Secondary Anxiety: Characteristics And Associated Dangers

Secondary anxiety appears as a consequence of the suffering of living with anxiety. Few realities are as exhausting as being at that point where the person has the feeling of not having control over himself. It is living in fear that at any moment, a panic attack will appear again and that the anxious symptoms will intensify even more.

Now, it is important to highlight in turn what they point out to us from medical institutions. It is also common to call this universe of contradictory and distressing emotions arising as a result of an illness ‘secondary anxiety’. Thus, neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s, living with fibromyalgia or dealing with cancer, often lead to more than one psychological disorder.

Be that as it may, one thing is clear: we are all candidates for primary anxiety at some point. It is something normal, a fact that can arise as a result of our work pressure, our relationships or our inability to cope with stress. If we manage to manage these dimensions skillfully and effectively, it will not lead to secondary anxiety.

Now, if we feel overwhelmed, if that moment comes when we cannot deal with so many opposing sensations, thoughts and emotions, anxiety is disproportionately self-feeding. The effects can also be quite significant. Let’s learn more about the subject.

Secondary anxiety: what symptoms do you have?

Some people point to anxiety as built on the basis of many layers of stress superimposed on each other. This is especially common, for example, in generalized anxiety disorder, where since adolescence, the person has a tendency to worry excessively about things, to feel overwhelmed by obligations, to experience excessive fear, to have problems to manage emotions …

Little by little, that primary anxiety is embedded in every mental recess until one day, the first panic attack appears. This experience is usually always very scary. There are those who have the clear feeling that they are going to die, that they are suffering a myocardial infarction. However, when the doctor clarifies that what happened has its origin in the psychological and not in the physical, the person passes to a new stage. The one where secondary anxiety appears (or fear of anxiety itself and its consequences).

These are the most common symptoms.

• On average, people with secondary anxiety are very demanding of themselves. Hence, the fact of suffering anxiety and panic attacks places them in a state of certain anger and rejection of themselves for not being able to ‘control’ that reality. The anxiety itself ends up generating greater anxiety.

• They are characterized in turn by great hypervigilance. That is, they are always alert to possible threats in their environment, they react in an oversized way to sounds, smells, sensations …
• They feel defeated and overwhelmed most of the time.

What dangers arise from secondary anxiety?

Albert Ellis, creator and promoter of the Rational Emotive Theory, already pointed out in his day that it is important to differentiate between primary anxiety and secondary anxiety. In fact, the most severe cases, such as panic disorders and generalized anxiety, originate from a patient who has ended up getting used to his primary anxiety until leading to a deeper, more complex and dangerous reality in many cases.

Thus, it is important to know that a panic attack will never appear if we are able to manage that internal state before secondary anxiety finally appears. Now , what happens when it has already made its appearance and we have internalized it?

• Secondary anxiety ends up taking away all sense of control over ourselves. Undermine self-esteem and self-confidence completely.
• At the same time, in this state it is very difficult for us to use a rational and reflective approach to understand the reason why we have reached this point. We overestimate anxiety in such a way that we come to tell ourselves that there is no longer a solution. Therefore, very rigid psychological approaches are created.
• Another important fact is that secondary anxiety is the basis for other disorders to appear. Thus, it is common for it to lead to agoraphobia, major depression or even for some patients to resort to substance abuse.

How is secondary anxiety treated?

On average, the therapeutic approach to secondary anxiety demands

Therefore, it is common for the following strategies to be used:

• Inform the patient about what anxiety is, what panic attacks are and in turn bring him closer to the reality of his diagnosis (well if he suffers from generalized anxiety, phobias, etc.).
• Identify the wrong behaviors and approaches that the patient uses and that intensify his cycle of anxiety.

• Train in cognitive strategies and techniques to avoid worry, catastrophic and automatic thoughts.
• Train in relaxation and breathing techniques.
• Controlled exposure to feared situations or stimuli.
• Offer time management strategies, social skills, planning pleasant activities, working on vital goals, etc.

To conclude, ideally we should be able to request help before the primary anxiety becomes secondary. In this way, we would avoid reaching situations of high psychological exhaustion where in many cases there are other latent realities, such as depression. However, with the help of a good professional we can always deal much better with these dimensions to gain well-being and regain control of our lives.