Anxiety Disorders
1. Introduction to Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is a common and essential process of daily life. It is highly important, evolutionary speaking, as people typically experience anxiety when faced with environmental threats such as encountering a lion (not so common a concern in modern society for most people), scarcity of food or other resources, or acceptance among one's peers and society at large. This anxiety orients the individual toward anticipating dangers, motivates the person to act in order to avoid events that might cause bodily harm or psychological distress, and prepares the body and mind for taking some sort of action (Zeidner & Matthews, 2011).
A complete lack of anxiety, in contrast, could cause someone to engage in potentially life-threatening and dangerous situations and not even be aware that they are dangerous.
When intense worry or fear begins to disrupt one's daily functioning, however, it can be detrimental to one's health. Anxiety disorders have the highest overall prevalence rate among psychiatric problems, with a 12-month rate of 18.1% and a lifetime rate of 28.8% (Kessler, Berglund et al., 2005; Kessler, Chiu, Demler, & Walters, 2005). In any given year, over 40 million people in the U.S. are impacted by anxiety disorders, at a cost of over 46 billion dollars per year in increased medical expenses, lost productivity, and mental health expenditures (DuPont et al., 1996). In fact, anxiety disorders alone account for over 31% of all mental health costs in the U.S. each year.
In addition to the monetary costs of the anxiety disorders, there are enormous impacts on quality of life (QoL) and functioning (Olatunji, Cisler, & Tolin, 2007). For example, studies have shown higher incidence of divorce and martial strife, higher rates of financial problems and reliance on public assistance (e.g., disability, welfare), lowered educational achievement, and increased limitations in the types of jobs one is able to work. Meta-analyses have
Anxiety is a common and essential process of daily life. It is highly important, evolutionary speaking, as people typically experience anxiety when faced with environmental threats such as encountering a lion (not so common a concern in modern society for most people), scarcity of food or other resources, or acceptance among one's peers and society at large. This anxiety orients the individual toward anticipating dangers, motivates the person to act in order to avoid events that might cause bodily harm or psychological distress, and prepares the body and mind for taking some sort of action (Zeidner & Matthews, 2011).
A complete lack of anxiety, in contrast, could cause someone to engage in potentially life-threatening and dangerous situations and not even be aware that they are dangerous.
When intense worry or fear begins to disrupt one's daily functioning, however, it can be detrimental to one's health. Anxiety disorders have the highest overall prevalence rate among psychiatric problems, with a 12-month rate of 18.1% and a lifetime rate of 28.8% (Kessler, Berglund et al., 2005; Kessler, Chiu, Demler, & Walters, 2005). In any given year, over 40 million people in the U.S. are impacted by anxiety disorders, at a cost of over 46 billion dollars per year in increased medical expenses, lost productivity, and mental health expenditures (DuPont et al., 1996). In fact, anxiety disorders alone account for over 31% of all mental health costs in the U.S. each year.
In addition to the monetary costs of the anxiety disorders, there are enormous impacts on quality of life (QoL) and functioning (Olatunji, Cisler, & Tolin, 2007). For example, studies have shown higher incidence of divorce and martial strife, higher rates of financial problems and reliance on public assistance (e.g., disability, welfare), lowered educational achievement, and increased limitations in the types of jobs one is able to work. Meta-analyses have