In
the study of neuropsychology, I find that I am most intrigued by the topic of
fear/anxiety. The reason why anxiety is of much importance to me is because I
have a godfather that deals with panic disorder because of his high levels of
stress and anxiety. Along with my godfather, I also dealt with anxiety
throughout my childhood. According to Kalat in the Biological Psychology text,
there are variations in the amount of anxiety that people show when put in the
same anxiety inducing situation, partly for genetic reasons. I feel that every
human is genetically predisposed to a certain amount of anxiety and it is due
to their environment growing up. Life experiences either increase or maintain a
normal level of anxiety in human beings and it’s a problem that could be
inevitable sometimes.
The
feelings of fearfulness and anxiety start as early as from the time that you
are a newborn child. Naturally, our human senses help us detect specific
external stimuli and the response to unexpected loud noises is called the
“startle reflex”. The startle reflex occurs rapidly and is caused by auditory
information that is sent to the cochlear nucleus in the medulla and directly to
the pons which greatly tenses the muscles of the neck (Kalat 371). As a child,
I always had a fear of haunted houses, mainly because of a time when someone in
a costume chased me around a mall and terrified me. After my terrifying
experience, my brain has developed a learned fear and this is achieved by
activity in the amygdala. Cells in the amygdala get input from pain, hearing,
and vision and the structure is well-prepared to create conditioned fears for
humans and animals. The conditioned fear in the amygdala then triggers activity
in the hypothalamus, which is in control of autonomic or involuntary actions of
the body like the increase in blood pressure. In my case, because of the
terrifying experience I encountered, every time I am introduced to the similar stimuli
again, my amygdala will send output to the hypothalamus and make me feel the
increase in heart rate and tensing of the body. The hypothalamus is in control
of your involuntary actions but with a positive or negative stimuli, the
information taken into the amygdala and then transferred into the hypothalamus
could cause a change in your body’s autonomic actions. The amygdala has axons
in the prefrontal cortex, which helps control approach and avoidance of
specific stimuli and there are also axons in the midbrain (pons) that cause the
startle reflex.
In
order to find the variations in how the startle reflex gauges fear and anxiety,
psychologists studied rodents with and without damaged amygdalas. Psychologists
first measured the normal response to a loud noise, then they paired the noise
with a light and a shock. To test the impact that light has on the startle
reflex, psychologists presented the light before the stimulus occurred and
found that the light that was represented before the stimuli, created a safety
signal for the rats, which decreased their startle reflex. The rats with the
damaged amygdala were found to still show a normal startle reflex with or
without the light as a visual stimuli. With my fear of haunted houses, I know
that I would instantly react with the sight of anything that my mind could
associate with a haunted house and if I was still approached by surprise, my
startle reflex would be the same. The fear of haunted houses and people jumping
out at me created the feelings of other possible external threats, like getting
approached when walking alone in the dark. For humans, “If you are attacked or
if you have other traumatic experiences, you become more fearful in a variety
of situations” (Kalat 372).
Following
the topic of traumatic experiences, my godfather’s anxiety comes into play
because he developed his extreme anxiety after a traumatic trip to the dentist
when he was a child. When managing my fear of haunted houses, I am able to
manage the mild-high anxiety that comes along with it but in my godfather’s
case he suffers intense anxiety. As a child, his dentist put him through
extreme physical pain and this caused him to develop trauma and now deals with
panic disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, people
with panic disorder have sudden and repeated attacks of fear that last for
several minutes. These attacks of fear can be followed by sweating, breathing
problems, and chest pain. The night before my godfather pays his dentist a
visit, he experiences chest pain and breathing problems because he knows and is
anticipating what he fears the most. Along with chest pain and breathing
problems, he experiences lack of sleep because he is constantly thinking about
his future encounter. A level of anxiety this high is unhealthy and according
to Kalat, research links the cause of panic disorder is due to some
abnormalities in the hypothalamus and not the amygdala. Panic disorder
decreases the activity of GABA in our brain and increase the levels of orexin
in our brain, which are associated with keeping us awake and active. The
wakefulness and activity is what is keeping my godfather from sleeping at
night, the day before he visits the dentist and it creates the high anxiety.
The
treatment of anxiety and anxiety-related disorders could be taken by a
medicinal approach or through psychotherapy, which is also called cognitive
behavior therapy. Cognitive behavior therapy attempts to better the patient
through different ways of thinking and behaving differently when approached by
the unwanted, anxiety-inducing stimuli. The medicinal approach is very easy and
takes effect immediately for the patient but is not beneficial for anxiety
patients in the long run. I would be a hypocrite if I said that I did not
believe in the use of medication to treat humans but in the case of my
godfather’s anxiety, I would want him to take the psychotherapy approach. He
never seeked help for the panic attacks that he suffers from his high anxiety
and I feel that this is what makes him a tense and often stressed person. With
medical attention and the use of cognitive behavior therapy, my godfather could
make his hours of terror spent at the dentist become a pleasant visit without
crying, breathing problems, and intense anxiety.
Conclusively,
fear and anxiety develop from the moment that you are born and continue to be
affected throughout your lifetime because of experiences and some hereditary
reasons. The amygdala takes a huge role in taking in the stimuli that triggers
your startle response. With the amygdala’s output, the hypothalamus is able to
mold to the experience that you are having and regulate involuntary functions
of the body, like your heart beat. As I mature, I find myself becoming less
fearful of haunted houses but still do experience moments of mild-high anxiety
if I am in a similar environment. For my godfather, his problem of visiting the
dentist will always remain the same until he is provided with a way to treat
his anxiety and have a healthy trip to the dentist. Anxiety could be influenced
by genetics but I feel that we are mostly in control of what we let ourselves
experience and we do not have to deal with intense anxiety our entire life. If
your anxiety is debilitating, seek help and use any resource available to
reduce your anxiety in order to maintain a healthy mind and body.
References:
1.
"Panic Disorder." NIMH RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
2.
Kalat, James W. Biological Psychology. 11th ed. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning, 2013,
2009. Print.
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