Widespread Anxiety
How common are anxiety problems?
Since overstress is so common today, you can pretty well predict that anxiety problems are also common. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), more than 23 million Americans suffer from some form of anxiety disorder, including panic anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, phobias and generalized anxiety disorder. To quote NIMH €™s Web site on this matter:
[Anxiety sufferers] suffer from symptoms that are chronic, unremitting, and usually grow progressively worse if left untreated. Tormented by panic attacks, irrational thoughts and fears, compulsive behaviors or rituals, flashbacks, nightmares, or countless frightening physical symptoms, people with anxiety disorders are heavy utilizers of emergency rooms and other medical services.
Because of widespread lack of understanding and the stigma associated with such disorders, many people with anxiety problems are not diagnosed and do not receive the treatments that have been proven effective through research. They continue to suffer unnecessarily, and their work, family and social lives are disrupted. Many become imprisoned in their homes.
Doesn €™t everyone have some anxiety?
Some anxiety goes with being human. It has always been with us and will remain until the end of time. Anxiety can be normal and even necessary in certain circumstances. Normal anxiety keeps us busy, reminds us to pay our bills, and pushes us forward to succeed. Its presence in human experience throughout history would suggest that in its pure form it serves some useful purpose. And for a long time, psychologists, and philosophers before them, saw anxiety as a necessary and normal aspect of life. It was, they thought, the mental equivalent of physical pain that served as a €śwarning €ť system to alert us to danger.
But like so many good ideas, it can be taken too far. Anxiety is only normal up to a point. Our happy messengers are designed to fluctuate. We cannot expect to stay in the perpetual state of tranquility. We all need some anxiety to make our lives meaningful and productive. My concern is the anxiety that is beyond the bounds of normality.
Types of anxiety problems
Following are the most common types of anxiety:
- Panic Anxiety Disorder: This is probably the best studied and understood of all the anxiety disorders. Panic anxiety disorder is characterized by repeated, unprovoked attacks of terror, accompanied by physical symptoms, including chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, weakness, and sweating. A panic attack can resemble a heart attack, and often the first indication of the disorder is when you are rushed to the emergency room with chest pains. It is called a €śdisorder €ť when the problem persists for more than a month.
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (Gad): This is a free-floating, pervasive anxiety or a constant, unrealistic worry. It impacts your ability to complete your daily activities. GAD is often associated with physical anxiety symptoms such as muscle aches, fatigue, sleep disturbances, sweating, dizziness, and nausea.
- Specific Phobia: This is a persistent, marked irrational fear of an object or situation that leads to avoidance of the object or situation. Exposure to the stimulus provokes an immediate and extreme response, even a panic attack. To be considered a phobia, the fear has to be excessive and incapacitating.
- Social Phobia: Also called, €śsocial anxiety disorder, €ť this is a persistent fear of one or more social situations in which you are exposed to possible scrutiny by others and fear that you may do something or act in a way that will be humiliating. Social phobias can also include extreme shyness.
- Agoraphobia: This can occur with or without panic attacks and literally means €śfear of the marketplace. €ť It is a fear of public places where your panic or anxiety might bring embarrassment. You come to fear leaving home or being trapped in a room or church pew because you could lose control.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): This disorder is characterized by repeated, intrusive and unwanted thoughts (obsessions) that cause anxiety, often accompanied by ritualized behaviors (compulsions) that relieve this anxiety. Common obsessions include fear of contamination or fear of harming someone. Persistent worries, like worrying about whether you turned off the stove and making repeated trips back to check, are also obsessions. Common compulsions are excessive cleaning, counting, double-checking and hoarding.
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): This is a very special form of anxiety caused when someone experiences a severely distressing or traumatic event; individuals become so preoccupied with the experience that they are unable to lead a normal life. PTSD must involve extreme fear. Generally, it takes repeated traumatic events, not just a single event, to cause this disorder.
- Acute Stress Disorder: This is less serious than PTSD and occurs when severe anxiety symptoms follow exposure to a specific, extreme trauma such as experiencing or observing an accident in which someone was killed. The symptoms of acute stress disorder include detachment, numbing, repeated dreams, and marked symptoms of anxiety including inability to sleep, poor concentration, and an exaggerated startle response. The problem usually doesn €™t last longer than a month.
- Separation Anxiety Disorder: Usually associated with childhood or adolescence (although some cases occur in adulthood), this is the feeling of extreme anxiety when you are separated from home or loved ones. In its severe forms, separation anxiety can be quite incapacitating.
Background Information
Questions and Answers
Stories
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Other Things to Consider
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