Anxiety sensation

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a psychological risk factor that has received a lot of attention in clinical and epidemiological studies of anxiety disorders. AS can be described as the ‘fear of fear’ or the fear of anxiety-related symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, or shaking, due to the belief that these symptoms have negative consequences. Anxiety sensitivity refers to the fear of behaviours or sensations associated with the experience of anxiety, and a misinterpretation of such sensations as dangerous. Bodily sensations related to anxiety, such as nausea and palpitations, are mistaken as harmful experiences, causing anxiety or fear to intensify. For example, a person with high anxiety sensitivity may fear the shakes as impending neurological disorder, or may suspect lightheadedness is the result of a brain tumour; conversely, a person with low anxiety sensitivity is likely to identify these as harmless and attach no significance to them.

Sources:

Hovenkamp-Hermelink, J., Date C van der Veen & R., Harriëtte Riese.(2019). Anxiety sensitivity, its stability and longitudinal association with severity of anxiety symptoms. Retrieved from: https://surl.li/vgsxxn

Rodriguez, B., Bruce, S., Pagano, M., Spencer, M., Keller, M. (2012). Factor structure and stability of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index in a longitudinal study of anxiety disorder patients. Retrieved from: https://surl.li/yrkxgh