In our journey of understanding the Anxiety Disorder, we have discussed Anxiety and it’s several symptoms in detail. This blog is also about the next symptom of anxiety disorder, which is very common among children and adults. Separation anxiety is a normal stage of development for infants and toddlers. Young children often experience a period of separation anxiety, but most children outgrow separation anxiety by about 3 years of age. In some children, separation anxiety is a sign of a more serious condition known as separation anxiety disorder, starting as early as preschool age. Separation Anxiety is also associated with adults as well. Children 7 years old or older who show signs of being distressed when apart from their caregivers may be diagnosed with separation anxiety.

An adult’s separation anxiety can stem from a parent, partner, or a child who moves away. Their anxiety may also be related to another underlying mental health condition. These may include delusions from psychotic disorders or fear of change relating to an autism spectrum disorder. On occasion, people may categorize an adult with a separation anxiety disorder as being controlling or overprotective. However, their actions are often an adult’s way of expressing their fears in regard to separation.

What Causes Separation Anxiety Disorder?

Separation anxiety often develops after a significant stressful or traumatic event in the child’s life, such as a stay in the hospital, the death of a loved one or pet, or a change in environment (such as moving to another house or a change of schools). Children whose parents are over-protective may be more prone to separation anxiety. In fact, it may not necessarily be a disease of the child but a manifestation of parental separation anxiety as well — parent and child can feed the other’s anxiety. In addition, the fact that children with separation anxiety often have family members with anxiety or other mental disorders suggests that a vulnerability to the disorder may be inherited.

Symptoms

Separation anxiety disorder is diagnosed when symptoms are excessive for the developmental age and cause significant distress in daily functioning. Symptoms may include:

1. Recurrent and excessive distress about anticipating or being away from home or loved ones
2. Constant, excessive worry about losing a parent or other loved one to an illness or a disaster
3. The constant worry that something bad will happen, such as being lost or kidnapped, causing separation from parents or other loved ones
4. Refusing to be away from home because of fear of separation
5. Not wanting to be home alone and without a parent or other loved one in the house
6. Reluctance or refusing to sleep away from home without a parent or other loved one nearby
7. Repeated nightmares about separation
8. Frequent complaints of headaches, stomachaches or other symptoms when separation from a parent or other loved one is anticipated

Separation anxiety disorder may be associated with panic disorder and panic attacks ― repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes.

Treatment and management options

References:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11460893
2. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/separation-anxiety/related/separation-anxiety-statistics/
3. https://barendspsychology.com/adult-separation-anxiety/adult-separation-anxiety-2/
4. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/separation-anxiety/#gref
5. https://www.visionpsychology.com/separation-anxiety-disorder-in-children/

Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. Since the advent of technology humans have progressed and devised remarkable ways of doing things and performing functions in new ways. Current trends have witnessed a shift from use-dependence-abuse of technology making technology one of the major causes and sources of stress.

As mentioned in one of our earlier blogs (http://www.syngrity.com/what-causes-stress/) that discussed various sources of stress, we dedicate this blog to one of the major sources of stress these days; TECHNOLOGY and how it impacts our lives at various levels.

THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY

Perpetual Distraction

Deloitte (2016) mobile consumer survey (cited below)- suggests that one third of the smart phone users don’t actually make traditional phone calls and checking their phones is their first and the last activity for the day.

Most of us reach out to our phones even though there is no new notification. There is an urge to constantly (at times purposelessly) scroll and surf through the Internet, sometimes every 30 seconds. Individuals have deadlines to meet, pay attention to a conversation or attend an event but this urge forces one to reach out to the devices which is perceived as being disinterested. Apart from consuming a major chunk of our daily productive time, it causes a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings in the personal and professional front.

Disrupted Sleep Cycle

Recent analyses pointed out that in the 24/7 lifestyle, adolescents use multiple gadgets and technology the entire day and late into the night, which is in turn related to consumption of higher levels of caffeinated beverages. Subsequently their ability to stay alert, be attentive, energy levels and sleeping patterns are disrupted which is a major source of stress to them as well as their parents. It is scientifically proven and well known that the blue light emitted by various devices (cell phones, laptops, tablets and the like) reduces the production of melatonin (the hormone that regulates our sleep/wake cycle). An imbalance in the production and regulation of melatonin makes it difficult for the person to fall asleep.

FEAR OF MISSING OUT (F.O.M.O)

According to a report (cited below) generated by the Economics Times in 2019, Internet users in India reached a whooping 627 million, in a country that has 46 million people living below the poverty line. This makes us second to China in terms of Internet users. These alarming figures point out at the constant urge to not to be “missed out”. People want to be a part of the social network and access the various platforms to explore, gain information and for entertainment. It leads to anxiety and chronic stress that one might miss out on something. This is a vicious circle, the more one is connected, the more is the fear of missing out. In order to stay connected people explore various social media platforms and spend most of the productive hours of the day doing the same. This leads to stress generated by being disconnected with the people in proximity and perpetually being connected over the Internet.

Social Comparison

In order to not miss out, one spends most of the time exploring social media platforms, which has a great control over how one evaluates and feels about oneself and significant others. Individuals try and ape others and develop certain archetypes of partners, parents, friends and others. As mentioned by Emily Southwood, the author of Lessons I Learnt When My fiancé Filmed Porn, that people tend to take things way too literally and perceive fantasy expectations as reality. This causes stress at two levels

1. Constant pressure to perform better.
2. Having unrealistic expectations of your partner.

In both the cases the relationship becomes toxic and is a constant source of chronic stress

The same holds true for other relationships. Increased exposure to the Internet and various social media platforms influences us and we create certain unrealistic archetypes. We want to be a certain way, expect our parents to be and act a certain way. This social comparison stemming from unsupervised Internet surfing is a perennial source of personal and family stress.

Social Comparison is not confined to comparing other people with those on social media platforms. People are in a bid to portray themselves as someone else. They want to showcase a perfect lifestyle on social media platforms. This is a momentary distraction but keeps on adding to the suppressed feelings and emotions. Such circumstances result in a bottleneck situation where the individual is focusing more on social media and forgets to pay attention to how he/she is feeling actually. This creates a dissonance between what Carl Rogers defined as an individual’s actual self and real self.

This dissonance leads to conflict and stress and if not addressed at a preventive stage can lead to cognitive discomfort.

Technostress Among Students

Students, academics, scholars and corporate employees have a perpetual source of stress; the pressure to keep using the latest technology and the fear of being left behind has escalated many folds. Also, there is this constant dilemma of doing what others are doing. Students see other adolescents of their age sharing pictures of them trying new places, alcohol, substances, driving expensive cars etc. This not only causes stress for the confused teenagers but also for their parents. There is stress and tension due to conflict between the demands of the children and what their parents feel is right for them. In this manner technology becomes a cause of stress for individuals and causes conflict between parents and children.

Increases Vulnerabilities

While exploring and surfing the net, one need to be very cautious. Parents (especially working parents) experience a lot of stress because of the amount of vulnerabilities their children are exposed to while surfing the internet. In order to keep a check, parents are looking for ways in which they could keep the child’s use of technology supervised. For most part of the day children are affixed to the electronic gadgets and the Internet. This consequently turns out to be a major cause for obesity among children, nature deficit disorder, weak eyesight and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

Conclusion

Technology is the major cause of stress among the masses. We all are surrounded by technology, as it is an essential part of our lives. Just like a coin, technology has a flip side too; technology has contributed in making our lives and business easy to manage but over exposure leads to disruption. We should aim at regulating our exposure and use of technology in a manner that it turn out to be beneficial for us rather than adding on to the list of stressors.

References

Deloitte Mobile Consumer Survey 2016: Deloitte India: Press Release. (2016, December 27). Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/in/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/deloitte-india-mobile-consumer-survey-2016-press-release.html.

https://www.sleep.org/articles/ways-technology-affects-sleep/. (n.d.).

Sharma, N. (2019, September). What causes stress?

http://www.syngrity.com/what-causes-stress/)

The Economic Times. (2019). Internet users in India to reach 627 million in2019. Internet users in India to reach 627 million in2019(1st ed., Vol. 1). Delhi, Delhi.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/india-has-second-highest-number-of-internet-users-after-china-report/articleshow/71311705.cms – https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/india-has-second-highest-number-of-internet-users-

McLeod, S. A. (2014, Feb 05). Carl Rogers. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html

Why our children need to get outside and engage with nature. (2010, August 16). The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/16/childre-nature-outside-play-health