Revealing Facts About Anxiety

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Anxiety disorders are estimated to be the most common mental illness that affects the adult population of a country. For example, about 18% of the adult population of the United States of America suffers from some form of anxiety. That is almost 1 out of every 5 people.


It seems that women are twice as likely than men to be affected by general anxiety disorder, panic disorder and post traumatic stress disorder. The same amount of women and men suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder.


You may or may not have considered how anxiety can negatively impact the economy of a country. I was surprised by the figures when I first read about it. It appears that anxiety disorders may cost the USA more than $42 billion dollars each year. People that suffer from anxiety disorders often visit doctors and other health care services to seek relief from what are actually anxiety symptoms.


Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) may be described as an unrealistic worrying that usually lasts more than six months which centers around things such as your health, finances or job. This chronic worrying leads to symptoms such as irritability, dizziness, insomnia and muscle aches.


Social anxiety disorder is an excessive fear about embarrassing yourself publicly in front of other people or about how you are going to be judged by others people. This may cause physical symptoms such as sweating, blushing, dizziness and a racing heartbeat.


Panic disorder is when a person suffers from frequent panic attacks. The person may experience a racing heartbeat, chest pain, sweating, trembling and strange tingling sensations. The person may even think that he is having a heart attack.


Obsessive-compulsive disorder usually develops when people are troubled by persistent obsessive thoughts that reflect excessive worrying such as being contaminated or behaving wrongly. This then leads to a person developing the need to frequently perform a ritual routine or compulsion. This may be an attempt to find relief from the anxiety caused by the obsessive thinking. Common routines can include washing of the hands or the repetition of certain phrases.


Anxiety treatments may include cognitive-behavioral therapy, relaxation therapy and psychotherapy. Anxiety medication can also be prescribed. Common drugs used for treatment are SSRI's, MAOI's and tricyclic anti-depressants.


There appears to be a connection between anxiety and other disorders such as depression, insomnia, hypersomnia, eating problems and alcohol abuse.


Copyright 2008 - Dan Theron. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author name credit and follow all of the EzineArticles terms of service for Publishers.


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