Articles

ANXIETY DISORDERS: FACING YOUR FEARS

On a recent trip to a professional conference, Marilyn Erickson (fictitious name) boarded a connecting flight at O'Hare International Airport. Her husband, John, a professor at a major university, did not get back on the plane. Her worry over her husband's whereabouts prompted Marilyn to get off the plane and search frantically throughout the airport for him. Finally, long after the plane had departed, she found him sitting on a bench outside the terminal, having become sick (vomiting), extremely dizzy, and distraught over the mere thought of boarding the plane. When Marilyn suggested taking another flight to continue their journey, he began to shake violently and, in his terror, refused to budge from his bench. Later, they boarded a bus to travel back to their home on the West Coast and missed their scheduled conference appearance.

Professor Erickson suffered an acute form of one of several anxiety disorders, known as a panic attack, a little-understood yet extremely common psychological problem faced by many Americans. Consider John Madden, former head coach of the Oakland Raiders and a true "man's man" who has outfitted his own bus and drives every weekend across the country to serve as commentator on NFL football games. What's the reason behind this exhausting driving schedule? Madden is terrified of getting on a plane.

Each of us has undoubtedly experienced such anxiety or known others with similar problems. In fact, anxiety disorders are the number one mental health problem in the United States, affecting over 19 million people of ages 18-54 each year, or about 13 percent of all adults. Some sources estimate that these numbers may be even higher and may include about 1 of every 4 adults in America. The problem doesn't affect adults only. Anxiety is also a leading mental health problem among adolescents, affecting 13 million youngsters of ages 9-17. Costs associated with an overly anxious populace are growing rapidly; conservative estimates cite nearly 50 billion dollars a year spent in doctors' bills and workplace losses in America. According to a study by the World Health Organization, the odds of developing an anxiety disorder have doubled in the past four decades. These numbers don't begin to address the human costs incurred when a person is too fearful to leave the house or afraid to talk to anyone outside of the immediate family.

What makes members of our society anxious, ever vigilant, fearful? One only needs to listen to the news, read the newspaper, or observe the events in cities and towns across the country to understand. Constant, intense stressors, such as heavy traffic, noise, an ever-changing dose of pressure at work, job changes, changes in management, uncertainty, and a host of other factors make people uneasy, queasy, or downright sick. Headaches abound, nervous skin rashes are on the rise, and people daily ingest gallons of caffeine-laden beverages such as coffee and cola, exacerbating any potential tendency toward anxiety.

According to a new USA Weekend report, "edginess" is epidemic; the following real-world scenarios serve as evidence: a man is so anxious about driving over a bridge that he asks his wife to shut him in the trunk of the car before crossing, a woman is so fearful of heights that she won't befriend anyone who lives above the tenth floor, a man is so nervous about using public restrooms that he needs a therapist to accompany him to the toilet and talk him through it, and the list goes on. According to the same source, the numbers of "hits" on the website of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America skyrocketed from 500,000 in 1997 to over 21.6 million in 1999.

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