10 Important Anxiety Facts
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It’s normal to feel anxious from time to time—life is full of anxiety-provoking moments and stressful periods, and your body’s physiological response to such situations is the result of millions of years of human evolution. But that adaptation doesn’t always work as it should, meaning that the body’s stress response kicks in even when there is no real threat or danger—a condition known as anxiety.
Anxiety, however, is multifaceted, taking many forms and impacting life in complex ways. Here, you’ll find 10 crucial anxiety facts to help you better understand and manage your condition.
What causes anxiety?
Anxiety can be caused by a variety of factors, often involving a complex interplay between genetic, environmental, psychological, and biological influences. Here are some common causes:
Genetic factors: Family history of anxiety or other mental health conditions can increase the likelihood of developing anxiety.
Brain chemistry: Imbalances in neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine lie at the core of anxiety.
Environmental stressors: Life changes, trauma, chronic stress, and exposure to stressful environments can trigger anxiety.
Personality traits: Those prone to perfectionism or high levels of control are known to be more susceptible to anxiety.
Medical conditions: Thyroid disorders, heart disease, and certain medications can cause or exacerbate anxiety symptoms.
Substance use: Caffeine, alcohol, or drugs can increase anxiety levels, as well as withdrawal from these substances.
Childhood experiences: Childhood trauma, neglect, or abuse can increase a person’s risk of developing anxiety.
Social factors: Loneliness, lack of social support, and stressful social interactions can contribute to feelings of anxiety.
Cognitive patterns: Maladaptive thinking patterns can perpetuate and exacerbate anxiety.
Understanding these factors can help you identify the causes and triggers of your anxiety and help you make informed decisions about how to treat it. Below, we’ll explore some of these concepts in greater depth.
10 crucial facts about anxiety disorders
These ten facts about anxiety can help you better understand your condition—and how to manage it.
Anxiety disorders are common.
If you’re experiencing an anxiety disorder, you’re not alone. According to the World Health Organization, it’s estimated that around 4% of the global population will experience an anxiety disorder in some form in their lifetime. In fact, anxiety disorders are thought to be the most common form of mental health disorders today.
Anxiety can affect anyone.
While certain populations are more prone to anxiety disorders due to genetics, personality traits, and life experiences, anxiety can affect anyone—regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic status, or cultural background.
Symptoms may vary by age, with children showing behavioral changes and adults experiencing persistent worry and physical symptoms. Anxiety can also coexist with other mental health conditions, such as depression, bipolar disorder, or substance use disorder.
Anxiety disorders can take many different forms.
When you hear people discuss anxiety, they are most likely referring to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, there are a number of mental health conditions that are categorized as anxiety disorders, including:
Panic disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Social anxiety disorder
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Specific phobias
Each of these conditions has a unique set of symptoms, and one person’s experience can differ drastically from another. For example, even two people with social anxiety disorder might experience it differently—one may feel triggered by large groups or crowded places, while another might struggle with everyday interactions like speaking to co-workers.
Anxiety is caused by disruptions to your brain chemistry.
To fully understand anxiety, it’s important to understand the role of brain chemistry—that is, how your thoughts can trigger your body’s stress response. When you encounter potential signs of danger, your brain’s amygdala signals a threat and initiates a cascade of physiological responses, including the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones cause the physical symptoms of anxiety.
Anxiety disorders often involve heightened sensitivity to these threat signals, where you interpret neutral situations as threatening. Neuroimaging studies have shown that in people with anxiety, the balance of activity between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for controlling emotions, is often disrupted, making it harder to calm down.
Anxiety can produce physical symptoms.
Because anxiety triggers the body’s “fight or flight” stress response, it’s common to experience physical symptoms like sweating, trembling or shaking, shortness of breath, and increased heart rate. Addressing these physical symptoms, whether through medication or mindfulness techniques, can help reduce the mental symptoms of anxiety.
Anxiety can also produce somatic symptoms, which you can think of as physical manifestations of distress. This could include upset stomach, fatigue, or unexplained aches and pains. These symptoms can exacerbate anxiety; however, they typically resolve soon after the underlying anxiety is addressed.
It can be hereditary.
Anxiety disorders often run in families, suggesting genetics may play a role. Family and twin studies, for example, have revealed a hereditary component to both generalized anxiety disorder and trait anxiety.
Researchers have identified specific genes that might be involved in anxiety, like those affecting serotonin levels, which influence mood and stress responses. Studies also show that the way our bodies react to stress, including physical changes in the brain and stress hormone levels, is partly influenced by our genes.
Environmental factors can contribute.
While there may be a genetic component, environmental factors are also known to play a role in the development of anxiety disorders. Posttraumatic stress disorder, for example, can manifest after a person experiences a trauma, while excessive screen time during childhood has been linked to anxiety and other mental health disorders.
The built environment is another consideration—high-rise housing has been linked to adverse mental health effects in women and children, while walkable communities are thought to be beneficial to both mental and physical health.
It’s treatable.
While anxiety can cause significant disruption to your daily life, it’s important to know that it can be treated. Treatment for anxiety disorders often involves therapeutic approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy, which can help you learn to address the unhelpful thoughts that trigger your body’s stress response.
CBT is well-validated for the treatment of anxiety disorders, particularly when used alongside exposure therapy. Medication treatments are also common—your doctor may prescribe drugs like SSRIs or benzodiazepines, which help to reduce anxiety symptoms and restore balance in brain chemistry.
Mindfulness and relaxation techniques can help.
Mindfulness and relaxation techniques have been found to be of significant benefit for managing anxiety symptoms. These interventions typically involve practices like deep breathing, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, and yoga, which can lower the body's stress response and improve emotional control.
Mindfulness encourages focusing on the present moment, which can help interrupt the cycle of anxious thoughts. Guided meditations can be a good way to get started with a mindfulness practice, while Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy offers a a more structured and comprehensive approach for anxiety management.
Lifestyle habits can make a significant difference.
Research has repeatedly investigated the link between lifestyle and mental health, and the evidence is overwhelming: a healthy, active lifestyle is foundational to proper brain functioning. When looking for ways to manage your anxiety, a good starting point may be your daily habits. Consider the following:
Regular exercise
Good nutrition and dietary habits
Ample time spent in nature
Healthy relationships
Recreation and enjoyable hobbies
Relaxation and stress management
Religious, spiritual, or psychological development
Service to others
Although anxiety can make it challenging to keep your life busy and balanced, even small changes can make a big difference. Try to make a habit of going for a walk, prioritizing healthy home-cooked meals, or spending more time with friends and loved ones—as you build these practices into your routine, you may begin to feel a difference.
Learn to manage anxiety in therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is often considered the “gold standard” of talk therapy, having been well-validated for a wide range of mental health concerns including anxiety. A cognitive behavioral therapist can help you learn to recognize thoughts that cause anxiety and distress and shift them in a more helpful and realistic direction. They can also help you learn healthier coping mechanisms and lifestyle habits.
Online CBT is known to be just as effective as traditional therapy. Online therapy may be preferable for those whose anxiety symptoms make it challenging to go to an in-person appointment, or who simply need a flexible and convenient way to attend weekly therapy.
BetterHelp makes online therapy available and affordable, and with additional tools and features like group therapy, guided journaling, digital CBT worksheets, and educational webinars, you can get more out of your mental health investment and make progress faster.
Takeaway
Frequently asked questions
What causes anxiety?
The exact causes of anxiety disorders are not yet fully understood, but a combination of genetic and environmental factors likely contribute to their development.
Anxiety, as an emotion, is a normal part of life. However, those with disorders experience chronic anxiety and stress and various other symptoms that interfere with their lives.
What are good things to come from anxiety?
Anxiety is not easy to live with; that's a well-known fact. Still, being diagnosed with or handling anxiety symptoms is possible, and in fact, may not be as hard to attain as you might expect.
There are lots of positives to be found when dealing with anxiety. For one thing, anxiety disorders are some of the most common mental illnesses. Many resources - including research efforts, advancements in therapy techniques, etc. - are dedicated to better understanding and treating anxiety each year.
Our understanding of anxiety has undoubtedly evolved, as has our understanding of mental health in general. Treatment centers, though there's still room for improvement in terms of availability, are numerous. Anxiety is highly treatable; there are many approved treatment options such as cognitive behavioral therapy that has proved to be a useful addition.
What is normal anxiety?
Experiencing some degree of anxiety, fear, or worry throughout life is to be expected. There's nothing unnatural or unhealthy about feeling these emotions, especially if they're in response to significant life events, stressful situations, or instability in life.
Anxiety disorders cause excessive worry, even if an exact source of anxiety can't be easily identified. Anxiety disorders might also cause physical symptoms, panic attacks, or exacerbate other mental health issues.
If the anxiety you experience is persistent, doesn't respond to your attempts to lessen it, or begins to interfere with your life heavily, it's likely time to get help.
What percentage of the world has anxiety?
According to recent estimates and from the World Health Organization, about 3.6% of the world population experiences an anxiety disorder (note that this figure is likely slightly higher now in 2021). To put that statistic into perspective: the organization also reported about 264 million individual cases of anxiety disorders worldwide.
What age does anxiety peak?
It's hard to pinpoint an exact age at which anxiety disorders peak for a few reasons. First, and most obvious, each case of anxiety is different, as is each affected individual. It can also be challenging to identify precisely when anxiety symptoms initially began and to what extent. Many children and young people may have difficulty realizing that their symptoms are abnormal or may not feel comfortable exploring their experiences with others.
What we do know for sure is that anxiety disorders can appear differently throughout an individual's life. That is, the way anxiety symptoms show themselves during childhood (shyness, selective mutism, having a hard time controlling emotions or communicating, etc.) may look very different during adulthood.
Can you manage GAD without medication?
If an individual cannot take medication or chooses not to, it's still possible to find relief from anxiety symptoms. Other behavioral health services, like therapy, as mentioned, are still an essential part of any treatment plan, and with dedicated effort and planning with your therapist, it's possible to control your anxiety effectively. Be sure to speak with your therapist, doctor, or other healthcare professional to discuss alternative options and how to best proceed.
Can people with anxiety sleep?
Many individuals with anxiety disorders report having a hard time falling or staying asleep many times due to the mental anguish and preoccupation they feel as a result of their anxiety symptoms.
Sleep disorders are most likely to develop if you're already dealing with a separate mental illness, including an anxiety disorder. Fortunately, there are many options out there to help make getting better, consistent sleep a possibility.
You may also benefit from changing aspects of your lifestyle - like drinking less caffeine, trying to incorporate physical activity in your day, etc. - to further help control your sleep cycle.
How can I stop anxiety?
The first and perhaps most crucial step in developing a treatment plan is meeting with a doctor or other behavioral health professional (therapist, psychiatrist, etc.). After evaluating your symptoms and providing you with an appropriate diagnosis and medical advice, you can begin to officially develop a strategy to manage your anxiety.
Once you've begun receiving treatment, you might find it helpful to find support from others who understand what you're going through. You might find a support group, for example, or an online community for those who deal with an anxiety disorder.
Who is prone to GAD?
Several risk factors may make you more likely to develop an anxiety disorder. Some are related to physical health - those with heart disease or other cardiovascular issues are more likely to develop anxiety, for instance - and family history.
Those with other mental health concerns (common mental illnesses include eating disorders, sleep disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, substance use disorders or occurring disorders, etc.) are more likely to develop anxiety symptoms, even if they don't escalate into a full-blown anxiety disorder.
Many mental illnesses, including anxiety and depression, often overlap and may develop due to one another. Anxiety may force you to avoid things that may have otherwise made you happy in life, like social situations, significant events, or even simple tasks like going to the grocery store or taking a ride in a car. Over time, dealing with the anguish that comes with anxiety may lead to depression symptoms.
Can anxiety destroy a relationship?
Anxiety disorders, especially those related to socialization (social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder), can negatively impact the quality of relationships, including romantic, familial, or platonic relationships.
Those who aren't being treated by behavioral health services might have more intense symptoms or have a more challenging time controlling them/keeping them from impacting others.
The critical thing to exercise when anxiety begins to impact a relationship is communication, no matter which end of the equation you're on. Being honest about how you feel or interpreting someone's actions is one of the best ways to facilitate honesty and avoid confrontation.
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