Anxiety disorders are commonly attributed to pressure and stress. According to the National Institute of Mental Health or NIMH, a health service component of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, anxiety materializes whenever individuals feel stressed or threatened by various experiences or situations. Whenever one feels stressed or pressured at work, in school, and in other areas of living, individuals feel anxious. However, NIMH also acknowledged that anxiety is a sort of a coping mechanism which helps individuals handle stress and pressure, as long as it is controlled or regulated.
On the other hand, when anxiety becomes unwarranted and groundless, it becomes a disorder. (NIMH, 2008a) Anxiety disorders may be classified into five types: the generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, and social phobia otherwise known as social anxiety disorder. Panic disorder is motivated by strong and overpowering fear over certain situations that cause individuals to be extremely alarmed. This alarm manifests through health and physical reactions such as dizziness, heart palpitations, etc.
The same goes for social phobia, since it is also fueled by fear, but by social circumstances that are unwanted but expected. On the other hand, OCD is driven by compulsive behavior that is uncontrollable and also overpowering in terms of impacting great influence on the actions and behaviors of human beings. The symptoms of OCD are also quite similar to generalized anxiety disorder since individuals tend to obsess over some daily activities or things that are expected to worry them exceptionally. PTSD materializes when individuals experience events or situations that are extremely shocking or distressing.
It manifests through depressive or irritable behavior, and such. (“Anxiety Disorders,” 2000) Since the symptoms and manifestations of anxiety disorders are disturbing, unusual, and unhealthy for individuals, there arises a need to treat them and alleviate the occurrence and effects of such disorders for individuals to lead a healthy mental, emotional, and psychological state of mind and living. First, there is a need to undergo medical examination in order to verify whether one does experience anxiety disorders.
Second, it is highly important to seek the help of mental health professionals where patients are likely to be subjected to therapies. (NIMH, 2008b)There are two kinds of therapies usually applied to anxiety disorders – the behavior therapy and the cognitive therapy. These two kinds of therapies differ in structure and process. With this in mind, the remainder of the text will analyze the dimensions of these two kinds of therapies in order to compare or contrast the strengths and weaknesses of each, and in addition determine whether both are effective or ineffective means of addressing problems concerning anxiety disorders.
Behavior therapy simply refers to the process of behavior modification or manipulation in order to eliminate undesirable behavior influenced by anxiety disorders. Behavior therapy is basically founded on early psychological concepts that has something to do with behavior. The works of John Watson and Ivan Pavlov have presented how behavior may me modified by means of motivation and influence from the external environment in order to diminish unwanted kinds of behavior. (Erwin, 1978)