When we think about anxiety, we usually associate it with a mental disorder. It is not strange since when it appears it usually triggers an avalanche of unpleasant sensations, from physical tension and accelerated heart rate to apprehension, anguish and catastrophic thoughts. However, have you ever wondered if anxiety is an emotion or rather a cognitive response to what is happening in your environment and mind?
Is anxiety an emotion?
Anxiety is part of the enormous list of emotions and feelings that we can experience. But it’s not just any emotion. It is a secondary emotion, meaning it is usually derived from primary emotions.
A secondary emotion usually acts as a defense or protection mechanism when we consider – consciously or unconsciously – that we cannot reveal the primary emotion, the one that originates it and is at its base. In fact, these emotions usually appear as a result of socialization. That is, we do not bring them “by default”, such as anger, sadness or joy, which are primary emotions.
In the case of anxiety, the primary emotion with which it has the closest connection is fear. However, unlike fear, which can locate the potentially dangerous object and activate a fairly adaptive response, anxiety is the anticipation of a situation that engenders danger – internal or external – but that has not yet happened and may never come to occur. Even so, the prospect of it occurring generates constant worry that can become pathological if we are not able to manage it.
Anxiety can also be a secondary emotion to anger, jealousy, pain, disappointment, shame or sadness. In the case of jealousy, for example, when it is based on mere suspicions and we cannot clearly define the threat, we experience a high level of insecurity as we do not know what is really happening. That makes us anxious.
Therefore, anxiety is an emotion and, at the same time, a mental experience that arises from a complex interaction between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. That is, thoughts can often trigger anxiety or aggravate it, fueling doubts, restlessness and anguish.
There is an emotional anxiety and an eminently cognitive anxiety
To what extent is anxiety an emotional reaction to what is happening or a state fueled by worries? A study conducted at the University of New South Wales revealed that people tend to think about these topics a lot:
- Closer personal relationships
- Mistakes made in the past
- Negative personal experiences
- Social interactions
Social situations and negative events were the most common triggers for ruminative thoughts. And many people admitted to having difficulty disconnecting and stopping worrying, which fed and perpetuated the cycle of anxiety.
When we experience predominantly cognitive symptoms such as rumination or racing thoughts, we can begin to feel emotionally overwhelmed. That can lead to increased feelings of fear or apprehension. In turn, those emotional responses can further intensify the mental mess, leading to increased rumination and worry. That cycle can continue ad infinitum, so that each set of symptoms reinforces the other, creating a loop of increasing anxiety.
From this perspective, a differentiation could be established between a fundamentally emotional anxiety and another that is essentially cognitive in nature. Although both are closely related and usually feed off each other, they can be distinguished by their origin, evolution and most characteristic symptoms:
- Emotional anxiety. It is fundamentally defined by feelings of concern, apprehension or fear. It usually appears more quickly and is related to specific situations or triggers, such as fear of speaking in public or performance anxiety. It is usually a specific anxiety that appears when we expose ourselves or are about to expose ourselves to the situation that makes us nervous and generally disappears once it has passed.
- Cognitive anxiety. In this type of anxiety, the cognitive aspects have greater weight, which is why it is usually generated by chronic states of worry and the tendency to turn things around in a loop. At its base is usually catastrophic thinking, which is why it is a more stable anxiety over time, with a tendency to become chronic. The person also feels that their mind is racing and they cannot concentrate or think clearly. However, it is more difficult to find specific triggers as it is experienced more as a diffuse state of apprehension.
Why is it important to understand the emotional and cognitive factors underlying anxiety?
There is no doubt that anxiety is an emotion. But there is also no doubt that it is a much more complex mental process, often originated or fueled by our thoughts. The tendency to experience one or another type of anxiety will determine the most effective psychological techniques to address it.
Experiments in which people have been asked to suppress emotions in stressful situations have shown that they experienced much more anxiety and distress than those who could express how they felt. And after the task, they were more reluctant to re-expose themselves to it, further reinforcing experiential avoidance.
This suggests that when it comes to anxiety with an eminently emotional background, methods such as radical acceptance and techniques such as mindfulness or relaxation exercises could be more effective in relieving that stress.
Instead, cognitive restructuring for anxiety might be a more effective technique for people with a tendency to worry excessively and raise a storm in a teacup. In this sense, it has been proven that reframing worries and threatening thoughts can really reduce the emotional component of anxiety.
The key is, as indicated by a study carried out at the University of Texas with people who suffered from claustrophobia, to activate this process of cognitive reevaluation before exposing oneself to the situation that causes us discomfort. In this way we manage to block or minimize the fear it generates and, therefore, we deactivate anxiety.
The most important thing is to understand that anxiety can arise and manifest itself in various ways. And although it can be considered an emotion, it also encompasses our thoughts and has a considerable impact on a physical level. Understanding its complexity and knowing how to identify what we are experiencing at each moment will allow us to deal with it more effectively to prevent it from affecting our well-being.
References:
Joubert, A. E. et. Al. (2022) Understanding the experience of rumination and worry: A descriptive qualitative survey study. Br J Clin Psychol; 61(4): 929–946.
Amstadter, A. B. (2008) Emotion Regulation and Anxiety Disorders. J Anxiety Disord; 22(2): 211–221.
Levitt, J. T. et. Al. (2004) The effects of acceptance versus suppression of emotion on subjective and psychophysiological response to carbon dioxide challenge in patients with panic disorder. Behavior Therapy; 35: 747–766.
Feldner, M. T. et. Al. (2003) Emotional avoidance: An experimental test of individual differences and response suppression using biological challenge. Behavior Research and Therapy; 41: 403–411.
Kamphuis, J. H. & Telch, M. J. (2000) Effects of distraction and guided threat reappraisal on fear reduction during exposure-based treatments for specific fears. Behavior Research and Therapy;38: 1163–1181.
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