Anxiety: Prevalence, Impact, and Coping Strategies

Coping Strategies
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Coping Strategies
Introduction
In 2020, the world came to a standstill when the coronavirus pandemic struck and held the entire world hostage for more than a year. Industries shut down, and people retreated to their homes, with the world’s economy suffering major losses at the time. Questions started to arise over what would happen next and whether the world would be able to bypass the virus for normalcy to resume. The uncertainty emanating from the spread of the virus intensified the anxiety levels of the world as more people became increasingly stressed and worried about their futures and families. Stress levels increased globally, and it became prudent to discuss some remedies for the stress-related problems the world witnessed. Stress is a prelude to major mental and physiological problems, and the world saw an increase in these problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, even as these issues increase in prevalence, there are numerous coping strategies that are relevant and efficient in helping combat stress and stress-related problems. According to Blum, Brow, & Silver (2012), coping strategies are as varied as the stressors and span different approaches, including avoidance, confronting a stressor, the use of humor, investment into religion, venting emotions, reinterpretation of stressor as positive, and careful planning to combat the stressor among others. These strategies can be applied in different scenarios and cases. However, there is a need to match a stress-related problem to a coping strategy that would yield the best results. For this particular paper, the anxiety disorder as a stress-related problem will be assessed against the effectiveness of behavior modification and cognitive restructuring as appropriate coping strategies.
Stress-Related Problem - Anxiety
Anxiety is one of the most prevalent stress-related problems in the world. According to the COVID-19 Mental Disorders Collaborators (2021), mental disorders have been a leading cause of the current health burden in the world. Further, the researchers indicate that anxiety and depressive disorders play a leading role in contributing to the depleting healthcare condition in the world (COVID-19 Mental Disorders Collaborators, 2021). Currently, there are multiple stress factors that continue to enhance the prevalence of anxiety disorders in the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the stress factors increased to include the inability to work, engage socially, meet loved ones, and the increased fear of infection and death. Therefore, a surge of anxiety disorders was experienced worldwide, with adults said to be the most affected. In their report, Vahratian et al. (2021) reveal that symptoms of anxiety disorder in adults increased from 36.4% to 41.5%, with adults between the ages of 18 and 29 being the most impacted. In the U.S., adults aged 18 to 39 were highly affected and were reported to post an increase in mental healthcare treatment, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. With their future threatened, this group was heavily hit, and many experienced increased symptoms of anxiety disorder.
The impact of anxiety disorders in the world is widespread. Anxiety greatly impacts a person’s quality of life by interfering with an individual’s mental and physiological health. Among the most common effects of anxiety include chest pains, palpitations, headaches, insomnia, nausea, and increasingly high heart rate. Further, anxiety exposes individuals to heart diseases and high blood pressure, especially when it is left untreated. In their study, Robinson et al. (2013) enhance the study of the impacts of anxiety by noting that anxiety greatly impacts cognition. The researchers reveal that anxiety can alter an individual’s cognitive performance with symptoms ranging from poor concentration and hyper-arousal. Continued anxiety could also lead to more issues that could impact a person’s digestive and excretory systems.
Description of Two Coping Strategies
Healthy Boundaries: Behavior Modification
Behavior modification is not a new concept. Every day, people modify their behavior in response to different stimuli or their environmental surroundings. Therefore, behavior modification is not a new concept and is a basic trait for all humanity (Moya & Achtenberg, 1974). However, despite it being a common human trait, behavior modification is also a psychotherapeutic intervention used to help alter or mitigate the effects of maladaptive behavior. The crucial point to note while assessing behavior modification is that it seeks to alter specific behavior and not a patient’s thought process. B.F. Skinner is credited with having popularized behavior modification as a component of behavior therapy. According to Scott, Jain, & Cogburn (2021), Skinner showcased that behavior can be molded using either punishment or reinforcement. These two elements happen to influence how people behave by either reinforcing or promoting desired behavior or punishing that then leads to the determent of unwanted behavior. Reinforcement and punishment exist independently but can still be used together to help shape desired behavior.
Behavioral therapy mainly focuses on how people behave and how different experiences and situations trigger their actions or lack thereof. As a component of behavior therapy, behavior modification can be of help in helping combat anxiety by altering an individual’s behavior. According to the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) (2006), the principle of therapy is that “what we think, how we feel, and how we behave are all closely connected – and all of these factors have a decisive influence on our well-being.” What someone thinks about a situation greatly influences their course of action and impacts their level of anxiety. The premise of behavior modification is that all behaviors are learned, and with the right environment and the right factors, a person can learn new behaviors or unlearn old ones. As indicated by IQWiG (2006), doing so can help unlearn certain problematic behavioral patterns predisposing an individual to psychological problems like anxiety. Therefore, the above affirm behavior modification as a credible coping strategy in helping a person overcome anxiety.
An example that would best showcase the use of behavior modification as a coping strategy for anxiety entails a student who gets anxious whenever there is a test. Such a student might be found to be greatly entertaining thoughts of failure, which could greatly impact their performance regardless of whether they are bright. As Robinson et al. (2013) indicate, anxiety greatly influences the cognitive performance of a person. Therefore, for the student, it will continually become difficult to attain better results. However, the student could be taken through several behavior modification techniques that can help him overcome the anxious feelings he develops during a test. For example, the student could be taught how to develop a pretest routine where they get enough sleep and start the test with simpler questions. Such small changes to the student’s behavior could, in the end, lead to a calmer approach and demeanor during tests.
Cognitive ...