Anxiety and Fear

A complex topic I would like to research is anxiety and fear, pretty much the same things. I was talking with another nurse yesterday who said when she was in nursing school, she was taught that anxiety is the root of all psychiatric illnesses. Not all I would argue, but certainly it has been the obvious underlying cause of several problems I have witnessed in my work setting lately - a conversion disorder, a specific phobia, and is almost always related to depression. Many habits, ritualistic behaviors, and drug and alcohol abuse are to cover or avoid anxieties. Important decisions are unwittingly made based on fear. The Bible in one of its pithy understatements addressed it this way: "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7) i.e. fear is in direct opposition to a sound mind or sanity. I like to ask my hospitalized patients what is it they fear. Sometimes they know or at least have thought of it - but often not. Anyway it is a good place to start looking when trying to understand what is going on in a person's head.