Cognitive psychology and anxiety within themselves are complex like a rubiks cube. We look at anxiety and recognize that it is different in terms of how/when/where it manifested, what triggers it and how different people get affected/interpret it. We then look towards cognitive psychology to help us better understand and potentially treat if not solve the triggers within our brains that cause anxiety.

As dumb as it may sound I personally find the fact we can help treat anxiety with medications to be incredible. With that being said there are pros and cons to each side of the coin. Some examples of the medications are SSRI’s (Selective serotonin reputake inhibitors) such as Lexapro, Paxil, Zoloft and Celexa and SNRI’s (Serotonin-norepinephrine reputake inhubitor) such as Cymbalta, Effexor XR, and Pristiq. These medications are great to help combat the effects of anxiety but as for any medication they do have side effects and may not work for each person.

Anxiety occurs when your brain senses a threat real or imagined and floods your body with a hormone, also known as a stress hormone called cortisol, it also produces adrenaline which can help make the body stronger and faster. A saying i’ve heard throughout the years is “mother lifts car to save her child”, this helps us understand the “real threat”. When we look at the imagined threats with anxiety we can think of how or what a person is thinking that may not be a real threat but seems real through imagining the worst outcome of any given situation. Some examples of this can relate to traveling, such as “the plane may crash”, “a car can swerve into me and cause an accident”. Some of the other examples i wanted to add come from personal experience. My anxiety arose from thinking that going to school was going to be worse than it was, down the road i found out that i wasn’t anxious about school, i was more anxious about what happens at school such as test scores/homework, getting to the bus on time and even peer opinions. This wasn’t a real threat but overtime i would make each aspect of school to be the worst which caused my anxiety to get worse and worse each day.

With cognitive psychology we can learn more about how the human brain works and how it interprets certain events, ideas or environments. Obviously i would be naive to think that cognitive psychology played the majority part in anxiety when its a culmination of different respective parts such as evolutionary, child developmental and neurological psychology. Each carries a specific weight in specific problems but they are all different in their own ways.

References:

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssris). SSRIs – Tests & treatments | NHS inform. (n.d.). https://www.nhsinform.scot/tests-and-treatments/medicines-and-medical-aids/types-of-medicine/selective-serotonin-reuptake-inhibitors-ssris

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2019, October 5). Helpful for chronic pain in addition to depression. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/antidepressants/art-20044970