A fear of fear

It appears that anxiety sensitivity, a phobia of anxiety, may put above average worriers at risk for depression according to researchers at Penn State. Understanding how sensitivity to anxiety is a risk factor for depression may help with targeting depression as a potential disease in particular people. Anxiety is a trigger.

“Anxiety sensitivity has been called a fear of fear,” said Andres Viana, a graduate student in psychology and contributor to the study. “Those with anxiety sensitivity are afraid of their anxiety because their
interpretation is that something catastrophic is going to happen when their anxious sensations arise.”

The questionnaire distributed by the researchers predicted depression symptoms. In additional two of the criteria for anxiety sensitivity (the fear of cognitive dyscontrol and fear of publicly observable anxiety
symptoms) specifically predicted depression.

“We were interested in examining the relationship between anxiety sensitivity as a whole and depression,” said Viana. “In addition, we looked at the different dimensions of anxiety sensitivity to see which correlated
with depression symptoms. One of the novel aspects of our study was to look at anxiety sensitivity in a sample of moderate to high worriers.”

Direct information was needed to support their assertions. “With anxiety sensitivity we are really talking about an individual’s interpretation of
anxiety symptoms, so the only way to get at that is by asking the person what they think in the form of a self-report questionnaire,” said Viana.

Source: Penn State, ScienceDaily