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Thanks
to the National Institute of Mental Health
for the following information.
Facts About
Anxiety Disorders
Most people experience
feelings of anxiety before an important event such as a big exam, business
presentation, or first date. Anxiety disorders, however, are illnesses
that fill people's lives with overwhelming anxiety and fear that are
chronic, unremitting, and can grow progressively worse. Tormented by panic
attacks, obsessive thoughts, flashbacks of traumatic events, nightmares,
or countless frightening physical symptoms, some people with anxiety
disorders even become housebound. Fortunately, through research supported
by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), there are effective
treatments that can help.
How Common
Are Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety disorders, as a group, are the most common mental illness in
America. About 40 million American adults are affected by these
debilitating illnesses each year. Children and adolescents can also
develop anxiety disorders.
What Are
the Different Kinds of Anxiety Disorders?
Panic Disorder—Repeated episodes of intense fear that strike often and
without warning. Physical symptoms include chest pain, heart palpitations,
shortness of breath, dizziness, abdominal distress, feelings of unreality,
and fear of dying.
Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder—Repeated, unwanted thoughts or compulsive behaviors that seem
impossible to stop or control.
Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder—Persistent symptoms that occur after experiencing or witnessing a
traumatic event such as rape or other criminal assault, war, child abuse,
natural or human-caused disasters, or crashes. Nightmares, flashbacks,
numbing of emotions, depression, and feeling angry, irritable or
distracted and being easily startled are common. Family members of victims
can also develop this disorder.
Phobias—Two major types
of phobias are social phobia and specific phobia. People with social
phobia have an overwhelming and disabling fear of scrutiny, embarrassment,
or humiliation in social situations, which leads to avoidance of many
potentially pleasurable and meaningful activities. People with specific
phobia experience extreme, disabling, and irrational fear of something
that poses little or no actual danger; the fear leads to avoidance of
objects or situations and can cause people to limit their lives
unnecessarily.
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