What Is Anguish And Why Does It Invade Us?

Could you say what anguish is? It is a paralyzing emotional state in which anxiety, formless fear, the sense of danger, existential emptiness and the weight of something impossible to define that does not allow us to breathe are mixed together. This psychological state is very common today and, even though it is often associated with panic disorders, it also has other triggers worth knowing.

It is possible that some of us have said at one time: “I am distressed”. This word is very familiar and it is not difficult for others to put themselves in our shoes when we say it out loud. However, from a clinical point of view, this psychological experience is quite complex and even diffuse.

What exactly is the source of the anguish? Are we just talking about anxiety or is there something else? In the field of psychology there is always confusion and lack of consensus when defining it. However, philosophers, on the other hand, have always been very clear about what is behind this term. The word anguish has its roots in the German “ angst ”, and defines something narrow, something that causes discomfort and tightness.

For Søren Kierkegaard, for example,  this emotion is the assumption that people are finite, and therefore we would be facing something that makes us dizzy and fearful when thinking about the (limited) future possibilities that lie ahead. In turn, Jean-Paul Sartre explained that the feeling of anguish is born when we are aware that everything that happens to us is due to our own decisions. We are really responsible for our happiness or unhappiness.

What is anguish and how is it characterized?

Anguish and anxiety share the same “guest”: fear. But  in the case of anguish, there is a series of basic brushstrokes that shape that canvas of suffering so common in human beings at certain moments in their lives.

• Anguish is the fear of something indefinable.
• The anguished mind anticipates irrational things, thinks only of future dangers .
• The present is an emptiness where a person feels sunken and paralyzed. Her gaze is only oriented towards tomorrow that bothers and frightens her.
• Likewise, this psychological experience is accompanied by physical symptoms. There is a feeling of suffocation, pain in the chest, palpitations…

As we can see, at first glance it is very difficult to differentiate anxiety from mere anxiety. In fact, most of the time, panic disorders themselves have as their main symptom the feeling of anguish. For this reason, it is common for the two to go hand in hand and for the anguished mind itself to act as a trigger for a panic attack. These are very complex clinical realities, usually delimited when each patient is evaluated individually.

Why do we feel anguish?

Philosophers explained that anxiety occurs in human beings when we become aware of our existence as such. That we are not eternal, that our decisions mark us, that time passes… This uncertainty is very present today, and it is for a very simple reason. If there is one thing that characterizes modern society, it is not knowing what will happen tomorrow. The work, the economy, relationships… Everything can change from one day to the next, and all of that creates anguish.

So, something that we must clarify first is that feeling anguish is something completely normal. There is nothing pathological about it. Not if this anxiety is adaptive. That is, if what we achieve with it is to reflect on our situation and then make some decision for the future. This is what Sigmund Freud defined as “realistic anguish” .

Now, on the opposite side we would have maladaptive anxiety. This is what we described above and it would have the following origins:

• Personal crises not properly managed. These are conditions that become chronic over time and can be combined with other disorders, such as depression.

• Feeling blocked when we feel unable to deal with certain situations. Factors such as unemployment, a separation, a change that is about to happen can determine its appearance.
• Problems in our social relationships, disagreements, disappointments…
• Likewise, it is also important to talk about the genetic factor. Anxiety often settles in us for no apparent reason. It is known, for example, that there are people with a greater predisposition to experience increases in adrenaline or to undergo reductions in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). All these neurochemical changes would lead to the emergence of anxiety.

To conclude, it is worth mentioning that  anxiety attacks are usually adequately managed through therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, acceptance therapy and commitment therapy, as well as approaches such as mindfulness, are the strategies that provide the best results. In more severe cases, it is also possible to opt for pharmacological approaches.