How Anxiety Can Be a Secondary Emotion

Anxietyis a commonsecondary emotion. A secondary emotion is one that is experienced in place of another emotion that is difficult for the person to feel or express. For men, anger is often a cover for jealousy, hurt, disappointment, embarrassment, and sadness. For women, anxiety often tends to function in the same way.

概述

Theoretically, this way of defending ourselves with secondary emotions protects us from having to deal with the more complicated and difficult feelings. However, we can easily make a mistake thinking that a situation or occurrence has made us anxious or angry when in fact the true emotion is something different.

For people withgeneralized anxiety disorder(GAD), this can become very complicated. Most of life is experienced as anxiety, and it is a relatively expected and familiar feeling.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

患有无法控制的慢性焦虑和焦虑的人通常会被诊断为GAD。患有GAD的人倾向于以一种令人焦虑的方式来体验这个世界，他们的大部分生活经历都是通过这个镜头看到的。

Mental Health Symptoms

GAD symptoms can vary. They may include:

• 在一种情况下，把每一种选择都带到可能的消极结论
• Difficulty concentrating, or the feeling that your mind "goes blank"
• Difficulty handling uncertainty or indecisiveness
• Distress about making decisions for fear of making the wrong decision
• 无法放松，烦躁不安，感觉紧张或紧张
• Persistent worrying or obsession about small or large concerns that are out of proportion to the impact of the event
• 担心excessively worrying

Physical Health Symptoms

GAD的体征和症状包括：

• Being easily startled
• Fatigue
• 头痛
• 易怒
• Muscle tension or muscle aches
• 出汗
• Trembling, feeling twitchy
• 睡眠困难

Understanding Complex Emotions

In trying to understand what feelings (primary emotions) could be underneath your anxiety, the first thing to do is actually ask yourself that question. Allow yourself to be open to the possibility that you are hurt, disappointed, or grieving, rather than anxious.

If you are left with some sort of fear, then your anxiety is likely in the right place. Give this a try and see if it can reduce your worry, and help you make life changes that will actually alleviate the true negative feelings you have, rather than miss your experience and cause continued worry for “no reason,” as many people with GAD tend to do.