Is Anxiety a real illness/ disoder?

[Bear]

Is anxiety really a mental illness that requires medications to cure, or do the drug companies just take advantage of the fact that many people have it along with depression? I have "anxiety disorder". Is there really something wrong with my brain that makes me different from someone else who doesn't have anxiety, or is it just that I'm a sensitive person and overintellectualize certain things? Something to think about...

[NoSocialButterfly]

I don't know the cause of anxiety, but I know that it can be crippling. I have no idea whether it's some sort of chemical imbalance or a learned behavior. Does it REQUIRE medication?...I say no. I did try medication but found the side-effects not worth it. However, I have been in therapy for over 2 years and it has helped immensely. EVERYONE experiences anxiety...there is no cure for it. But if it is at levels where it is preventing with someone's ability to live their lives, I definitely would consider it to be a disorder that needs treatment. It is not some made up condition. While I didn't really benefit from medication, many have. The best thing I ever did for myself is going to therapy. It has really made me more aware of my irrational thoughts, helped me accept myself, learn to realize that I am not incapable, and helped me move forward instead of remaining stuck.

[Cage]

It's real to the point it's stopping me from doing day to day things, I would at least call that a disorder, or a disability .

[BlueLace]

I know I have an anxiety disorder. I have heard so many people say it's just shyness and by inference is just a normal human emotion that should be endured and not treated. Is it normal human emotion to have a panic attack, shake, throw up before, after, or during an event? Or to the extreme of fainting? That truly is disabling.The only thing that seems to help is CBT, and medication.

[Matty]

I respect anyone with a mental illness. Why? Because I feel I have one. I suffer from Social Anxiety and Depression. I feel that it clouds ones vision of the outside world and no matter how hard you fight... it is a losing battle. Happily I show up to the fight day in day out.

Anxiety is a real illness. Why it happens I have no idea. But from what I have learnt from spending time with people suffering from other anxiety disorders is that it makes no sense. I can not speak to a person, yet study a book with no issue. A friend can be the center of attention yet can not spend 5 mins reading a book or trying to better himself academically.

I have as yet refused medical relief, because i believe that I can beat this. 2013 will be my last year of fighting alone. After that I will accept anything thrown at me.

[WineKitty]

yes it's real, its a disorder, its a mental illness....but I think it is also fixable but it's very hard work. Non SAers dont get it...they just don't understand. Which is why I turn to online forums to talk about it. With people that actually know what it's like.

[JustAShadow]

I'd say it is if it affects the quality of your life.

[WineKitty]

I respect anyone with a mental illness. Why? Because I feel I have one. I suffer from Social Anxiety and Depression. I feel that it clouds ones vision of the outside world and no matter how hard you fight... it is a losing battle. Happily I show up to the fight day in day out.

Anxiety is a real illness. Why it happens I have no idea. But from what I have learnt from spending time with people suffering from other anxiety disorders is that it makes no sense. I can not speak to a person, yet study a book with no issue. A friend can be the center of attention yet can not spend 5 mins reading a book or trying to better himself academically.



I have as yet refused medical relief, because i believe that I can beat this. 2013 will be my last year of fighting alone. After that I will accept anything thrown at me.

It's funny you say that about the friend that cannot spend 5 mins reading a book. I was just talking to a friend of mine yesterday that I have known most of my life. He claims he cannot be "easily entertained" to just sit still long enough to read. I, on the other hand, get lost in books and love to read. He can also be quite the talker. But he has a lot of anxiety issues of his own just in a very different way from me. He takes Xanax and is on pain pills and patches for a back injury. I sometimes think it's almost irritating how he can flutter around and talk and do things that would send me into anxiety overdrive but then again he has his own demons to fight.

One of my goals for 2013 is to get off benzos as I believe it was my former PCPs way of "band aid" medicine. They worked fine for a while but now, over two years later, I am addicted to them and take an ever increasing dose. This isn't my idea of beating anxiety. Also, I have a medical condition that was discovered that could be inducing some anxiety (but not all of it) in me and I might have to be on medication for it for the rest of my life (thyroid). So for my liver's sake, I want to stop taking benzos.

[Misty]

I'd say it is if it affects the quality of your life.

Anxiety has effected the quality of my life, I agree with this.

[Trendsetter]

I don't think so. Even though I pretty hardly have any anxiety, anxious situations for me will never go away completely.

Everyone, whether they have SA or not, will have anxious situations. If anxiety is becoming such a huge problem to a person where they cannot normally function in their lives, or causing other conditions like depression or panic attacks, then that would be a serious disorder and treatments are required.

I never recieved any medications for treating SA, I did away with it mainly with counseling/therapy. The side effects with meds are pretty scary to me.

[Frogger]

It can be a disorder

[Monotony]

It's a real disability.

[Sagan]

Most definitely, and without a doubt. I speak from dealing with this evil curse for many years. It robs you (me) of a normal life. It's an evil shadow that follows me everywhere I go. Sometimes I get so angry and frustrated that I snap at the ones I love.

[Otherside]

Being in the UK and getting my meds for free, I don't think the mental health team is gonna provide me with medication that costs them money just for the heck of the pharmaceutical companies.

There's nothing for me to think about. I'm not just an oversensitive person. I have an overactive nervous system and a chemical imbalance in my brain. I don't have a choice about taking my meds. As much as I hate them and am scared of them, there's no choice me for me. It's that, and deal with the side effects, or risk ending up really badly suicidal, in hospital, or worse...dead...

I don't like people telling me that I don't need my meds, or the "drug companies are out for money" argument. I know you were only referring to anxiety (and I have more than that), and you don't know my situation and all, but it's still not best to start threads like that. It's real. I have several years worth of it being real. If it wasn't for my meds, I don't know where I'd be.

[Chopin12]

I was told on the other forum not to say this, but Ill go ahead and first say this is just my opinion, im obviously not a doctor nor should you take my word as sound medical advice.


that being said, anxiety is not a physical disorder. I dont think it has anything to do with your brain chemistry. now hear me out. even if there are tests that show anxiety-sufferers have a different brain chemistry, that doesnt mean that the anxiety came from that. all it has to mean is that their emotions and thoughts changed their brain chemistry over time.

anxiety is what you could call a mental disorder. anxiety comes from fear, a basic human emotion. and below that emotion of fear you will find fear-based thoughts. right now, at this very moment, i can choose to think different thoughts and in turn feel different emotions regardless of what my brain composition is. I strongly believe that anxiety is entirely mental and that no medication is needed. In fact, I think using medication in the hopes that its going to solve your anxiety is pointless, its never going to solve what is a mental construct that you yourself have put in place.

that being said, i also dont have anything against people who use medication, nor do i think they are wrong for it. $hi*, Ive abused plenty of medication over my life and im still okay. my point is dont let anyone make you believe there is something physically wrong with you that can only be treated using pills.