القلق وعلاقته بنوبات الهلع لدى المرأة العاملة: دراسة لحالتين من عين تموشنت

Abstract

This study investigates the role of trait anxiety in shaping the subjective experience of panic attacks among working women. It aims to uncover the dynamic relationship between anxiety as a stable personality trait and the manifestation of panic attacks under the pressures of reality and the conflict between familial and professional roles. To achieve this objective, a clinical case study approach was adopted due to its suitability for exploring the depth of the phenomenon. The study sample consisted of two (02) working women suffering from symptoms of panic disorder, selected through a purposive clinical sampling method based on specific criteria relevant to the research topic. The researcher utilized both clinical and psychometric tools for data collection, including: semi-structured clinical interviews, diagnostic behavioral observation, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and a panic attack scale. The study fully confirmed the main hypothesis; clinical and psychometric results demonstrated that trait anxiety—developed as a result of early upbringing conditions such as emotional neglect or overprotection—serves as the fragile psychological foundation that interacted with professional/familial pressures and life traumas. This ultimately triggered panic attacks, characterized by acute somatic symptoms (such as suffocation and dyspnea) and catastrophic cognitive representations (such as the fear of death or losing one's mind), in accordance with the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).