Nervousness. Anxiety. Depression. Neurology of emotions
Complaints of nervousness, anxiety, and depression, along with fatigue and weakness, are common among both inpatients and outpatients. Almost every person experienced these symptoms to one degree or another when faced with a dangerous situation, a difficult task or a personal problem. In this case, such symptoms should be considered as a natural and transient reaction to the vicissitudes of fate. Medical attention is needed when these symptoms occur for no reason or are overly pronounced and too long. These symptoms often occur at certain age periods. Children rarely go through adolescence without any problems, since at this time they try to free themselves from parental care, achieve success in school, work and in relationships with the opposite sex. Menstruation is usually accompanied by internal stress and mood swings, which is defined as “premenstrual syndrome.” In the postpartum period, a young mother usually experiences anxiety and depression (“postpartum depression”), possibly due to hyperprolactinemia. Menopause is the next life stage that threatens emotional stability. The moodiness and irritability of women at this age has long been known. Even in the mildest form, anxiety and depression manifest themselves in numerous behavioral changes. More often, a headache begins to disturb, sleep is disturbed. Often there is a deterioration in mood, periods of longing, tearfulness, bouts of anger or temper, fatigue without a clear connection with stress and rest, episodes of sweating, trembling, lightheadedness and palpitations. The combination of autonomic disturbances with acute bouts of sensation of suffocation, horror and impending death constitute the basis of a panic attack. Vegetative disorders can occur with hyperthyroidism and hyperadrenocorticism, and, of course, with caffeine abuse. All these symptoms may seem trivial, but require examination of the patient, especially if they are constant and cause his internal tension. Many of these symptoms are not a reaction to the disease, therefore, require explanation and adequate examination. More often, a chronic anxiety neurotic disorder is established as the cause, sometimes depression is hidden behind these symptoms, which can lead to a suicidal attempt. The latter states are discussed in more detail in our article. Neurology of emotions. Doctors treat the terms “emotional problem” and “stress” quite freely, using them without distinction to mean anxiety and depression, expressed reactions to traumatic life events, for the so-called psychosomatic diseases, and in many other cases that cannot be fully explained. For some doctors, these terms are synonymous with the so-called functional disorders, indicating that brain function is impaired in the absence of destructive damage. Our opinion on this is given in the introduction to the section on mental illness. By emotion we mean the state of the body, accompanied by certain changes in it (mainly from the internal organs controlled by the autonomic system) in combination with psychological phenomena, such as excitement or anxiety, which usually causes actions or a certain type of behavior. Examples of primary emotions are happiness, love, hate, anger and anger; gloom, anxiety and complacency apparently reflect a lesser degree of emotional stress. A strong emotion can cause a violation of intellectual functions, that is, a disorganization of thoughts and actions, and cause a change in behavior towards automatism or stereotypical acts. The term “affect” refers to external manifestations of an emotional state, such as a facial reaction. Structures that control the experience and expression of emotions,are in the limbic system. It is represented by the medial sections of the temporal, frontal and parietal lobes and their connections with the amygdala, septum, preoptic zone, hypothalamus, anterior thalamus, frenulum and lining of the central parts of the midbrain. The peripheral effector department is composed of the autonomic nervous system, internal organs, and other structures under its control.