What is Anxiety? - Paper Example

Introduction

Anxiety is the natural body's response to stress. It is usually associated with a feeling of fear, uneasiness as well as nervousness. Well, anxiety is a common mental health disorder among Hispanics. Depending on its intensity, anxiety last from a few days up to even six months. However, most Hispanics find it hard to describe their state of anxiety. Instead, they might express it at the expense of general symptoms such as a headache, chest pains and beyond (La Greca et al., 2015). As a result, doctors will find it hard to interpret unless they have some prior background information of the patient. Approximately half of the Hispanic reported a high level of anxiety symptoms (La Greca et al., 2015).

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Population(S) Most Impacted By Anxiety in Hispanic

Research shows that migrants' youths among the Hispanic populations record a higher percentage of those who suffer from anxiety. Most noteworthy, youths within the age bracket of 22-35 are diagnosed with anxiety symptoms such as lack of access to health insurance, acculturation stress as well as poor medical services (La Greca et al., 2015). As well, lack of permanent citizenship poses a great challenge to youth among the Hispanic group. As well, they face discrimination in workplaces and allocation of development funds. Moreover, they have less access to quality education due to inadequate school funding. At times, they get a chance to go to school, but discrepancies at some point of life prevent them from furthering their studies.

Behavior(S) Associated With Anxiety

Major behaviors associated with anxiety include avoidance, obsessive thoughts, concentration difficulty, self-destructive nervous habits, restlessness, self-medicating, bruxism and beyond. Avoidance is stated in which a person avoid social events, walking in lone places for many days or even avoid unpleasant tasks more often. Obsessive thoughts are associated with necessary actions, rituals as well as routine thoughts. If obsessive thoughts are not treated, it might lead to inner turmoil (Nunez et al., 2016). As well, anxiety is associated with concentration difficulty where an individual cannot comprehend anything important. On the other hand, those suffering from anxiety tend to involve themselves in self-destructive actions such as skin picking and hair pulling. Bruxism is state of frequent clenching the teeth. Last but not least, self-mediation involves turning to substances that relax the mind such as alcohol. Lastly, restlessness is the inability to sit still or even hand-wringing (Nunez et al., 2016).

Specific Research Question-Focus of Your Inquiry

Why is hard to diagnose anxiety in Hispanics?

First and most important, Hispanics find it hard to express themselves because they cannot speak English properly. Often, they speak Spanish and unless a doctor understands, it is will hard to tell the exact symptoms (Wassertheil-Smoller et al., 2014).

Relevant Theories or Constructs of Anxiety In Hispanic

Although there exist other theories, social learning theory is the most common constructs that explain the prevalence of anxiety among Hispanic. Social learning theory is highly dependent on parenting style (Holly et al., 2015). There exist a close relationship between parenting style and anxiety among Hispanic youths. Parents play a significant role in modeling their children for the most appropriate life pathways. Moreover, parents play a significant role in modeling the life of their children from young to youth ages and beyond. Subsequently, parents ought to oversee on how they interact with their children (Holly et al., 2015). For instance, some children develop anxiety after observing that their parents are going through some form of fear, worry, restlessness and also frequent clinching.

On the same note, maladaptive behavioral responses, cognitive biases as well as catastrophic interpretations experienced by a parent is likely to be transformed to the children (Holly et al., 2015). Previous research also reveals that parent for anxious youth often maintains low expectations of their children functionality in general life. Besides, such children will ultimately show a similar characteristic to that of their anxious parents. As a result, parents are advised to avoid discussing worry situations with their children. Most noteworthy, they should learn ways of controlling themselves in the form of their children (La Greca et al., 2015). Generally speaking, parents with anxiety disorder tend to raise children with anxiety disorders as well. However, some stressing situations are too obvious for parents to hide it from their children. Such a situation includes poverty.

Moreover, anxious parents tend to be withdrawn from their children. As a result, they will develop more personal anxiety whereas the children will be tied-up with non-threatening play. Also, anxious parents show catastrophic interpretation, open criticism for their children and less emotional warm towards them. These behaviors associated anxiety results in low self-esteem both among parents and children. Furthermore, the intergenerational continuity of anxiety is possible if the disorder is not corrected before it is passed on to other generations (Holly et al., 2015). It is of great importance to note that anxiety in both the father and mother influence the child. However, anxiety is common among women than men.

As well, a behavioral process model of familism influences anxiety among Hispanic youths. It is an important cultural construct among Hispanic communities. Youths when almost that age of marrying experience anxiety especially if they have no money, job or even educational qualification to look for good a job. Theoretical process model concerning families should be put in place to guide youths in the family process as well as youth development (Levine et al., 2014). Remarkably, a behavioral process model of familism has been proposed. Such a model ascertains the proximal mechanism of familism expectations, therefore, promoting youth psychological adjustment.

Intervention to Address the Behavior

Probably, interventions will clearly explain the aspect of anxiety in Hispanics. This is because intervention involves the use of a wide range of strategies giving more understanding to the topic. The best example is Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions. Most of the findings concerning anxiety among Hispanics is directly linked to the cognitive-behavioral interventions (Levine et al., 2014). Cultural changes evident among Hispanic have significantly increased the rate of people suffering from anxiety. As well, most of the Hispanic populations drop out the clinical benefits prescribed to fight against anxiety (Levine et al., 2014).

Most noteworthy, cultural adaptations will greatly improve the anxiety level among the Hispanic population. Besides, cognitive behavioral therapy has been proposed, and it is regarded as the most effective therapeutic approaches to curb anxiety and its associated disorders (La Greca et al., 2015). This theory helps the anxious Hispanic identify unhealthy as well as irrigational thoughts. Moreover, it guides them on how to replace bad thoughts with healthy and productive ones. Besides, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors including Zoloft and Paxil are also recommended treatment (Wassertheil-Smoller et al., 2014).

References

Holly, L. E., Little, M., Pina, A. A., &Caterino, L. C. (2015). Assessment of anxiety symptoms in school children: A cross-sex and ethnic examination. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 43(2), 297-309.

La Greca, A. M., Ingles, C. J., Lai, B. S., & Marzo, J. C. (2015). Social anxiety scale for adolescents: factorial invariance across gender and age in Hispanic American adolescents. Assessment, 22(2), 224-232.

Levine, D. S., Himle, J. A., Abelson, J. M., Matusko, N., Dhawan, N., & Taylor, R. J. (2014). Discrimination and social anxiety disorder among African-Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 202(3), 224-230.

Nunez, A., Gonzalez, P., Talavera, G. A., Sanchez-Johnsen, L., Roesch, S. C., Davis, S. M., ...&Penedo, F. J. (2016). Machismo, marianismo, and negative cognitive-emotional factors: Findings from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos Sociocultural Ancillary Study. Journal of Latina/o psychology, 4(4), 202.

Wassertheil-Smoller, S., Arredondo, E. M., Cai, J., Castaneda, S. F., Choca, J. P., Gallo, L. C., ... &Penedo, F. J. (2014). Depression, anxiety, antidepressant use, and cardiovascular disease among Hispanic men and women of different national backgrounds: results from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Annals of epidemiology, 24(11), 822-830.