Anxiety Disorder[1]

All animals, especially the smallest, appear to experience anxiety. Humans have felt it since sabre tooth tigers first lurked outside our caves. But now we live in a particularly anxious age. September 11 is wearing off, and the fear is dimming, but there is still a pervasive anxiety with most of the country regarding our safety. Less than a year after the incident, almost two-thirds of Americans think about it at least several times a week.

Although we have our own intuitive sense of what the words stress and fear mean, scientists use these words in very specific ways. For them, stress is external, and signals danger, often by causing us some level of pain. Fear is a short-term response that the stress produces. Anxiety has a lot of the same symptoms as fear, but sticks around long after stress has lifted and the threat is passed.

First, let’s define some commonly-used terms:

Stress is any external stimulus, from threatening words to the sound of a gunshot, that we process as being dangerous.

Fear is the short-term physiological response produced by both the brain and the body, in response to stress.

Anxiety is a sense of apprehension that shares many symptoms similar to fear, but builds more slowly, and lingers longer.

Depression is a prolonged sadness, that results in a blunting, or deadening of emotions, and a sense of futility. This can be very serious, when an anxiety disorder accompanies the depression.

One of the concerns about anxiety is that while it is a normal response to physical danger – and can be used to focus one’s attention when something important is looming – anxiety itself can become a problem if it persists too long beyond the threat it is meant to address. Sometimes, we know why we are anxious. Sometimes we don’t know why we cannot stem the worrying.

Anxiety Disorder is what health experts often refer to as any anxiety that persists to the point it interferes with one’s daily affairs. This is the most common mental illness in America. It has a variety of forms, from very specific phobias, to generalized anxiety disorder, and affects 19 million Americans. Less than 25 percent of those affected receive any treatment or attention for it at all, according to a study by UCLA researchers in January, 2002.

Generalized anxiety disorder is excessive anxiety or worry, occurring more days than not, over a six-month period or more. It is more than an occasionally serious worry, and it has a marked effect on your quality of life. Signs include restlessness; difficulty concentrating or sleeping; irritability; fatigue; and/or muscle tension.

Anxiety fascinated Freud, and he realized there is more than one kind. He categorized two major forms, one more biological, and the other more psychological in origin. Researchers have recently made significant progress in identifying the underlying science of anxiety. They have come to understand that whatever triggers anxiety, it grows out of a response that appears to be hardwired in our brain. Among the things we know now:

There is a genetic component to anxiety: some seem to be born worriers.

Brain scans show differences in the way patients who suffer from anxiety disorders respond to danger signals.

There is a shortcut in our brain’s information-processing system that allows us to respond to threats before we are even aware of them.

The root of the disorder may NOT be the threat that triggers it, but rather a breakdown in the mechanism that keeps the anxiety response from careening out of control.

If you want further information and assistance, please check our related topics. Also, you can contact a GHE HealthCare, Inc. counselor via our Call Center toll free at

1(866)-443-3277.

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[1] “The Science of Anxiety”, Time, June 10, ’02 47