Anxiety: Effects on the Body and Mind
Anxiety is a mental health disorder that determines the natural response that an individual develops after experiencing stress, worry, or fear among other feelings. This condition is common across various demographics such as gender, age, occupation, education, and religion. Anxiety has significant effects on the mind and body of an individual by impacting on their mental, physiological, and physical wellbeing. Individuals embrace different behaviors while also showcasing multiple symptoms that are as a result of the condition of anxiety. In most cases, anxiety leads to various effects including suicidal thoughts, changes in behavior, and also physiological and physical malfunctioning. As a normal and common experience in life, anxiety affects individuals during various instances and situations in life. Many people experience anxiety before attending or taking place in essential engagements in life such as examination, job interview, or expectations of major changes. Anxiety may also occur from other sources that affect the normal life of a person including stress at work or school, financial constraints, fear about the future, post-traumatic stress or emotional trauma, relationship-associated stress, medication side-effects, and use of illicit drugs or substances such as heroin or cocaine. Based on the causative agent, anxiety results to various effects on the body and mind. This paper analyzes the anxiety effects on the body and mind by involving various researches and papers done by different scholars.
Existing Literature on the Effects of Anxiety on the Mind and Body
Previous scholars have written various materials about the effects of anxiety on the mind and body. This section will review materials of previous researchers and their stand on issues relating to the effects of anxiety on the mind and body. In particular, this part of the paper will address the prevalence of anxiety disorders, anxiety, cognition, and learning as well as anxiety and memory.
Prevalence of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is associated with various mental disorders. These conditions include a generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder.
Generalized anxiety disorder is a mental condition in which the patients portray excessive and persistent worry about various issues and things in life. In most cases, individuals with GAD tend to anticipate disaster(Fricchione, 2004). They are usually worried about their health, family, financial status, and work, among other major issues in their lives. Research shows that around 6% of adults have GAD at one point in their life. Cases of GAD are higher in women than men and usually affects the relatives of affected individuals.
Another common anxiety-related condition is a panic disorder. Panic disorder can be described as an anxiety disorder, which is associated with unexpected reoccurring incidents of panic attacks. Panic attacks refer tosudden periods, which are accompanied by the intense fear that may include sweating, palpitations, shaking, numbness, and shortness of breath. The prevalence of panic disorder in a lifetime is around 5%. Just like GAD, cases of panic disorder are higher in women than in men. The prevalence of this condition is twice in women than in men. People suffer from this condition in any age bracket. Nonetheless, this condition starts during young adulthood. Not all people who experience incidents of panic attacks develop the panic disorder in their lifetime.
Anxiety, Cognition, and Learning
The human brain plays a significant role in recognition. Cognition is described as reception and perception of certain perceived stimuli and the manner in which its interpreted (Yaribeygi et al, 2017). Cognition involves decision making, learning, attention, and judgment (Sandi, 2013). Research shows that anxiety has an adverse effect on the process of cognition. Nonetheless, the effect depends on the duration, intensity, origin, and magnitude of anxiety (Sandi, 2013). Just like in the case of memory, the hippocampus, temporal lobe, and amygdala are responsible for the process of cognition in the body. Anxiety reduces cognition thus necessitating behavioral steps to reduce the level of anxiety, which in turn increases cognition (Scholey et al., 2014). According to Sandi (2013), anxiety is responsible for the activation of various physiological systems in the body like the central neurotransmitter, the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, autonomic nervous system, and the neuropeptide system. This process affects neural circuits that are located in the brain directly thus reducing the rate of data processing. Besides, long-term effects are exerted on processing and cognition due to diffusion through the blood-brain barrier (Sandi, 2013). Pathophysiologic changes occur in the brain in case an individual is exposed to anxiety. Anxiety affects cognition acutely and chronically.
Anxiety and Memory
Memory is considered as one of the major functions of the CNS. Memory can be either short-term, sensory, or long-term. Short-term memory is dependent on the operations of the parietal and the frontal lobes (Yaribeygi et al, 2017). The functioning of large areas of the human brain is a responsible long-term memory. Nonetheless, the hippocampus determines the total functioning of the human memory. The hippocampus part of the human brain performs this duty since it is a section with the highest density of glucocorticosteroid receptors. Additionally, the hippocampus is associated with the highest capacity of responding to stress (Yaribeygi et al, 2017). On the other hand, changes in the structure and the functions of the hippocampus can be caused by stress. The changes in the structure of the hippocampus result to atrophy and neurogenesis disorders. Besides, chronic stress leads to a rise in plasma cortisol, which in turn lowers the number of neurons and dendritic branches in the body (Yaribeygi et al, 2017). The structure of the synaptic terminals is also altered as well as a reduction in the neurogenesis in the hippocampus section of the brain.
Discussion
Research shows that anxiety has a drastic effect on major systems in the human body. This topic is relevant since the effect of anxiety on the entire primary physiological systems of humans has an adverse impact on the functioning of the entire body. Anxiety evokesvarious biological responses in the body. The affected systems are the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, immune system, gastrointestinal System, and the endocrine system
Anxiety and Central Nervous System
Anxiety has an impact on the nervous system of human beings since it causes structural changes in various sections of the brain (Lupien et al., 2009). According to Sarahian et al (2014) chronic anxiety is likely to result in a decline in the weight of the brain andatrophy of its mass. The occurrence of these changes in its structure results to differences in the cognition process, response to stress, and memory (Lupien et al., 2009). However, both the intensity and the level of the changes varies depending on the level of anxiety and the period it lasts (Lupien et al., 2009). Reznikov et al (2007) state that the structure of the brain is altered by anxiety. The changes in the structure occur due to stress hormones that are released to the human brain by long-term anxiety. The discharge of stress hormones in the brain is attributed to various symptoms like dizziness, headaches, and depression, which occur frequently.
Anxiety and Cardiovascular System
Research shows that both acute and chronic anxiety have an adverse impact on the manner in which the cardiovascular system functions (Yaribeygi et al, 2017). The effect of anxiety on the functioning of the heart starts by altering the heart rate. Anxiety either decreases or increases the heartbeat based on the direction in which sympathovagal response shifts (Hall et al., 2004). Additionally, anxiety affects the level of blood pressure in the body significantly. Anxiety is responsible for the stimulation of the autonomic sympathetic nervous system, which raises the rate of vasoconstriction. An increase in vasoconstriction leads to a rise in the level of blood lipids, blood pressure, vascular changes, blood clotting disorders, and atherogenesis. These activities result in cardiac arrhythmias and myocardial infarction, which occurs subsequently. Anxiety causes both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on the cardiovascular system. Additionally, anxiety has an indirect impact on the functioning of the cardiovascular system(Yaribeygi et al, 2017). This effect occurs due to the activation of the autonomic nervous system. A rise in the heart rate, vasodilation in the skeletal muscles' arteries, an increase in the strength of contraction are experienced in case the impact happens following the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Yaribeygi et al (2017) claim that anxiety is also responsible for the activation parasympathetic nervous system. In particular, anxiety stimulates the limbic system thus leading to a decline or stopping the heart-beat completely. Finally, anxiety affects the functioning of the vascular endothelial cell, raises the risk of suffering from both ischemia thrombosis, as well as platelet aggregation.
Anxiety and Immune System Functions
A close relationship exists between anxiety and the functioning and the immune system. According to Yaribeygi et al (2017), anxious people are at a high risk of having an impaired immune system, which makes them fall sick more frequently. For instance, individuals with high levels of anxiety are prone to cancer since the functioning of their immune system is impaired (Reiche et al., 2004).Yaribeygi et al (2017) argue that anxiety decreases the activities of phagocytes in tuberculosis. The further added that people living with anxiety have high chances of suffering from tuberculosis since their immune system is suppressed. Besides, diseases have high chances of occurring in case of an immediate change in lifestyle, which causes anxiety(Yaribeygi et al, 2017). Furthermore, the functioning of the neuroendocrine system and CNS is affected by anxiety since it modulates their processes. Neuroendocrine and neural responses that are caused by anxiety leads to the production of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and hormone (CRH) by the corticotropin.
Anxiety and Gastrointestinal System
Anxiety has an impact on two aspects of GI function. First, anxiety has an effect on the appetite (Bagheri et al., 2014). This impact results from the engagement of the amygdala via N-methyl-Daspartate (NMDA) or the ventral tegmental area (VTA) glutamate receptors (Sadeghi et al., 2015). Nonetheless, nutrition patterns have an impact on the response to stress (Ghanbari et al., 2015). Therefore, a bilateral interaction exists between nutrition and anxiety. Besides, the normal functioning of the GI tract is affected by anxiety. For example, the absorption process, the secretion of mucus and stomach acid, intestinal permeability, GI inflammation, and the functioning of ion channels are affected by anxiety.
The rate in which the GI system responds to inflammation is also increased by anxiety. Additionally, anxiety is likely to accelerate the process of inflammation and reactivate previous inflammation due to the secretion of mediators in the body like substance P. Consequently, the permeability of cells in the body is increased while T lymphocytes are recruited. The aggregation of the lymphocyte results to the release of inflammatory markers, which are responsible for the activation of the pathways in the hypothalamus. This process leads to negative feedback in the body due to the secretion of CRH thus resulting in GI inflammatory diseases (Yaribeygi et al, 2017).
Moreover, the physiological functioning of the intestine is affected by anxiety. This effect results in various inflammatory conditions like Crohn’s disease another ulcerative-based disease (Hommes et al., 2002).
Anxiety and the Endocrine System
A relationship exists between the functioning of the endocrine system and anxiety. Anxiety tends to complicate the functioning of the endocrine system (Charmandari et al, 2005). On the contrary, the manner in which the body responds to anxiety is affected by the endocrine system (Ulrich-Lai \\\"Herman, 2009). Anxiety can either change or activate endocrine processes since they relate to the thyroid, pituitary, the adrenergic system, hypothalamus, and adrenal glands. The functioning of the endocrine system and the response of the body to anxiety are inseparable. This relationship results from the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal by anxiety. In turn, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activates various systems that release hormones in the body (Yaribeygi et al, 2017).
Conclusion
Anxiety is a mental health disorder, which determines the natural response that is developed by an individual following an incident of stress, worry, or fear. People in various demographics such as age, gender, and occupation. Researchers have written different materials on the effects of anxiety on the mind and body. First, the existing literature has addressed the prevalence of anxiety disorders. The most prevalent anxiety disorders are generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder. The prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder is approximately 6% among adults while that of panic disorder is about 5%. Besides, previous literature has addressed the effect of anxiety on cognition and learning. Anxiety has an adverse effect on the process of cognition since it is regulated by the hippocampus, temporal lobe, and amygdala. Nonetheless, the effect of anxiety on cognition and learning depends on its duration, intensity, origin, and magnitude. Also, anxiety has an impact on memory since the functioning of human memory is regulated by the hippocampus part of the brain. The topic of the effect of anxiety on the human mind and body is relevant since anxiety affects the operations of major systems in the body: Central nervous system, cardiovascular system, immune system, gastrointestinal System, and the endocrine system. Anxiety affects the functioning of the central nervous system since it causes structural changes in various sections of the brain. The operation of the cardiovascular system is also affected by anxiety due to the alteration of heartbeat and the activation of the autonomic nervous system. Anxiety also impairs the human immune system. People experiencing anxiety are likely to fall sick. On the gastrointestinal system, anxiety affects appetite and accelerates the process of inflammation. Finally, anxiety has an effect on the endocrine system since it complicates its functioning.
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