What's Anxiety?

Anxiety is defined as a state of nervousness, fear, apprehension and worrying. Many people, if not everyone, has experience some sort of anxiety in their life due to certain situations that put us  under stress, which could include tests, interviews, recitals and others. A far from the unpleasant sensation, this emotion is fairly important to the human race because it is essential for survival.  When in a dangerous situation our body activates the fight-or-flight response to assure we manage to survive the emergency. Also, anxiety allows us to progress because makes us prepare harder for situations, like studding hard for an exam, preparing for an interview, etc.  So, in small dose anxiety is an important part of our life.  But, when anxiety presents it self in large doses, it could be really harmful for the human being. If anxiety increases outside a curtain level the performance our performance significantly deteriorates making us fail to accomplish a task. We will remember our failure in subsequent situations, which will make us stress even more, and an escalating cycle is created. (Meyer & Quenzer, 2013) This cycle will make us withdrawal from a situation that has caused us anxiety in the past, and this is exactly what prevents addicts from abstaining from a drug. Because when they abstain from the drug they feel an extreme amount of anxiety that can only be stopped by taking the drug. Different studies have confirmed the role of anxiety in drug addiction withdrawal. In a study conducted en 2001-2002, 99.2% of a sample of 408 addicts, reported to relapse to cocaine use in a 5-year term. (Quintero et al, 2011) Also, drugs like mGluR5 antagonist that act on NAc shell in rats specifically suppresses the relapse to heroin-seeking by suppressing anxiety- like behavior. (Lou et al, 2014).

Additionally, to the anxiety felt as a result of drug abuse, they're also different kind of anxiety disorders that exist in our society. Such disorders include Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Phobias, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, among others. The following video will explain briefly each of the disorders.