Depression vector created by pch.vector - www.freepik.com and Inkscape.org
Anxiety is crazy because you’ll be minding your business and your brain will be like “ you not worried ?!”
— French vanilla villain (@bigfacebritt) September 1, 2022
In my last post I wrote about Anxiety and Hugs, and what we were able to find out was remarkable, after reading so many articles online from SCL health about the power of hugs. Their main talking point was that hugs affect even the immune system.
The Carnegie Mellon University also made publications about how oxytocin, the love hormone is secreted after hugs. Medicine Net explains how this hormone has a reducing effect on anxiety.
Healthline however referenced a study that ties up the whole process and explained it properly. To read more about that post you can check here.
In this post, what I can see her describe here are flashbacks. Being reminded of one's anxiety. I am open to other ideas, if you do not think that these are flashbacks you can leave your thoughts in the comment section about what you think they are.
Given that flashbacks are part of the common symptoms of anxiety, I feel we will find a lot of information about it online. I want to be able to define flashbacks, what causes them, and how they can be handled (in the tips section of this post).
Welcome to our blog to everyone here for the first time, I am Dr Ebingo Kigigha, and I am a medical Doctor and creative. I write for Medic Vibes where we drop off daily information on Stemsocial about mental health topics. Last month it was about depression but this week is all about anxiety. I hope to be very knowledgeable about the topic by gathering information. To learn more, just keep scrolling.
Anxiety disorders are a group of disorders that show similar clinical features of worry or fear. It is very common in young people but can affect any age group. In a study reviewed by Medic Vibes, we saw that it was common in 50% of people in a youth camp, Anxiety also affects 3 of people in general and was shown to affect close to 1% of Nigerian’s population if of about 200 million.
Worrying about normal life events is abnormal, which is what happens in an anxiety disorder issue. If you were anxious about an exam or performance it would be seen as normal. The criteria for it to be a disorder is that it has to be present for more than 6 months.
People who have anxiety have these symptoms:
Physical features include jitteriness, tenseness, tachycardia, fast pace breathing, sweating and fatigue.
They could be jittery, feel tense, have abdominal pain, fast breathing, sweating and tiredness, these are physical symptoms.
They could have symptoms of insomnia, difficulty paying attention, having nightmares
They could also have abnormal reactions like being bothered.
According to the diagnostic and statistical manual for mental health diseases, Anxiety has to be about a variety of things and is present most days in 6 months, The worry is uneasy to control, and can move from one thing to the other. The worries are in addition to jitteriness, fatigue, difficulty paying attention, muscle pain, and insomnia, one of which is important for a diagnosis of anxiety in children.
Anxiety causes depression in many people. It is important to be vigilant about these changes to take prompt action. Read my posts from last month to know more about depression and the warning signs.
People illustrations by Storyset
According to mind.org, flashbacks are valid responses to previous traumatic experiences that often lead to reliving those experiences.
I feel like this definition does not give us a close enough relationship between the tweet and flashbacks. But I don’t have a close enough symptom related to anxiety…but let me know what you think in the comment section.
According to the Mayo Clinic, flashbacks are related to anxiety, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder that is characterised by reactions to horrific events. This event might be experienced by the person or be seen by the person experiencing the disorder.
Just as described above, having this reaction to the event is normal but if this persists for up to 6 months then you may have PTSD.
The symptoms of PTSD include memories such as the remembrance of the events that took place, reliving these experiences, distressful nightmares, and feeling distressed emotionally or physically at the thoughts of these events.
Symptoms of Avoidance such as avoiding the thought or the places where these things took place.
Negative thinking similar to those in depression affects the mood. Some physical symptoms include being easily frightened and having difficulty sleeping.
Children less than 6 years may reenact the traumatic events, they may also have vivid nightmares about the events.
The best help can be provided by a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist. The patient will be placed on anxiolytics and psychotherapy depending on the severity of the symptoms. This particular condition has a very common tendency to progress to depression and suicidal ideations, if you notice that you or someone who has this starts thinking or speaking about this, you can reach out here:
I have written before about how food is a good tool to help deal with anxiety.
Check out her post here:
Check your country's suicide hotlines here.
When people have PTSD, they have memory symptoms that are very similar to how the tweet described flashbacks. After reading the tweet enough times it does have a vague look to it.
