A
family of chemical compounds used as minor tranquilizers that act against
anxiety and convulsions and produce sedation and muscle relaxation; marketed,
with variations, under a number of brand-names and trademarks such as Diazepam
(Valium) and chlordiazepoxide (Librium).
1934:
Word is a chemical construct, from benzo
(word-forming element used in chemistry to indicate presence of a benzene ring
fused with another ring) + di (from
the Ancient Greek δίς (dís) (twice) +
az (nitrogen-substituted) + epine (from the French hepta (seven-membered).
Benzodiazepines
are a class of therapeutic agents capable of producing a calming, sedative
effect and used in the treatment of fear, anxiety, tension, agitation, and
related states of mental disturbance.Among
the most widely prescribed drugs in the world, the first benzodiazepine was chlordiazepoxide (Librium), followed by
a large variety of agents, including diazepam
(Valium) and alprazolam (Xanax), each
with slightly different properties. Benzodiazepines
work by enhancing the action of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which inhibits anxiety by reducing
certain nerve-impulse transmissions within the brain.
Before
the development of the benzodiazepines, the only available anti-anxiety drugs
were the barbiturates and meprobamate and, relative to these, the
benzodiazepines had fewer unfavorable side effects and a reduced potential for
abuse.The thus quickly became the
preferred treatment for anxiety, used also to treat insomnia, general stress, calming
muscle spasms and preparing patient for anesthesia or dental surgery.Side effects include sleepiness, drowsiness,
reduced alertness, and unsteadiness of gait but benzodiazepines are not lethal
even in very large overdoses, having the tendency only to increase the sedative
effects of alcohol and other drugs.Dependence
may however occur, even in moderate dosages, with withdrawal symptoms observed even
after short-term use and for long-term users, almost half may suffer withdrawal
symptoms which can take months to subside.As a consequence, some long-term users continue to take the drug not
because of persistent anxiety but because the withdrawal symptoms are too
unpleasant.
Valium
was introduced by the Swiss Roche Labs in 1963.It was the first billion-dollar medicine and ushered in the era of brand-name
drugs, the model of later marketing campaigns for products such as Prozac and Viagra.In its halcyon years between 1969 and 1982, more
prescriptions were written for Valium than any other drug. The
name Valium (which in US trademark law was Hoffmann-La
Roche’s proprietary name for diazepam, first registered in 1961) was a creation of the corporation, not,
as is often claimed, from a Latin word or formation meaning "to be strong
and well".Valium was no different
from Telstra and Optus, creations by consultants needing a word both unique and
different enough from others to withstand legal challenge while being something
which hints, however vaguely, at what’s being sold.In Latin, there was validum (strong; powerful; efficacious), vallum (a fortification) and the plant valerian (a herbal sedative), all of which were probably in the corporate
mind.Some with medical connections such
as vulnerary (used for or useful in
healing wounds), valetudinarian (a
person of a weak or sickly constitution) and valetudo (one's state of health (good or bad)) might have been a
bit remote so the closest inspiration was likely valere (a Latin verb meaning “to be strong”; “to be well”).Best of all the sardonic industry jokes was a
connection with the Latin vale
(goodbye; farewell) although Valium wasn’t much use in suicide attempts, fatal
overdoses, while not impossible, were rare.
(1) Fear,
foreboding, worry, disquiet, distress, uneasiness or tension caused by
apprehension of possible future misfortune, danger etc, often to a degree that
normal physical and psychological functioning is disrupted (can occur without
an identifiable cause in which case the patient may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder).
(2) Earnest
but tense desire; eagerness; an uneasy or distressing desire for someone or
something.
(3) In
psychiatry, a state of intense apprehension or worry often accompanied by
physical symptoms such as shaking, intense feelings in the gut etc, common in
mental illness or after a distressing experience; a generalised state of
apprehension and psychic tension occurring in some forms of mental disorder.
1515–1525:
From the Middle English anxumnesse (apprehension
caused by danger, misfortune, or error, uneasiness of mind respecting some
uncertainty, a restless dread of some evil), from the Old English angsumnes, from the Latin anxietatem (nominative anxietas) (anguish, anxiety, solicitude)
a noun of quality from anxius (uneasy,
anxious, solicitous, distressed, troubled in mind) from angō (to distress, trouble), akin to the Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō)
(to choke).The construct of the Latin anxietās was anxi(us) (anxious) + -etās, a variant of -itās used if appearing before a vowel.The -itas
suffix was from the Proto-Italic -itāts
& -otāts (-tās added to i-stems or o-stems, later used freely) and ultimately
from the primitive Indo-European -tehats.Synonyms
include foreboding, uneasiness, perplexity, disquietude, disquiet, trouble,
apprehension, restlessness & distress and it’s become a popular modifier
(range anxiety, climate anxiety, separation anxiety, performance anxiety etc).Anxiety is a noun; the noun plural is
anxieties.
Xanax tablets.
Xanax is the brand name for the drug alprazolam which is a benzodiazepine. It is a prescription medication primarily used to treat anxiety disorders, panic disorders and (more controvertially) depression. A fast & short-acting benzodiazepine, Xanax works by enhancing the activity of a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which helps to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation. Xanax is regarded as effective for treating anxiety and related disorders when used as prescribed but can be habit-forming, leading to dependence and addiction. Lindsay Lohan released (or "dropped" in the fashionable parlance) the track Xanax in 2019. With a contribution from Finnish pop star Alma (Alma-Sofia Miettinen; b 1996), the accompanying music video was said to be “a compilation of vignettes of life”, Xanax reported as being inspired by Ms Lohan’s “personal life, including an ex-boyfriend and toxic friends”. Structurally, Xanax was quoted as being based around "an interpolation of" Better Off Alone, by Dutch Eurodance-pop collective Alice Deejay, slowed to a Xanax-appropriate tempo.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD) were formalized when the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) was released in 1980 although among clinicians, GAD had for some years been a noted thread in the literature but what was done in DSM-III was to map GAD onto the usual pattern of diagnostic criteria.In practice, because of the high degree of co-morbidity with other disorders, the utility of GAD as defined was soon a regular topic of discussion at conferences and the DSM’s editors responded, the parameters of GAD refined in subsequent releases between 1987-1994 when GAD’s diagnostic criteria emerged in its recognizably modern form:
By the
time the terminology for mental disorders began in the nineteenth century to be
codified, the word anxiety had for hundreds of years been used in English to
describe feelings of disquiet or apprehension and in the seventeenth century
there was even a school of thought it was a pathological condition.It was thus unsurprising that “anxiety” was
so often an element in the psychiatry’s early diagnostic descriptors such as “pantophobia”
and “anxiety neurosis”, terms which designated paroxysmal manifestations (panic
attacks) as well as “interparoxysmal phenomenology” (the apprehensive mental
state). The notion of “generalized
anxiety”, although not then in itself a diagnosis, was also one of the symptoms
of many conditions including the vaguely defined neurasthenia which was
probably understood by many clinicians as something similar to what would later
be formalized as GAD.As a distinct diagnostic category however, it
wasn’t until the DSM-III was released in
1980 that GAD appeared, anxiety neurosis split into (1) panic disorder and (2) GAD.When the change was made, the editors noted
it was a response to comments from clinicians, something emphasised when
DSM-III was in 1987 revised (DSM-III-R), in effect to acknowledge there was a
class of patient naturally anxious (who might once have been called neurotic or
pantophobic) quite distinct from those for whom a source of anxiety could be
deduced.Thus, the cognitive aspect of
anxiety became the critical criterion but within the profession, some
scepticism about the validity of GAD as a distinct diagnostic category emerged,
the most common concern being the difficulty in determining clear boundaries
between GAD, other anxiety-spectrum disorders and certain manifestations of
depression.
The
modern label aside, GAD has a really long lineage and elements of the diagnosis
found in case histories written by doctors over the centuries would have seemed
familiar to those working in the early nineteenth century, tales of concern or apprehension
about the vicissitudes of life a common thing.As psychiatry in those years began to coalesce as a speciality and
papers increasingly published, it was clear the behaviour of those
suffering chronic anxiety could culminate in paroxysmal attacks, thus it was
that GAD and panic attacks came to be so associated.In English, the term panophobia (sometimes as
pantaphobia, pantophobia or panphobia) dates from 1871, the word
from the Late Latin pantŏphŏbŏs, from
the Ancient Greek παντοφόβος (all-fearing (literally “anxiety about everything”)).It appears in the surviving works of medieval
physicians and it seems clear there were plenty of “pantophobic patients” who
allegedly were afraid of everything and it was not a product of the
Dark Ages, Aristotle (384-322 BC) in the seventh book of his Nicomachean Ethics (350 BC) writing
there were men “…by nature apt to fear
everything, even the squeak of a mouse”.
The
first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-I (1952) comprised what seems now a modest 130 pages.The latest edition (DSM-5-TR (2022)) has 991 pages.The growth is said to be the result of
advances in science and a measure of the increasing comprehensiveness of the
manual, not an indication that madness in the Western world is increasing.
Between
Aristotle and the publication of the first edition of the DSM in 1952, physicians
(and others) pondered, treated and discussed the nature of anxiety and theories
of its origin and recommendations for treatment came and went.The DSM (retrospectively labelled DSM-I) was
by later standards a remarkably slim document but unsurprisingly, anxiety was
included and discussed in the chapter called “Psychoneurotic Disorders”, the
orthodoxy of the time that anxiety was a kind of trigger perceived by the
conscious part of the personality and produced by a threat from within; how the
patient reacted to this resulted in their reaction(s).There was in the profession a structural
determinism to this approach, the concept of defined “reaction patterns” at the
time one of the benchmarks in US psychiatry.When DSM-II was released in 1968, the category “anxiety reaction” was
diagnosed when the anxiety was diffuse and neither restricted to specific situations
or objects (ie the phobic reactions) nor controlled by any specific psychological
defense mechanism as was the case in dissociative, conversion or obsessive-compulsive
reactions. Anxiety reaction was characterized by anxious expectation and
differentiated from normal apprehensiveness or fear.Significantly, in DSM-II the reactions were
re-named as “neuroses” and it was held anxiety was the chief characteristic of
“neuroses”, something which could be felt or controlled unconsciously by
various symptoms. This had the effect
that the diagnostic category “anxiety neurosis” encompassed what would later be
expressed as panic attacks and GAD.
A: Excessive
anxiety and worry (apprehensive expectation), occurring more days than not for
at least 6 months, about a number of events or activities (such as work or
matters relating to educational institutions).
B: The patient
finds it difficult to control the worry.
C: The
anxiety and worry are associated with three (or more) of the following six
symptoms:
(1) Restlessness
or feeling keyed up or on edge.
(2) Being
easily fatigued.
(3) Difficulty
concentrating or mind going blank.
(4) Irritability.
(5) Muscle
tension.
(6) Sleep
disturbance (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless, unsatisfying
sleep).
The key change really was for the criteria for GAD requiring fewer symptoms. Whereas
with the DSM-IV-TR (2000) individuals needed to exhibit at least three physical
and three cognitive symptoms for a diagnosis of GAD, under DSM-5 (2013), only one of
each was required so not only was the accuracy and consistency of diagnosis (by
definition) improved, the obvious practical effect was better to differentiate
GAD from other anxiety disorders and (importantly) the usual worries and concerns
endemic to the human condition.The
final significant aspect of the evolution was that by the time of DSM-5, GAD had become
effectively a exclusionary diagnosis in that it cannot be diagnosed if the
anxiety is better explained by other anxiety disorders and nor can GAD be caused directly by stressors or trauma.
Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No 2 (The Age of Anxiety) was inspired by WH Auden's long poem of the same name.
WH Auden's (1907-1973) The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (1944) divided critics, said by some to be "his best work to date" and by others to be "dull and an obvious failure", some of whom rubbed in the critical salt by adding Leonard Bernstein's (1918-1990) Symphony No 2 (1948-1949), inspired by the poem, was the finer piece of art. It was better received in the US where it was written, winning the Pulitzer prize but whether or not influenced by the reaction, Auden would never again complete an epic-length work. Like HG Wells' (1866-1946) Mind at the End of its Tether (1945), it was very much a work of the unhappy time in which Auden found himself and in some ways picked up from his lament September 1st, 1939 (a poem he later renounced). As a poem, The Age of Anxiety is a delight for structuralists, its six sections (prologue, life-story, dream-quest, dirge, masque & epilogue (and emulated by the six movements in Bernstein's symphony (each movement sub-divided))) able to be deconstructed even mathematically but, the most common complaint is that although his four protagonists (three men and a woman) are very different people and all from a world of vernacular American English, their thoughts on the human condition and their own are expressed as if each had once gone up to Oxford to take a degree in English, as Auden in his youth had done. Such voices in poems are not unusual but the critics go further in claiming that anyone new to the work, were the characters' names to be concealed, could not possibly guess which of the four is talking. While it becomes clear the abstractions he maps upon his four represent thought, intuition, sensation & feeling, while helpful as a device through which his word-view can be discussed, as flesh & blood characters they are vague indeed. Still, literature should perhaps be enjoyed for what it is rather than what it's not; one doesn't need to find plausible what Philip Roth (1933-1918) thinks might be the thoughts of a woman to find pleasure in the text and it's the same with Auden'sThe Age of Anxiety. Those interested in poetry as art will read such cleverness with relish, ticking the boxes on the path to technical ecstasy. Those who want to feel something should stick to Sylvia Path (1932-1963).
We would rather be ruined than changed We would rather die in our dread Than climb the cross of the moment And let our illusions die.
(1) To
introduce (something additional or extraneous) between other things or parts;
interject; interpose; intercalate; to make additions, interruptions, or
insertions.
(2) In
mathematics, to estimate (a value of a function) between the values already
known or determined.
(3) To alter
a text by the insertion of new matter (with a long history of being applied
especially if done deceptively or without authorization but technically a
neutral term and can be used either way).
(4) To
insert (additional or spurious material) in this manner.
1605–1615:
From the Latin interpolātus, past
participle of interpolātus & interpolāre (to make new, refurbish,
touch up; to give a new appearance to), the construct being inter- (between, among, together) + -polā- (verb stem (akin to polīre (to smooth or polish) + -tus (the past participle suffix) from polare, from the primitive Indo-European
root pel- (to thrust, strike, drive),
the connecting notion being "to full cloth".The sense evolved in Latin from the neutral "refurbish"
to the slightly more loaded "alter appearance of" to the actually
accusative "falsify” (especially or specifically by adding new
material".By the early fifteenth
century Middle English had gained interpolen
in a similar sense and by the 1650s also interpolator,
from the Late Latin interpolator (one
who corrupts or spoils), agent noun from past participle stem of Latin interpolāre.The noun interpolation (that which is
interpolated) dates from the 1670s and appears to have evolved both from the
seventeenth century French interpolation and directly from the Latin interpolationem (nominative interpolatio) from the past participle
stem of interpolāre.Interpolate, interpolated & interpolating
are verbs, interpolater (or interpolator) & interpolation are nouns, interpolable,
interpolatory, interpolative are adjectives and interpolatively is an adverb.
Extrapolate (pronounced ik-strap-uh-leyt)
(1) To
infer (an unknown) from something that is known; an evidence-based conjecture.
(2) In
statistics, to estimate (the value of a variable) outside the tabulated or
observed range.
(3) In
mathematics, to estimate (a function that is known over a range of values of
its independent variable) to values outside the known range.
(4) To
perform extrapolation.
1830s:
The construct was extra- + -polate (extracted and borrowed from
interpolate).The verb extrapolate in
the sense of “make an approximate calculation by inferring unknown values from
trends in the known data" became popular among astronomers, statisticians,
economists & mathematicians after appearing in an 1862 Harvard Observatory
account of Comet Donati (Donati's Comet (C/1858 L1 & 1858 VI)) in 1858).In contemporary accounts, it was said to have
been a word used since the 1830s by English mathematician and astronomer Sir
George Airy (1801-1892).Extrapolation
(an approximate calculation made by inferring unknown values from trends in the
known data) dates from 1867 and was the noun of action from extrapolate by
analogy with the long-established interpolation although the original sense was
"an inserting of intermediate terms in a mathematical series", the
transferred sense of "drawing of a conclusion about the future based on present
tendencies" adopted since 1889.Extrapolate, extrapolated & extrapolating are verbs, extrapolater
(or extrapolator) & extrapolation are nous, extrapolable, extrapolatory,
extrapolative are adjectives and extrapolatively is an adverb.
Extrapolation
and Interpolation
The common
root of the words is the Latin verb (polīre) meaning “to polish” which in this
context means “adding finish” to a data-set by adding what’s missing but the
prefix is most useful in distinguishing between the two, inter- meaning “between”
or “among,” and extra-, “outside” or “beyond”.The two words look similar and at first glance it’d be not unreasonable
to assume they might be antonyms but, although related in use and tangled in
history, they are used in different ways and, one highly nuanced and the other
sometimes applied correctly but inducing the drawing of erroneous or at least
misleading conclusions.Interpolation
refers to inserting something between other things, while extrapolation is the act
of drawing conclusions about something unknown based on what is known.In mathematics, the meanings are
uncontroversial in that interpolation is the process of determining an unknown
value within a sequence based on other points in that set, while extrapolation
is the process of determining an unknown value outside of a set based on the
existing data (often expressed as a “curve”).Interpolation is a commonly used tool of mathematicians, statisticians
and others in the data-based sciences where it’s necessary to determine a function’s
value based on the value of other points, an unknown value within the sequence
is determined based on what else is in the sequence.
Interpolation,
used beyond mathematics can be a loaded word because it’s the act of
introducing something (additional or extraneous) between other parts, usually
in text or musical notation and thus the technical equivalent of “insert” or
(sometimes) “interject or interpose”.Interpolation
can thus be a merely neutral description but because of the history of the word
(in Latin it evolved from the neutral "refurbish" to the slightly
more loaded "alter appearance of" to the actually accusative "falsify”
(especially or specifically by adding new material"), can imply that what
has been inserted is spurious, false, misleading or done with some other
nefarious purpose.It’s thus a word
which needs to be used with caution lest implications be drawn where no
inference was intended.
A big
word with lots of syllables, interpolate may be unfamiliar to many and that’s
maybe why sometimes it’s been used apparently in an attempt to impart some
sense of gravitas or perhaps disguise what’s really happening.In pop music, sampling, the interpolation of
other people’s music into one’s own is now probably a sub-genre and it’s well
understood although, despite the involvement of courts and copyright lawyers,
the distinctions between sampling, interpretation and actual appropriation
although well-trimmed, remain frayed at the margins and all three can be
interpolated.One derided as a form of plagiarism,
sampling seems to have gained respectability, at least among those who practice
the art, the critical legal device apparently being to sample by using a fragment
from a previously recorded song, but re-recording rather than directly copying the
original.The origin of the practice
appears to be as the work-around for when the copyright holder refuses to
license the original for sampling purposes.Use in this way, only a publisher’s permission is required although in
some common-law jurisdictions, the original can be subject to a compulsory
licensing regime.
Extrapolation
is related to deduction, an act of drawing a conclusion about something unknown
based on what is known so the verb extrapolate is often used synonymously with infer
and deduce.However, in mathematics,
while the act of interpolation involves a closed data set with defined low and
high values, extrapolation involves estimating the value of a variable or
function outside an observed range so it can be necessary to understand the
context (social, economic etc) of the numbers being used in the exercise.A Roll-Royce dealership which has a good
month and sells ten cars should probably not from that data-set extrapolate
that in the year ahead they will sell 120; other factors need to be considered
beyond the simple math.
Xanax (Alprazolam), a fast-acting benzodiazepine. It is marketed as anti-anxiety medication.
Lindsay Lohan released
the track Xanax in 2019.With a contribution from Finnish pop star
Alma (Alma-Sofia Miettinen; b 1996), the accompanying music video was said to be “a
compilation of vignettes of life”, Xanax reported as being inspired by Ms Lohan’s “personal life, including an ex-boyfriend and toxic friends”.Structurally, Xanax was quoted as being based around "an interpolation of" Better Off Alone, by Dutch Eurodance-pop collective Alice Deejay, slowed to a
Xanax-appropriate tempo.
Lindsay Lohan risked going straight to Hell by creating a promotional meme featuring
Pope Francis (b 1936; Roman Catholic Pope since 2013). Cryptically captioned Blessed
Be The Fruit, it included an image of the art-work used for her debut album
Speak (2004). Given the problems he's expected to manage, solve or conceal (depending on the circumstances), most would forgive the pope if he popped the odd Xanax.
The original photograph (top left) was taken
in 2013 during a mass conducted in the Catedral
Basílica do Santuário Nacional de Nossa Senhora Aparecida (Cathedral
Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida) in Aparecida, Brazil. His Holiness was at the time administering communion. It has since proved a popular photograph for
meme-makers interpolating optical discs.
Xanax by Lindsay Lohan
I don't like the parties in LA, I go home
In a bad mood, pass out, wake up alone
Just to do it all over again, oh
Looking for you
Only one reason I came here
Too many people, I can't hear
Damn, I got here at ten
Now it's 4 AM
I can't be in this club
It's too crowded and I'm fucked
Ain't nobody here for love
Ain't nobody care about us
I got social anxiety, but you're like Xanax to me, yeah
Social anxiety, when you kiss me, I can't breathe
No, I can't be in this club
It's too crowded and I'm fucked
Ain't nobody here for love
Ain't nobody care 'bout us
I got social anxiety, but you're like Xanax to me, yeah
Social anxiety, when you kiss me, I can't breathe, yeah
But you're like Xanax to me
When you kiss me, I can't breathe
I try to stay away from you, but you get me high
Only person in this town that I like
Guess I can take one more trip for the night
Just for the night
Only one reason I came here
Too many people, I can't hear
Damn, I got here at ten
Now it's 4 AM
I can't be in this club
It's too crowded and I'm fucked
Ain't nobody here for love
Ain't nobody care about us
I got social anxiety, but you're like Xanax to me, yeah
Social anxiety, when you kiss me, I can't breathe
No, I can't be in this club
It's too crowded and I'm fucked
Ain't nobody here for love
Ain't nobody care 'bout us
I got social anxiety, but you're like Xanax to me, yeah
Social anxiety, when you kiss me, I can't breathe, yeah
