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“Existential Catastrophe Anxiety”: Phenomenology of Fearful Emotions in a Subset of Service Users With Severe Mental Health Conditions

A subset of people with severe mental health conditions feels they are on the verge of losing control, even in the absence of external threats or triggers. Some go to extreme ends to avoid affective arousal and associated expectations of a possible, impending catastrophe. We have learned about such...

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Autores principales: Heggdal, Didrik, Borgejordet, Synne, Fosse, Roar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960201/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35360621
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.766149
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author Heggdal, Didrik
Borgejordet, Synne
Fosse, Roar
author_facet Heggdal, Didrik
Borgejordet, Synne
Fosse, Roar
author_sort Heggdal, Didrik
collection PubMed
description A subset of people with severe mental health conditions feels they are on the verge of losing control, even in the absence of external threats or triggers. Some go to extreme ends to avoid affective arousal and associated expectations of a possible, impending catastrophe. We have learned about such phenomenological, emotional challenges in a group of individuals with severe, composite mental health problems and psychosocial disabilities. These individuals have had long treatment histories in the mental health care system. They have been encountered at a specialized inpatient ward offering exposure-based therapy that aims at restoring self-regulation and recovery. We describe the phenomenology of anxiety and fear presented by these service users, a fear we have coined existential catastrophe anxiety (ECa). We also suggest a set of underlying, interacting, psychological mechanisms that may give rise to ECa, before comparing ECa with three other constructs previously described in the literature—annihilation anxiety, ontological insecurity, and affect phobia. These comparisons show several similarities, but also unique qualities with ECa and its suggested underlying mechanisms. The conceptualization of ECa may aid clinicians in addressing extreme experiential turmoil and engage service users in empowering therapeutic projects.
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spelling pubmed-89602012022-03-30 “Existential Catastrophe Anxiety”: Phenomenology of Fearful Emotions in a Subset of Service Users With Severe Mental Health Conditions Heggdal, Didrik Borgejordet, Synne Fosse, Roar Front Psychol Psychology A subset of people with severe mental health conditions feels they are on the verge of losing control, even in the absence of external threats or triggers. Some go to extreme ends to avoid affective arousal and associated expectations of a possible, impending catastrophe. We have learned about such phenomenological, emotional challenges in a group of individuals with severe, composite mental health problems and psychosocial disabilities. These individuals have had long treatment histories in the mental health care system. They have been encountered at a specialized inpatient ward offering exposure-based therapy that aims at restoring self-regulation and recovery. We describe the phenomenology of anxiety and fear presented by these service users, a fear we have coined existential catastrophe anxiety (ECa). We also suggest a set of underlying, interacting, psychological mechanisms that may give rise to ECa, before comparing ECa with three other constructs previously described in the literature—annihilation anxiety, ontological insecurity, and affect phobia. These comparisons show several similarities, but also unique qualities with ECa and its suggested underlying mechanisms. The conceptualization of ECa may aid clinicians in addressing extreme experiential turmoil and engage service users in empowering therapeutic projects. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8960201/ /pubmed/35360621 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.766149 Text en Copyright © 2022 Heggdal, Borgejordet and Fosse. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Heggdal, Didrik
Borgejordet, Synne
Fosse, Roar
“Existential Catastrophe Anxiety”: Phenomenology of Fearful Emotions in a Subset of Service Users With Severe Mental Health Conditions
title “Existential Catastrophe Anxiety”: Phenomenology of Fearful Emotions in a Subset of Service Users With Severe Mental Health Conditions
title_full “Existential Catastrophe Anxiety”: Phenomenology of Fearful Emotions in a Subset of Service Users With Severe Mental Health Conditions
title_fullStr “Existential Catastrophe Anxiety”: Phenomenology of Fearful Emotions in a Subset of Service Users With Severe Mental Health Conditions
title_full_unstemmed “Existential Catastrophe Anxiety”: Phenomenology of Fearful Emotions in a Subset of Service Users With Severe Mental Health Conditions
title_short “Existential Catastrophe Anxiety”: Phenomenology of Fearful Emotions in a Subset of Service Users With Severe Mental Health Conditions
title_sort “existential catastrophe anxiety”: phenomenology of fearful emotions in a subset of service users with severe mental health conditions
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960201/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35360621
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.766149
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