Anxiety Is Mental Or Emotional Feelings? This Is The Answer According To Experts

JAKARTA - Anxiety is basically categorized as emotional. However, anxiety can be seen as an emotional and mental experience, as it involves complex interactions between thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Symptoms of mental and emotional anxiety often interact repeatedly, which exacerbate each other. For example, someone who experiences mental symptoms such as rumination or raging thoughts will begin to feel overwhelmed emotionally. This causes increased feelings of fear or worry.

This emotional response then intensified mental symptoms, which led to increased rumination and worry. This cycle can continue, with each series of symptoms strengthening others, creating an increasing cycle of anxiety.

A 2022 study, adapted from Psych Central, Thursday, September 5, researched how individuals experience and understand rumination and worry, which are the main characteristics of depression and anxiety disorders. Through online surveys, participants were asked about definitions, triggers, frequency, duration, and handling strategies related to bulging and worry.

The study found that individuals often worry about:

Social situation and negative events are the most common triggers. Although distraction is a public handling strategy, many participants struggle to stop the thoughts from raging and worry.

This shows how emotional and mental aspects of anxiety work on a cycle. Where each one affects each other and slows down anxiety.

Mental anxiety and emotional anxiety are closely related but can be distinguished based on focus and nature. Emotional anxiety is characterized by feelings of discomfort, worry, or fear. This anxiety is often more immediate and related to certain situations or triggers, such as fear of speaking in public or anxiety when appearing.

On the other hand, mental anxiety involves more cognitive aspects, such as uncontrollable thoughts, overthinking, and excessive worries about the future. This anxiety can be more common and less related to certain triggers.

Fear is often described as a response to direct threats, while anxiety is more about the anticipation of future threats or the dangers it feels. Fear is a natural impulsive response that can be beneficial in certain situations, while anxiety is more persistent and can interfere with everyday life.

However, research in 2021 shows that distinguishing fear and anxiety in the brain is more complicated than previously thought. Research on animals shows different areas of the brain for fear and anxiety. While research on humans illustrates a more complex picture.

This requires further research to really understand how fear and anxiety work in the human brain.

In conclusion, anxiety is manifested in various ways, affecting physical thoughts, emotions, and sensations. Unlike fear, which is a response to direct danger, anxiety is a more common feeling of discomfort about uncertainty in the future.

Although anxiety is usually seen as emotional, anxiety also includes mental experience. This is because anxiety involves complex interactions between mind, feeling, and behavior. Understanding the complexity of anxiety can result in an effective strategy of managing and overcoming it in everyday life.