Subjective Perception of Free Will in People with Anxiety Symptoms

This work studies the subjective perception of free will by people with anxiety. The purpose of the work is to describe the specifics of the perception of free will by people with anxiety symptoms. This would make it possible to expand theoretical ideas about the influence of psychopathological symptoms on perceived freedom, identify specific aspects of such an influence of anxiety symptoms, as well as systematize ways of coping with factors perceived as limiting freedom, which may be relevant for psychotherapeutic practice. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were formulated: to systematize approaches to the consideration of the concept of free will and related concepts; to study and describe the grounds for the limitation of free will in people with mental disorders; to systematize definitions of anxiety, describe the picture of restrictions caused by anxiety symptoms; to conduct an empirical study to identify the experience of coping with restrictions of free will and its implementation in different living conditions and personal characteristics. Data collection and analysis were carried out based on the phenomenological approach of A. Georgie. During the processing of the results, we described to what extent people with different manifestations of anxiety can perceive anxiety as limiting, considered ways to realize their own freedom for people with increased anxiety, and also described the most effective strategies for coping with anxiety and systematized resources to help manage and overcome anxiety.