About Anxiety and Gifts For People With Anxiety

Anxiety is an emotion characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often accompanied by nervous behavior such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints, and rumination. It includes subjectively unpleasant feelings of dread over anticipated events.

Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and worry, usually generalized and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that is only subjectively seen as menacing. It is often accompanied by muscular tension, restlessness, fatigue, inability to catch one’s breath, tightness in the abdominal region, and problems in concentration. Anxiety is closely related to fear, which is a response to a real or perceived immediate threat; anxiety involves the expectation of future threat including dread. People facing anxiety may withdraw from situations which have provoked anxiety in the past.

Though anxiety may be considered a normal human response, when excessive or persisting beyond developmentally appropriate periods it may be diagnosed as an anxiety disorder. There are multiple forms of anxiety disorder (such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) with specific clinical definitions. Part of the definition of an anxiety disorder, which distinguishes it from every day anxiety, is that it is persistent, typically lasting 6 months or more, although the criterion for duration is intended as a general guide with allowance for some degree of flexibility and is sometimes of shorter duration in children.

Anxiety vs. fear

Anxiety is distinguished from fear, which is an appropriate cognitive and emotional response to a perceived threat. Anxiety is related to the specific behaviors of fight-or-flight responses, defensive behavior or escape. It occurs in situations only perceived as uncontrollable or unavoidable, but not realistically so. 

David Barlow defines anxiety as “a future-oriented mood state in which one is not ready or prepared to attempt to cope with upcoming negative events,” and that it is a distinction between future and present dangers which divides anxiety and fear. Another description of anxiety is agony, dread, terror, or even apprehension. In positive psychology, anxiety is described as the mental state that results from a difficult challenge for which the subject has insufficient coping skills.

Fear and anxiety can be differentiated into four domains: (1) duration of emotional experience, (2) temporal focus, (3) specificity of the threat, and (4) motivated direction. Fear is short-lived, present-focused, geared towards a specific threat, and facilitating escape from threat; anxiety, on the other hand, is long-acting, future-focused, broadly focused towards a diffuse threat, and promoting excessive caution while approaching a potential threat and interferes with constructive coping.

Joseph E. LeDoux and Lisa Feldman Barrett have both sought to separate automatic threat responses from additional associated cognitive activity within anxiety.

Symptoms

Anxiety can be experienced with long, drawn-out daily symptoms that reduce quality of life, known as chronic (or generalized) anxiety, or it can be experienced in short spurts with sporadic, stressful panic attacks, known as acute anxiety. Symptoms of anxiety can range in number, intensity, and frequency, depending on the person. While almost everyone has experienced anxiety at some point in their lives, most do not develop long-term problems with anxiety.

Anxiety may cause psychiatric and physiological symptoms.

The risk of anxiety leading to depression could possibly even lead to an individual harming themselves, which is why there are many 24-hour suicide prevention hotlines.

The behavioral effects of anxiety may include withdrawal from situations which have provoked anxiety or negative feelings in the past. Other effects may include changes in sleeping patterns, changes in habits, increase or decrease in food intake, and increased motor tension (such as foot tapping).

The emotional effects of anxiety may include “feelings of apprehension or dread, trouble concentrating, feeling tense or jumpy, anticipating the worst, irritability, restlessness, watching (and waiting) for signs (and occurrences) of danger, and, feeling like your mind’s gone blank” as well as “nightmares/bad dreams, obsessions about sensations, déjà vu, a trapped-in-your-mind feeling, and feeling like everything is scary.” It may include a vague experience and feeling of helplessness.

The cognitive effects of anxiety may include thoughts about suspected dangers, such as fear of dying: “You may … fear that the chest pains are a deadly heart attack or that the shooting pains in your head are the result of a tumor or an aneurysm. You feel an intense fear when you think of dying, or you may think of it more often than normal, or can’t get it out of your mind.”

The physiological symptoms of anxiety may include:

• Neurological, as headache, paresthesias, fasciculations, vertigo, or presyncope.
• Digestive, as abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, indigestion, dry mouth, or bolus.
• Respiratory, as shortness of breath or sighing breathing.
• Cardiac, as palpitations, tachycardia, or chest pain.
• Muscular, as fatigue, tremors, or tetany.
• Cutaneous, as perspiration, or itchy skin.
• Uro-genital, as frequent urination, urinary urgency, dyspareunia, or impotence, chronic pelvic pain syndrome. Stress hormones released in an anxious state have an impact on bowel function and can manifest physical symptoms that may contribute to or exacerbate IBS.

Types

There are various types of anxiety. Existential anxiety can occur when a person faces angst, an existential crisis, or nihilistic feelings. People can also face mathematical anxiety, somatic anxiety, stage fright, or test anxiety. Social anxiety refers to a fear of rejection and negative evaluation by other people.

Existential

The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, in The Concept of Anxiety (1844), described anxiety or dread associated with the “dizziness of freedom” and suggested the possibility for positive resolution of anxiety through the self-conscious exercise of responsibility and choosing. In Art and Artist (1932), the psychologist Otto Rank wrote that the psychological trauma of birth was the pre-eminent human symbol of existential anxiety and encompasses the creative person’s simultaneous fear of – and desire for – separation, individuation, and differentiation.

The theologian Paul Tillich characterized existential anxiety as “the state in which a being is aware of its possible nonbeing” and he listed three categories for the nonbeing and resulting anxiety: ontic (fate and death), moral (guilt and condemnation), and spiritual (emptiness and meaninglessness).

According to Tillich, the last of these three types of existential anxiety, i.e. spiritual anxiety, is predominant in modern times while the others were predominant in earlier periods. Tillich argues that this anxiety can be accepted as part of the human condition or it can be resisted but with negative consequences. In its pathological form, spiritual anxiety may tend to “drive the person toward the creation of certitude in systems of meaning which are supported by tradition and authority” even though such “undoubted certitude is not built on the rock of reality“.

According to Viktor Frankl, the author of Man’s Search for Meaning, when a person is faced with extreme mortal dangers, the most basic of all human wishes is to find a meaning of life to combat the “trauma of nonbeing” as death is near.

Depending on the source of the threat, psychoanalytic theory distinguishes the following types of anxiety:

• realistic
• neurotic
• moral

Test and performance

According to Yerkes-Dodson law, an optimal level of arousal is necessary to best complete a task such as an exam, performance, or competitive event. However, when the anxiety or level of arousal exceeds that optimum, the result is a decline in performance.

Test anxiety is the uneasiness, apprehension, or nervousness felt by students who have a fear of failing an exam. Students who have test anxiety may experience any of the following: the association of grades with personal worth; fear of embarrassment by a teacher; fear of alienation from parents or friends; time pressures; or feeling a loss of control. Sweating, dizziness, headaches, racing heartbeats, nausea, fidgeting, uncontrollable crying or laughing and drumming on a desk are all common. Because test anxiety hinges on fear of negative evaluation, debate exists as to whether test anxiety is itself a unique anxiety disorder or whether it is a specific type of social phobia. The DSM-IV classifies test anxiety as a type of social phobia.

While the term “test anxiety” refers specifically to students, many workers share the same experience with regard to their career or profession. The fear of failing at a task and being negatively evaluated for failure can have a similarly negative effect on the adult. Management of test anxiety focuses on achieving relaxation and developing mechanisms to manage anxiety. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Stranger, social, and intergroup anxiety

Humans generally require social acceptance and thus sometimes dread the disapproval of others. Apprehension of being judged by others may cause anxiety in social environments.

Anxiety during social interactions, particularly between strangers, is common among young people. It may persist into adulthood and become social anxiety or social phobia. “Stranger anxiety” in small children is not considered a phobia. In adults, an excessive fear of other people is not a developmentally common stage; it is called social anxiety. According to Cutting, social phobics do not fear the crowd but the fact that they may be judged negatively.

Social anxiety varies in degree and severity. For some people, it is characterized by experiencing discomfort or awkwardness during physical social contact (e.g. embracing, shaking hands, etc.), while in other cases it can lead to a fear of interacting with unfamiliar people altogether. Those suffering from this condition may restrict their lifestyles to accommodate the anxiety, minimizing social interaction whenever possible. Social anxiety also forms a core aspect of certain personality disorders, including avoidant personality disorder.

To the extent that a person is fearful of social encounters with unfamiliar others, some people may experience anxiety particularly during interactions with outgroup members, or people who share different group memberships (i.e., by race, ethnicity, class, gender, etc.). Depending on the nature of the antecedent relations, cognitions, and situational factors, intergroup contact may be stressful and lead to feelings of anxiety. This apprehension or fear of contact with outgroup members is often called interracial or intergroup anxiety.

As is the case with the more generalized forms of social anxiety, intergroup anxiety has behavioral, cognitive, and affective effects. For instance, increases in schematic processing and simplified information processing can occur when anxiety is high. Indeed, such is consistent with related work on attentional bias in implicit memory. Additionally recent research has found that implicit racial evaluations (i.e. automatic prejudiced attitudes) can be amplified during intergroup interaction. Negative experiences have been illustrated in producing not only negative expectations, but also avoidant, or antagonistic, behavior such as hostility. Furthermore, when compared to anxiety levels and cognitive effort (e.g., impression management and self-presentation) in intragroup contexts, levels and depletion of resources may be exacerbated in the intergroup situation.

When loved ones are depressed, they are certainly not the ones who seek treatment or therapy.

But because you love or care about them more than others, you need to do something to make them forget their worries, at least in the short term.

No matter why a person is worried, they definitely need a treatment to get out of this situation.

And giving gifts is a great way to make them forget their worries.(Gifts For People With Anxiety)

18 Gifts for Someone with Anxiety and Depression

We have categorized the gifts under different sub-headings for you to choose more easily.(Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Massaging Gifts For People With Anxiety

1. An Automatic Body Massager

The three-speed power levels of this 3D massage vest allow one to apply the right and appropriate amount of pressure to relieve muscle aches and pains, thereby reducing stress.(Gifts For People With Anxiety)

2. Rollerball Massager

If the stress is related to office work, this rollerball massager is one of the best relaxing gifts.(Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Aroma Therapeutic Gifts for People with Depression

Aromatherapy has proven to have a significant effect on people suffering from anxiety by stimulating receptors in the nose and sending soothing messages to the nervous system.(Gifts For People With Anxiety)

3. Aroma Therapeutic Oil Diffuser

This gift is best for those who have work-related stress or those who have sleepless nights and therefore need a peaceful and comfortable environment when they come home.(Gifts For People With Anxiety)

4. Oil Diffuser Necklace

It is the right choice to give a gift to a housewife who is stressed due to domestic problems.(Gifts For People With Anxiety)

5. Diffuser Candle Lamp

It is one of the nice stress relief gifts you can give to your anxious friend.

Its aroma therapeutic abilities will create a quiet and peaceful environment in its room.(Gifts For People With Anxiety)

6. Hand-crafted Incense Holder

Enjoy the magical and relaxing view of this incense holder that can fill the room with a scent for your loved ones. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Romantic Gifts For Anxious People

7. Hidden Love Message Necklace

Looking for a unique way to express your love to someone with anxiety? This simple yet elegant necklace offers a truly unique and fun, discreet way to say “I love you” to someone. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

8. Real Touch Flower Bouquet

Flowers are great ways to express one’s feelings. This anxiety gift basket contains 12 real touch mini tulip bouquets. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Travel Gifts For Your Depressed Buddies

9. Travel Backpack

Most of the time, changing your environment will help you get rid of anxiety.

So how about giving a depressed person a gift that will encourage them to travel? (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

10. Outdoor Blanket

A distressed person should be encouraged to go out and mingle with others to forget their worries.

What could be the best gift other than what motivates him to go out? Order now for your depressed boyfriend. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Decorative Gifts For Someone With Social Anxiety

Decorative items are an excellent choice when it comes to gifts for people with stress. Below is a list of such gifts (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

11. Magic Cherry Blossom Tree

The depressed person’s mood will change as soon as she sees the first colorful crystals of this tree bloom. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

12. An LED Outdoor Lamp

This fantastic product gives the illusion of a real flame without any risk. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Clothing Gifts For People With Anxiety

A clothing gift has always had a unique value because it stays close to your body unlike other gifts that stay on the table and are less displayed. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

13. Motivational Printed T-Shirts

Nothing can comfort you more than dedicating yourself to your Lord or your so-called ultimate authority.

A T-shirt with linked words can be a very comforting gift for him. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Other Stress Relieving Gifts

14. Yoga or Acupressure Mat

A gift for anxious men can be something that involves him in some physical or emotional activity.

For this reason, a yoga or acupuncture mat can be a favored gift. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

15. Coloring or Tracing Book

A coloring book can be a nice gift for anxiety sufferers.

A coloring book should not be seen as an activity for children only. Instead, such books are a versatile tool for a depressed person. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

16. Bird Feeder

As mentioned earlier, the closer you are to nature, the less chance you have of getting depressed. What would be the best connection with nature other than a relationship with birds? (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

17. An Amazing Game

This retro-inspired home decor accessory is one of the perfect gifts for anxious men, thanks to its geometric and colorful design. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

18. Friendship Necklace for Your Dog and You

Recent research has shown that petting animals such as dogs increases one’s immunity. This necklace is a unique way to express one’s love for one’s pet. (Gifts For People With Anxiety)

Conclusion

Therefore, the above is a comprehensive answer to your query on how to help anxious people.

In addition to the above, if you have a very introverted friend, a gift for hikers can also help.

A gift for someone going through an anxiety disorder can work a lot more than we think.

Gifts manage to convey expressions that words alone cannot. It shows how much the depressed person means to you, and sometimes that’s exactly what they need.

By giving gifts, you leave a lasting impression on your loved ones who, once healed, will never forget you.

Don’t forget to comment with your favourite.

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