient rest, large volumes of work, an extremely busy day... Over time, the nervous system becomes exhausted and one day fails.
How is it developing?
Neurosis can appear in a person in two cases.
- If he has had a bad experience in the past regarding a particular object, place, action or other persons. For example, after sudden contact with a hot iron, an obsessive fear of hot things may subsequently appear.
- If a person associates an object with some negative memories or thoughts. For example, once during a telephone conversation there was a fire or someone close to you was injured.
Anxiety neurosis - treatment
The main treatment method for anxiety neurosis is psychotherapy . Typically, patients with anxiety neurosis are treated by therapists working in the cognitive or cognitive-behavioral field . If the essence of anxiety neurosis is mental and environmental causes, the role of the psychologist is to “open up” the patient, evoke the deepest, repressed memories and find in his past those that could influence the occurrence of anxiety disorders. As already mentioned, special attention is paid to situations of overt or more subtle coercion experienced by the patient. The therapist helps you "work through" by accepting certain past events as they happened and will never be undone, so the only way to free yourself from them is to change your attitude.
In cases of severe anxiety neurosis that interferes with normal functioning, especially if it is accompanied by severe mood swings, psychiatric treatment with pharmacological antidepressants . In this case, standard antidepressants are used, including so-called serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
Vorobyova Marina
Neurologist of the highest qualification category (work experience 14 years), doctor of neurofunctional diagnostics (work experience 12 years);
author of scientific publications on vertebroneurology; participant of scientific conferences on neurology and functional diagnostics of all-Russian and international significance. About
General signs
The main symptoms of anxiety-phobic neurosis are:
- agoraphobia;
- hypochondriacal phobias;
- panic attacks;
- social phobias.
Common signs of the disease include:
- migraine;
- depression;
- insomnia;
- excessive emotional tension;
- panic attacks;
- general malaise, weakness;
- shortness of breath and other abnormalities in the respiratory system;
- problems with the heart.
All these symptoms can be easily identified when the patient comes into contact with the object of the phobia.
Panic attacks
This is one of the main symptoms of phobic neurosis. It manifests itself in the form of extremely strong fear and a feeling of approaching death. In this case, vegetative symptoms may also be observed, for example, dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, shortness of breath, nausea, and a feeling of lack of air. Such an attack can last from a couple of minutes to an hour. During a panic attack, there is often a fear of losing your mind or losing control over your actions.
Usually attacks appear suddenly, but sometimes their development can be caused by sudden changes in weather, lack of sleep, excessive sexual activity, stress, alcohol abuse or physical exertion.
The cause of the first panic attacks can be certain pathologies of internal organs, for example, heart defects, malfunctions of the thyroid gland, pancreatitis, gastritis, osteochondrosis.
Agoraphobia
What it is? Agoraphobia is a pronounced fear of open space, as well as fear of crowded places and crowds. Persons susceptible to this condition should avoid going outside.
Typically, the first symptoms of phobic neurosis are panic attacks, and only after them agoraphobia occurs. In this condition, the patient’s fear appears not only in specific cases, but even when he simply remembers any events associated with his anxiety or imagines them.
Characteristic of the occurrence of neurosis is the expansion of situations that provoke fear. Thus, with a transport phobia, a slight fear of being in the subway first develops. Then comes the fear of any public transport. People who suffer from phobic neurosis are not afraid of the metro itself or, for example, the bus, but of situations that can happen in these places. For example, the fear that on a train, due to the large distance between stations, a person will not receive the necessary help at the time of a panic attack.
How does this manifest itself?
An example of a “classic” obsessive disorder is the film “As Good As It Gets.” The main character, played by Jack Nicholson, constantly washes his hands for fear of getting infected, uses disposable cutlery, counts the number of tiles on the floor, and tries not to step on their joints.
But life is more dramatic than movies. This is confirmed by the story told by Timur, when a mother constantly tells her daughter that she should wash her hands, fruits and vegetables before eating. The girl obeys. But one day, having eaten an unwashed apple, as luck would have it, he falls ill with dysentery. Upon discharge from the hospital, the domineering and despotic mother beats the child. The girl experiences extreme stress. This trauma is so ingrained in her memory that, already as an adult woman, she continues to be terrified of unwashed hands. Against the background of fear, bacteriophobia develops - fear of bacteria and dirt with compulsive hand washing. At the same time, she washes her hands up to two hundred and fifty times a day, does not go outside without a mask and rubber gloves, and does not touch handrails on public transport or door handles. He constantly does wet cleaning at home. In fact, her life turns into a nightmare...
It is worth noting that, unlike people with, for example, schizophrenia, a person suffering from obsessional neurosis retains self-criticism and understands that his actions are absurd. He tries to resist them. However, most often this is unsuccessful - by ceasing to perform any rituals (counting, washing hands, blinking eyes, etc.), he “falls into the power” of discomfort, anxiety or fear...
Thus, people of an anxious and suspicious nature, before leaving the house, check whether the gas, electricity, water are turned off, and whether electrical appliances are turned off. If a person with such a disorder forgets to do this, remembering the necessary “manipulations” while already at work, he will spend the whole day as if on pins and needles.
Hypochondriacal phobias
We are talking about the fear of some serious disease. In another way, this phenomenon is often called nosophobia.
The most common are speedophobia, cardiophobia, cancerophobia (fear of cancer), stroke phobia, and syphilophobia. Such conditions may also be a consequence of hypochondriacal depression.
People with such phobias do everything possible to avoid all kinds of situations that provoke fear. So, if they are afraid of transport, they do not use the elevator and move only on their own. Those who are afraid of cancer defects systematically undergo appropriate examinations. But even after receiving good test results, such people cannot calm down for long.
Social phobias
Phobic neurosis can be accompanied by a huge number of such fears.
Social phobias involve a fear of being the center of attention, as well as of criticism. People experiencing such fear try to avoid public places.
The first symptoms of social phobias usually appear in adolescence or young adulthood. Often these fears are caused by negative psychological or social factors. At first, the fear of being in the center of everyone's attention concerns only certain situations or communication with specific people. But contact with relatives and family members does not cause discomfort.
Gradually, social phobia begins to manifest itself in the form of some restrictions regarding social activities. At the same time, a person, finding himself in undesirable situations, suffers from internal stiffness, shyness, sweating and trembling.
In some people, social phobia progresses to a generalized form. Such persons completely avoid public places, thinking that they seem funny and ridiculous.
Phobic neurosis can also manifest itself in the form of specific phobias - obsessive fears relating only to certain situations. These include fear of heights, animals, dentists and other doctors.
A little about treatment and prevention
A disorder whose symptom is obsession is unlikely to be eliminated on its own. In this case, it is best to consult a psychotherapist. But even though such deviations often respond well to treatment, preventive measures should not be neglected.
In this case, these include adequate planning of the working day, or better yet, the working year, with sufficient time allocated for sleep and rest. After all, it’s no secret that the risk of developing neurosis among workaholics is many times higher than among people who treat their work “with lukewarmness.” Of course, you shouldn’t go too far – no one will praise you for your careless attitude towards business. However, at the first signs of exhaustion of the nervous system, and this is irritability, moodiness, drowsiness, fatigue and absent-mindedness, you should think about the correct choice of the rhythm in which you live! And drive away obsessive desires to work overtime!
Treatment of phobic neurosis
The symptoms and causes of panic fear of a particular object are the key to prescribing appropriate therapy. But be that as it may, treatment for such a condition should be comprehensive, including not only psychotherapy, but also the use of certain medications.
The antidepressant Anafranil is most often used to relieve panic attacks. In addition, other drugs with a similar effect help to cope with this symptom of a phobic disorder:
- "Sertraline";
- "Fluvoxamine";
- "Fluoxetine."
Moclobemide is commonly used to treat social phobias.
In addition to antidepressants, tranquilizers - Hydroxyzine and Meprobamate - help fight the manifestations of a phobic disorder. These medications have few side effects, and their prolonged use does not lead to drug dependence.
In acute forms of phobic neurosis, the most effective are benzodiazepine tranquilizers - Clonazepam and Alprazolam. In addition, Elenium and Diazepam can be administered as droppers or intramuscularly. But these medications can only be used short-term to prevent addiction.
For phobias that are accompanied by complex systems of defensive reactions (for example, obsessive counting or decomposition of words) and delusional states, antipsychotics - Haloperidol or Triftazin - may be prescribed.
Treatment of panic neurosis
How to get rid of neurosis and regular panic attacks? Like any disease, panic neurosis is easier to prevent than to treat. Therefore, first of all, learn to relax using techniques that are suitable for you (yoga, breathing practices, Pilates, psychotherapy, etc.). But if you are already experiencing regular panic attacks, then such methods will only help you temporarily cope with panic neurosis, but will not eliminate its physiological cause: a disorder of the autonomic nerve nodes, which means that the attacks will recur.
Treating panic neurosis with medication is also fundamentally wrong. Our long-term practice confirms that for most patients of various types, tranquilizers bring only temporary relief, and over time they stop working altogether. In the worst case, side effects occur in the form of headaches, etc. Such patients very often turn to us when medications prescribed by a neurologist or psychiatrist do not bring the desired result, when a person becomes hostage to more and more “sedatives” and lives “on pills” for years.
If the problem of autonomic disorder is not identified in time, then neurosis can develop into a more complex disease and affect the functioning of internal organs. But the main reason will remain the same. To get rid of neurosis and panic attacks, it is first necessary to restore the normal functioning of the autonomic nervous system. The correct functioning of the nervous system will solve problems both at the mental and physiological levels, as it will launch the body’s self-healing mechanisms.
The Clinical Center for Autonomic Neurology will help you diagnose autonomic disorder and eliminate the physiological cause of regular panic attacks. We specialize exclusively in diseases of the autonomic nervous system and have been helping people get rid of neurosis and panic attacks for more than 20 years.
Psychotherapy for the treatment of phobic neurosis
This stage of treatment is necessary to eliminate excessive anxiety and correct inappropriate behavior. In addition, during sessions, doctors teach patients a culture of relaxation, which is very important for any form of neurosis. Phobic disorder can be treated in both group and individual sessions.
If phobias play a more significant role during the course of the disease, the patient needs psycho-emotional support therapy, which will help improve overall well-being. Hypnosis and behavioral techniques allow you to get rid of obsessive fears. During sessions, patients are taught to properly confront the object that provokes fear, as well as to resort to a variety of relaxation methods.
Among other things, rational methods of psychotherapy can be used in the treatment of phobic neurosis. At the same time, the essence of the pathology is described and explained to the patient in detail, which creates an adequate understanding of the symptoms of the disease. Thanks to such work, people, for example, begin to realize that the slightest deviations in the functioning of internal organs are not dangerous and do not at all indicate the presence of a serious illness.
Anxiety neurosis - causes, symptoms and treatment of neurosis
Anxiety neurosis binds the patient to his own body, does not allow him to leave the house, paralyzes and destabilizes life. Somatic symptoms of anxiety neurosis are often confused with symptoms of other diseases. A disturbed person acts in constant fear for his health and life, which causes even greater fear. A vicious circle closes...
