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by Terry Dixon (Author)
Today, cognitive (thinking) and behavioural problems involving high anxiety and fear are classed as anxiety disorders. This is based on the medical model, which views these problems as mental illnesses, 'disorders' where something goes wrong in the brain and the answer lies in 'fixing' the thing that has gone wrong - often with medication.
However...
Take the middle-aged woman (emotionally fragile from early life stress and conflict) who suffers emotional abuse at the hands of her partner - abuse that not only scares her but also makes her feel that she cannot do anything right and that everything she tries will fail miserably or is totally worthless. Is her generalized anxiety disorder (or severe depression for that matter) simply the result of something going wrong in her brain that can be fixed by medication?
What about the man in his early twenties, riddled with anxiety, whose father constantly put him down and criticized him with such venom as a child that he's now petrified others will do the same. Is his social phobic behaviour truly dis-ordered and irrational?
Or the teenage girl brought up by overly strict religious parents that have so drummed the fear of God into her that all she can do to obtain relief (from punishment by the Lord) is turn to rituals. Are her obsessive, fearful thoughts and compulsive behaviours really all down to mental illness?
Generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, social phobia, PTSD, panic disorder, severe depression... are any of these problems truly irrational, dis-ordered and mental illness?
Or is there a better explanation... one that offers a real cure?
