Thursday, August 4, 2016







Anxiety-The Scourge of Society!

If you are or have been one of the 40,000.000 US Adults (18-54 years old) that have experienced Anxiety (NIMH), then you know what we are talking about. And believe us, we also have first-hand experience for decades and can speak from experience.

The ridiculousness of Anxiety is that only 10% of people receive effective help, which means that 36,000,000 people are having to go day to day dealing with its terrible symptoms.
The most common form is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) which consumes some 34% of sufferers. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 20%; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) 20%; Phobias 13%; and Panic Disorder 13%.

With these different manifestations, you could experience interruptions in your daily life; suffering and dysfunction; sleep problems (50% do); irrational fears; muscle tension; chronic indigestion; stage freight; self-consciousness; panic attacks; flashbacks; perfectionism; and self-doubt/second questioning. You may experience any number of the above symptoms which will make your life a “living hell”. Add to that that 90% are trying to deal with these symptoms without valid professional help, some for budget reasons and some from embarrassment or the “stigma” of it all.

Even with proper mental health treatment and medications, it can take decades before a person can regain their life back to live without debilitating anxiety. So there is no mystery why anxiety is the most common mental health issue accounting for nearly 1/3 of the $148,000,000,000 in US Annual Healthcare costs (The Economic Burden of Anxiety Disorders, a report commissioned by the ADAA). And the bad news is the incidence and hospitalization increases with age with the majority of known sufferers being women (it is fair to say that these numbers may be skewed since most men will not admit to any type of anxiety/mental health condition or seek help due to the social stigma or just being macho and deemed weak).

So what do we do now? It would seem that since there still is a very real social stigma to mental health and seeing mental health professionals, the on-line counselor sites (yes, we have one too) is a fantastic way for more people, particularly men, to seek help in the privacy of their own home. Medications are primarily prescribed by the Primary Care Doctors anyway, so you can get the proper combination of therapy and medication, as needed. More and More states are letting Psychologists prescribe medications and the word on the street is that most psychiatrists are just writing scripts and letting most of the patient volume go to the Psychologists.

No matter what you have or think you have, do yourself a favor and go see a mental health professional or on-line to discuss your options. It may take longer that you want, but it sure beats having to always be saddled with this tremendous burden that can ultimately be controlled and/or eliminated.

Come see us at www.stressless.com