Anxiety is a common emotion; everyone experiences it. It is natural to feel anxious when you are called upon to perform in public, meet new people, visit a hospital, meet a deadline, etc.
So, when does it become a problem?
As therapists, we look at the quantity and quality
of anxiety. In other words, anxiety
becomes a problem when the duration of symptoms exceeds far beyond what is
expected, or when the quality of life is affected. For example, if anxiety persists even after
the provocative task is completed, or even after the stressful issue has been
resolved, then it can be a problem.
Further, if the anxiety worsens
so much that a person is paralyzed with stress/fear, and is unable to complete
the task, or go about his/her daily routine, then too, anxiety can be unproductive. It then progresses from common anxiety to an anxiety
disorder.
Anxiety disorder manifests in
many ways: panic attacks, generalized anxiety, fear of objects/situations
(phobias – commonly agoraphobia & social phobia), stress following a traumatic
event (post-traumatic stress disorder - PTSD), repetitive thought & actions
(obsessive-compulsive disorder - OCD), etc.
In this short silent educative film, the following conditions have been depicted:
Credits
Featuring: Aadya Pawar
Writing/Direction/Editing: Deepak Pawar
Panic attacks: Brief spells of intense dread with physical symptoms such as breathlessness, palpitations and tremors, and psychological symptoms such as feelings of losing control/dying and sensation of body/surroundings altering in shape/form/colour. It is annoyingly repetitive and can occur even without provocation. That is, even when the person is not doing anything stressful, when he/she is at home, or in peaceful surroundings. It may occur on its own or in combination with any of the other anxiety disorders.
Agoraphobia: Fear of becoming
stuck in an inescapable situation, such as in crowds, buses, lifts, etc. The individual may become homebound in severe
cases; that is, he/she may not leave the place of safety – usually their home –
at all.
There can also be other specific
phobias: social phobia – inability to meet people/perform in public; fear of
spiders (arachnophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), injections (needle phobia),
etc.
PTSD: Feelings of intense
reliving experiences after a traumatic event; even though this is a
stress-related disorder, anxiety and depressive feelings occur quite commonly
in this condition, and the person may become homebound as he/she avoids getting
into a similar situation.
OCD: Unwanted, repetitive
thoughts/images/urges that cause distress (e.g., hand contamination), which is
relieved by doing a compensatory act (e.g., handwashing). This can be a highly disabling condition and
affects the quality of life of both the sufferer and the carer.
In this film, I have
intermittently added imagery pertaining to anxiety-provoking objects/occurrences
(traffic, spiders, snakes, natural disasters, flight turbulence, injections,
accidents) to illustrate the variety of stimuli that can cause anxiety. The film ends with a series of noises that
can be most annoying to the human ear, and can therefore precipitate or worsen
anxiety.
The purpose of this film is not
to scare you, but to accurately depict the above conditions, so as to facilitate
understanding of the nature of anxiety and its many triggers and manifestations. I hope this helps medical/psychiatric students, patients, carers, and interested lay viewers to better understand anxiety disorders and seek timely professional help, where necessary.
As ever, I invite your constructive feedback and comments. Please rate/review Breathless on IMDb.
Please read these earlier articles to know more about OCD, and stress.
For a more professional lecture on stress and anxiety disorders, please see the video link in this post.
Film festival selections for Breathless:
1. Lift-Off Global Network First-Time Filmmakers Sessions:
