Anxiety, the Overlooked Disease

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Recommended: Psychological explanations of anxiety

Feeling anxious is common for everybody, especially when faced with an important life event, but it is when someone has that anxious feeling for long periods of time for unwarranted reasons, that it can be determined that they have an anxiety disorder (Rector, Bourdeau and Kitchen 2). Anxiety will never appear on it’s own, it is usually paired with depression, this is why Patricia Farrell refers to anxiety and depression as the “ugly twins” (Farrell 71). In 2008, it was determined that anxiety was the “most common mental health problem in women, and are second only to substance use disorders in men”( Rector, Bourdeau and Kitchen 2). There is a growing need to better understand anxiety, so the illness is no longer marginilized and sufferers are able to receive treatment as soon as possible. The four most common forms are posttramautic stress disorders(PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder(GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and social phobia. These disorders, while classified because of the high level of anxiety (Emilien xv), vary in specific physical, psychological, and behavioral symptoms, this is why treatments slightly differ. Although it has determined that treatment improves one’s quality of living (Hofmann, Wu and Boettcher 13), because of the lack of knowledge and cultural stigma that surrounds anxiety disorder, sufferers will not receive treatment.
PTSD, when you think of this disorder you usually think of a solider just coming home from war, but this disorder can develop from many different traumatic experiences. PTSD can only be classified as such only a month or more after the traumatic experience has occurred(Simos and Hofmann 162), which is not usually a problem for the reason symptoms do not occur until three...

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...n, and Greer Sullivan. “Stigma Associated With PTSD: Perceptions Of Treatment Seeking Combat
Veterans”. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 36.2. 2013. 86-92. PsycARTICLES. Web.
Rector, Neil A, Danielle Bourdeau and Kate Kitchen. Anxiety Disorders: An Information Guide.
Totonto: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2008. Web.
Simos, Gregoris, and Stefan G. Hofmann CBT For Disorders: A Practitioner Book. Wiley. New
Jersey. 2013. ebrary. Web.
Staiger, Petra K., Michael Kyrios, James S. Williams, Nicolas Kambouropoulus, Alexandra
Howard, and Stefan Gruenert.“Improving the retention rate for residential treatment of substance abuse by sequential intervention for social anxiety”.BMC Psychiatry14:43. 2014. Academic OneFile.Web.
Winston LeCroy, and Jane Craig Holschuh. First Person Accounts of Mental Illness and Recovery. Wiley. New Jersey.2012.ebrary.Web.

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