Anxiety and anguish, how can we differentiate them?

Anxiety and anguish, how are they different?… Both psychological states seem to occur in the same sphere, in a dimension in which it is difficult to separate one from the other, to set boundaries between one type of discomfort and the other. Sigmund Freud, for example, focused on describing the second, on delving into that distressing state that grips the person intensely at some point in his life.

For decades, anguish has been seen as that pain that disturbs and adheres to the body and mind. The world of philosophy, for its part, frequently addressed this concept. Thus, Søren Kierkegaard spoke of this feeling as the fear that traps us with its coldness when, suddenly, we become aware of the transience of life. Also, when we are aware that each decision can determine our future…

With respect to Anxiety, psychotherapist Albert Ellis defined it as the tendency to worry excessively about everything and everything. almost every moment. One can live with the dark company of this psychological state for months and even years. Anxiety, for its part, is that suffering that distresses and imprisons us at a given moment, with its unpleasantness, with its willingness to place us before the abyss, as Martin Heidegger pointed out.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

Anxiety and anguish: the difference is in the nuances

Anxiety and distress have been considered similar entities for quite some time. The “culprit” of this or rather the promoter of these decisive concepts in the field of psychology was Sigmund Freud himself. At the beginning of the 20th century, he described these states of fear, despair, psychological discomfort and physiological activation with the German term TO ngst.

Now, he wanted to differentiate two typologies: “realistic anxiety” and “neurotic anxiety”, the latter being a more pathological condition, unlike the first, which would define the classic existential and specific discomfort that we feel when faced with contradictions or challenges. of the life. Later, the german expression angst It was translated into English as anxiety.

Thus, and almost without realizing it, both spheres navigated together in non-clinical areas for a few decades until, little by little, and with the development of psychology and its different schools and approaches, both concepts have been differentiated. So in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) We have a section that describes the set of anxiety disorders as such.

Anxiety, for its part, is more linked to those states of intense and mobilizing fear, that we can experience, for example, during panic attacks. It should also be noted that psychoanalytic and humanistic currents continue to use this term to talk about anxiety, that is, there are non-clinical areas and approaches that still do not differentiate one state from another.

Anxiety, an adaptive response

We can’t live without it. Anxiety is part of who we are and thanks to its mechanism we face difficulties and we act in the face of dangers. The approach to this dimension so characteristic of the human being was late, but today we already know its psychological significance and the impact it can have when it is not managed, when it overwhelms us.

Anxiety defines a combination of different physical and mental manifestations that are not always attributable to real dangers.It is a complex and multidimensional entity that includes cognitive, emotional and physiological aspects. Its main characteristic is that it arises as a result of activation of the autonomic nervous system. Likewise, Anxiety almost always has an anticipatory nature. That is, it allows us to foresee certain dangers in order to act against them. However, sometimes we fall into a state of excessive worry in which, suddenly, our entire reality is filled with unreal threats.Anxiety can be experienced in a generalized way. That is, sometimes the person can spend weeks, months or years feeling hyperarousal, fear, diffuse and persistent discomfort. Other times, this state focuses on very specific dimensions, defining what we know as phobias.

The anguish, the emotion that overwhelms

The main difference between anxiety and anguish is that the first is a psychophysiological state, the second, an emotion, a feeling that overwhelms and immobilizes. If sometimes we dilute both concepts and barely see the limit of one with the other, it is because Anguish is part of anxiety, it manifests itself with it.

Let’s see, however, its main characteristics:

Anxiety and anguish differ in that the latter is experienced punctually and not maintained over time. For example, states of anguish are common in panic attacks; it is a moment in which despair grips and immobilizes us. Its main characteristic is prevent us from acting and reacting to what grips us. Anxiety, for its part, well managed and used to our advantage, has one purpose: to help us react to any challenge, danger or worry. Anxiety is an entity made up of biological, psychological, social and also existential factors. As Freud pointed out In his day, there are two types of anguish. We have, on the one hand, that state in which we can regret at a given moment the future of our existence. On the other hand, we can also encounter that pathological anxiety that manifests itself in a panic disorder, depression or even psychosis.

That is to say, anxiety and anguish have as their main defining nuance that the second is that state that can appear in many psychological disorders to show the most extreme awe. Thus, while anxiety constitutes that adaptive mechanism without which we could not live, Anguish, as Soren Kierkegaard pointed out, is the vertigo that suffering brings.

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