An overview of anxiety from the perspective of women with high anxiety levels: A qualitative study

This study examined the attributions, beliefs, interpretations, and perspectives of women with high levels of anxiety. Specifically, it sought to explore their cognitive processes related to anxiety, their emotional experiences as individuals with anxiety, and their interpretations of how others perceive their anxious disposition. Furthermore, the study aimed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the implications of self-identifying as an "anxious woman" on various aspects of one's subjective self-evaluation, including emotions, psychology, behavior, physiology and interpersonal relations. This study employed a phenomenological method, which is one of the qualitative research models, to investigate the essence of the subjective experiences of individuals. The sample comprised 13 females aged 25-60 years with high levels of anxiety, who have voluntarily took part in the research. Criterion sampling, one of the sampling types, was employed to identify eligible participants, whereby a criterion score of 41 or higher on the State-Trait Inventory was utilized as an inclusion criterion. Through open-ended interview sessions lasting approximately 45-60 minutes, participants were asked questions about their definitions and evaluations of anxiety, bodily sensations, thoughts, emotions, anxiety, triggers, coping strategies, impact on daily life, and evaluations of how they perceived others' perceptions of themselves. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by content analysis method using the MAXQDA-20 software, resulting in the identification of 8 main themes and 13 sub-themes. The findings of the study demonstrate that participants identified being anxious as a condition that is triggered in various situations, has negative effects on social and daily life, involves the use of many maladaptive coping strategies, is difficult to cope with, devalues self-perception, disrupts self-relationships, damages external reputation, is distressing yet considered necessary, and therefore believed to be worth protecting despite being annoying and undesirable.