Relationship Between Trauma and Anxiety
Order Instructions
PLEASE READ AND USE THIS
Relationship Between Trauma and Anxiety
The Topic of Consideration
What is the relationship between Trauma and the occurrence of Generalized Anxiety disorder?
Published Information on the Topic
The topic of associating the occurrence of Trauma and predisposition to a generalized anxiety disorder or anxiety, in general, has significantly been researched. In the research done by Williams, Kanter, & Ching (2018), there is a significant demonstrable relationship between the encounter with Trauma and the occurrence of psychological conditions like anxiety. In the research, there is an understanding that when one is exposed to microaggressions like discrimination, there would be an increased risk of negative mental outcomes. The African Americans are the main victims prone to suffering the microaggressions, which would present in verbal or non-verbal presentations.
According to the study, there are different types of microaggressions meted out to African Americans. Compared to men, African American women experienced symptoms of anxiety, which were related to previous traumatic encounters compared to men. In most cases, the people of color are considered foreigners and therefore subject to dehumanizing experiences, some of the criminals, which leave them traumatized. When the experiences build up over time, they will lead to heightened stress, manifesting as anxiety symptoms. While this study took the racial angle in understanding the relationship between Trauma and anxiety, it would be interesting to learn about the same scenario in other races.
The second study by Van Assche et al. (2020) considers anxiety symptoms later in adulthood in the children who underwent childhood trauma. There are indications that childhood exposure to adversities would increase the likelihood of suffering psychological conditions, including anxiety and depression, associated with poor health outcomes. The study reveals that in America, childhood traumas in the adults above 55 years constituted 13.5% from verbal abuse, about 9.6% from physical abuse, and approximately 9.3% from sexual abuse. However, there is an explanation that little understanding exists to demonstrate how childhood traumas would be associated with the occurrence of anxiety and depression in the later stages of life.
The study participants demonstrated that there was a dose-response effect when a person was exposed to childhood trauma and the levels of anxiety and depression which were encountered. Particularly, revelations indicated that attachment anxiety had a positive correlation with emotional neglect in the early years of an individual. However, there was an indirect relationship between emotional neglect and the described levels of anxiety and depression. The individuals who had significantly higher levels of attachment anxiety tended to report more trauma episodes than others.
However, the study builds an understanding trauma would have negative outcomes on an individual beyond the occurrence of anxiety, more so for those with attachment insecurity. Therefore, it would take the efforts of consistent screening of those at risk early in an individual’s life to create awareness. Importantly, attachment-based interventions would be crucial to managing the elderly patients who portray anxiety or depressive symptoms, which have their origin in childhood encounters.
The third study considered the comorbid mental health conditions in trauma-exposed individuals, especially post-traumatic stress disorder. It is considered that exposure to traumatic situations would lead to numerous psychiatric conditions/ disorders, including depression and generalized anxiety disorders. The occurrence of distress, depression, and anxiety would also present a risk of other comorbid conditions (Price et al., 2019). The occurrence of depression and anxiety would be associated with different pathways through which the symptoms would interact. There was also an understanding that the occurrence of the symptoms of PTSD is heterogeneous in the sense that the negatives affect the externalizing clinical presentations.
The symptoms associated with depression and generalized anxiety disorder constituted part of the community, which further supported the association between the conditions and distress. Therefore, this study precludes the importance of using networks to comprehend comorbidities, especially depression and anxiety. In the future, there would be a need to have models which would break down the data derived from treatment outcomes to understand the hypothesis which targets the symptoms.
In the fourth study, there is consideration of a recent problem resulting in trauma worldwide. The study indicates that children and adolescents were the most vulnerable populations following the outbreak of Covid 19. There are various traumatic experiences that those at risk are likely to suffer, including sexual violence, the threat of death, and serious injuries. Covid 19 is associated with the significant stigma that would lead to distress, which would then present as anxiety (Li, Duan, & Chen, 2020). Those infected would also suffer significant discrimination, and those who suffer complications that would threaten with death.
Importance of Defining Variables
Variables are crucial since they are the basis of the information being studied while being interpreted during the research studies. Knowledge of the different types of variables would help the scientist recognize the things being examined, the theory controls, the causative factors, and the impact on a particular response. The researchers would also analyze and then interpret the aspects of different variables, therefore, making sense of how they would relate to each other regarding what occurred during the experiment.
Variables Used in the Study: Dependent and Independent Variables
Independent Variables
• Persons/ children predisposed to childhood trauma encounters: these would be the study participants who would offer significant data on the occurrence of psychiatric conditions like anxiety. When children are predisposed to traumatic encounters, they are likely to have the experiences enshrined into their lives that would define their growth milestones in the long run.
• The occurrence of Trauma: when Trauma occurs, an individual is affected, which translates into the manifestation of the predicted negative symptoms.
• Traumatic encounters: Some traumatic encounters include physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual traumas. The types of Trauma would have different pathways that would predispose an individual to psychiatric ailments, including anxiety.
Dependent Variables
• The occurrence of psychiatric presentations, including anxiety: various psychiatric presentations would result, but anxiety would be the condition of consideration for this discussion.
Conclusion
The occurrence of Trauma would manifest differently in terms of the clinical features in different people. Overall, the encounters are more likely to result in negative symptoms, including depression and anxiety. To address these conditions, it is important to conduct research around them to ensure the design of the interventions that would lead to resolution. During the research, the variables, including dependent and independent ones, would need to be considered.
References
Li, Y., Duan, W., & Chen, Z. (2020). Latent profiles of the comorbidity of the symptoms for posttraumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder among children and adolescents who are susceptible to COVID-19. Children and youth services review, 116, 105235.
Price, M., Legrand, A. C., Brier, Z. M., & Hébert-Dufresne, L. (2019). The symptoms at the center: examining the comorbidity of posttraumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and depression with network analysis. Journal of psychiatric research, 109, 52-58.
Van Assche, L., Van de Ven, L., Vandenbulcke, M., & Luyten, P. (2020). Ghosts from the past? The association between childhood interpersonal trauma, attachment and anxiety and depression in late life. Aging & mental health, 24(6), 898-905.
Williams, M. T., Kanter, J. W., & Ching, T. H. (2018). Anxiety, stress, and trauma symptoms in African Americans: Negative affectivity does not explain the relationship between microaggressions and psychopathology. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 5(5), 919-927.
ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS ALSO
So are you looking at childhood trauma specifically and how it related to later development of anxiety?
So how are you operationalizing trauma? There are several different assessments that can be utilized for this purpose. You may want to consider some of these to utilize for study: https://istss.org/clinical-resources/child-trauma-assessments
As for anxiety . . .you could also used a validated scale for this. There are PLENTY. A commonly used scales to assess anxiety is BECKS ANXIETY INVETORY
Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers
Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.
Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS
Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?
Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.
We write plagiarism Free Content
Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.
Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.
