The author of this master's thesis researched anxiety in connection with interoceptive awareness and attachment to God.
Anxiety can be described as a condition or as a disorder. In the second case, an individual's symptoms need to meet the criteria of a specific anxiety disorder. There are not only different causes of anxiety disorders, but also different symptoms for each type of anxiety disorder; all of them have an exaggerated fear, concern and avoidant behaviour in common. Anxiety disorder is generally recognized as increased physical arousal, sweating, tremors, increased heart rate and rapid breathing. Symptoms of anxiety are not shown only on physiological level, but also on emotional, behavioural and cognitive levels. The author has also focused on interoceptive awareness, which indicates the ability to feel the body, physical condition and emotions. Interoceptive awareness means sensing data coming from inside of the body. It starts with receptors in various body tissues, which convert chemical and physical stimulation into nerve signals, transmitting information to the spinal cord and brain. The two most obvious processes of interoception in the body are breathing and heartbeat, which can trigger even more anxiety and distress in anxious individuals (eg. accelerated pulse and rapid breathing) as they understand these changes as a threat. It has been found that anxious individuals show different breathing characteristics. The last part of the theoretical introduction includes attachment to God. It has turned out that our relation to God is greatly influenced by our relationship experience from primary families and attachment to primary caregivers. Individuals with a more intimate and personal relationship with God express less symptomatology in mental health. We seek refuge in God when we feel distress, challenges or helplessness.
In the empirical part, the author presents results of a survey made on 243 participants. The study has shown that more anxious individuals are less interoceptively aware. There is very little correlation between anxiety and attachment, indicating that more anxious individuals are less attached to God.
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