Question:
What do you think? Is the "anxiety disease" one disease with varying symptoms, or different diseases?
Maybe it’s useful to distinguish between generalized anxiety disorders and panic disorders. Tthe precipitating factors in GAD and PAD seem to be quite different, with GAD having much more to do with personal history and development, and PAD having a more ’spontaneous’ or ‘primal’ character (terms used by Aaron Beck). Isn’t it also useful to distinguish between anxiety and depression, even though the two are often encountered together? h.
Response:
Sometimes I suspect there is only ONE anxiety disorder (or illness, condition, or disease, etc.) with varying amounts of anxiety, up to and including PAs. The symtoms of this excessive anxiety vary over time, so at one point your main problem may be generalized worry, other times obsessions and compulsions, other times reliving past traumatic events, other times anxiety in social situations, and other times frequent and recurrant OOTB panic attacks. Still other times you may think you are dying of some disease and can’t be convinced otherwise by doctors. These symptoms may occur alone or in varing combinations. They may also vary over time. The DSM IV has defined several anxiety disorders and not one (i.e. GAD, PD, OCD, PTSD, SP, etc.). However, as more is learned, each successive edition of the DSM continues to redefine disorders (not just ADs), add disorders, and delete others. What do you think? Is the "anxiety disease" one disease with varying symptoms, or different diseases? Chip
Response:
Sometimes I suspect there is only ONE anxiety disorder (or illness, condition, or disease, etc.) with varying amounts of anxiety, up to and including PAs.
I think we are learning about anxiety and there are not definitive answers yet. I suspect there is a basis, probably very subtle, in the brain chemistry that causes endogenous (internal) anxiety to manifest different sympotoms for different people at specific times. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – . What do you think? Is the "anxiety disease" one disease with varying symptoms, or different diseases? Chip
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