40 million American adults live with anxiety everyday – it’s the most common form of mental health disorder in the nation, and although many people suffer in silence (or never get an accurate diagnosis) with appropriate treatment, more than 90% of patients will make improvements and start living less worried and fearful lives. Learn about the different types of anxiety disorders; their symptoms, causes, and importantly - effective treatments.
Anxiety disorders frequently emerge in young adulthood
We all experience anxiety. It’s a normal reaction to a stressful, dangerous or difficult situation. If you have an anxiety disorder though, the fear and worry you experience on a daily basis is out of proportion to the situations you encounter – and your anxiety is interfering with your ability to live a happy and healthy life.
If you think you may have an anxiety disorder, know first that you are not alone. Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental health disorder in America. In any given year, 40 million Americans over the age of 18 will experience an anxiety disorder (18.1% of the total population).
Know also that although many people do not get appropriate anxiety treatments; most that do receive appropriate anxiety treatments make substantial recoveries and lead much happier lives (90%, according to the APA). The most common treatments for anxiety disorders include different psychotherapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy or exposure therapy, and/or medications like beta blockers, anti depressants or anti anxiety medications like Xanax and others.
Although treatment almost always makes things better, self medication very rarely does - and usually, it makes things much worse. Although certain drugs and alcohol can sometimes temporarily reduce anxiety symptoms, the abuse of such substances almost always worsen the severity of an anxiety disorder and can lead to a co-occurring substance abuse problem as well.
Page last updated Aug 05, 2010
