Anxiety - IELTS Listening Answers & Explanations

My talk today is on Anxiety. Anxiety is something you've all experienced at some time in your life so you'll know that it's an emotional condition in which feelings of dread, fear and mental agitation predominate.

However, what we call an anxiety state, or anxiety neurosis or phobic state—they all mean the same thing—is characterized by anxiety reactions far greater than those normally expected for the circumstances and these reactions may be severe and prolonged. This is the most common form of neurosis in westernized countries. Usually, normal anxiety decreases with repeated exposure to the feared situation whereas a neurotic anxiety tends to increase. Gradually the person is inclined to avoid the feared situation and views it with increasing dread.

Sometimes there may be an inherited tendency for this, but usually environmental issues are more important. The individual may have been a worrier throughout life and a stressful condition, just before symptoms set in, is common. Often there is a gradual build-up of anxiety, possibly for weeks or months, before the ultimate break occurs. The precipitating cause is usually one of great significance to the patient, often related to personal events—such as bereavement, a break-up, threats to career, health or personal integrity.

What are the symptoms of phobia? Well, phobic states often develop into severe, crippling challenges that can be very difficult to overcome. The person develops a fear of certain situations. It's not uncommon to have one or more of these present at the same time. I'm going to name some frequent phobias and give you a description of their symptoms: Let's start with Agoraphobia which is when the person has an intense anxiety about venturing outside the safety of the normal home surroundings. It may be impossible for this person to ever go out alone. Their fear of public or open spaces is completely irrational and they often end up leading very secluded lives.

Claustrophobia, on the other hand, is a morbid fear of closed-in areas or places—if you see me taking the stairs instead of the lift, think about it—am I trying to get more exercise or am I trying to avoid the confined interior of the lift? And I'm sure you all know people who are afraid of flying—sometimes it's the fear of being enclosed in the aeroplane itself—and you can imagine how the cramped confines of airline toilets are really bad news for these sufferers.

Now, I'll move on to discuss Social phobia which, believe it or not, is more common in men. It's an acute anxiety that develops when they are in the presence of others. They feel self-conscious, apprehensive and embarrassed. If attention (real or imagined) is focused on the sufferer, he becomes uneasy and may blush, stammer or stutter. Some sufferers even develop tremors—shaking or trembling movements of a part (or parts) of the body—or, another very common sign of their extreme discomfort is that they perspire profusely on their palms, under their arms or on their feet.

That brings me to the last one that I want to mention today and that is Single phobia—and no, it's not a fear of lifelong bachelorhood! This one is actually precipitated by an acute aversion to dogs, cats, spiders—you may have heard of the term, arachnophobia? Well it applies specifically to spiders—but any single thing can basically cause a strong aversion: snakes, frogs, mice or rats, for instance. I can assure you, the list is unlimited. You name it, and someone is sure to have a phobia about it. Some people are terrified of the dark, for example, and I'm not talking about young children here. You'd be surprised how many adults are afflicted in this way.

Well, I see our time is up. Next week, I'll go into some of the treatments and therapies for phobias that have been used over the ages and some of the relatively new drugs that have recently come on the scene.