Anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders have become one of the greatest challenges to mental health today. There have been numerous neurological and psychological studies that have been done to try and understand distinctions and causes of fear and anxiety in people. Understanding these elements has helped psychology to take huge leaps in the mitigation and treatment of these disorders. The following paper will analyze two journals about phobias and panic disorders, providing insight into the difference between the two.
A research article on phobias tries to explain the influences of autobiographical memory on psychological health. The article addresses a neurological research experiment conducted on twenty-nine individuals. In the study, the individuals participated in a magnetic resonance imaging test where psychophysiological interactions were measured and analyzed. The main aim of the study was to clarify the neural influences of autobiographical memory from the aspect of the child-parent relationship. The tests indicated a relationship between levels of depression and self-esteem with the autobiographical memory related to the parent-child relationship. The study confirmed the impact of autobiographical memory on psychological health (Kim, Kim, & Kim, 2020).
An article on panic disorders (PD) explains how early treatment using cognitive behavioral therapy can facilitate the retention of positive outcomes of the treatment. Exposure based cognitive behavioral therapy (EBCBT) is the main treatment used for PD patients. The study uses grounded theory to analyze the early treatment of twelve patients suffering from panic disorders. The early treatment process revealed four thematic categories that could help the patients make sense of their panics. The scheme was based on engaging in therapy vs. waiting for relief and capturing early engagement or disengagement. Emergent core categories were validated against the distal treatment outcome. The article recommends this form of EBCBT for clinical practice (Tzavela, Mitskidou, Mertika, Stalikas, & Kasvikis, 2018).
There are neural influences from autobiographical memory that affect a person’s psychological health. The study proves that memory affects the psychophysiological makeup by inducing images that match emotional responses a parent might have given the child in different situations. The results show that there is more functional connectivity between areas in the brain for father-positive conditions than for mother-positive conditions. Furthermore, the study affirms that there is a relation between the closeness to autobiographical memory and the parent behavior and situation valence. Moreover, the article suggests that negative affect is highly dependent on the later.
Early treatment of PD using EBCBT is highly effective when the problem is approached using the aforementioned grounded theory approach. According to the article, approaching the problem is the first step of a four-phase model that was designed from a semi-structured interview of PD patients. In this phase, the psychiatrist leads the patient to understand their response to the variants involved. The next phase is easing in into the problem. Here the psychiatrist tries to foster a condition where the patient can easily associate with the issue. This is followed by opening up. In this step, patients are allowed to share their experiences and opinions about the issue. The final step is a bonding process where the patients build trust with the psychiatrist. According to the article, approaching EBCBT using this process can ensure early patients make sense of their panic.
The prevalence of mental health issues and disorders in today’s society calls for a myriad of approaches to try and solve this epidemic. As broken down by the article, phobias and fears are reactions that arise from our memory part of the brain. Therefore, the value of healthy parent-child relationships cannot be overstated. Self-esteem issues and depression are likely to arise from an unhealthy parent-child relationship. On the other hand, PD can be treated successfully when they are addressed at an early stage. In this case, there should be more awareness programs to try and enlighten people about panic disorders. The successful mitigation and treatment of mental health issues require the involvement of the entire community.