Anxiety

In the twenty-first century, there is so much talk about anxiety. Whether this means someone is talking about being nervous about something or having a panic attack it is stillanxiety. I want to find out what causes our society to endure so much anxiety. As a college student, I have experienced many types of anxiety lately and I feel as if anxiety is becomingmore and morecommon and more serious. Having anxiety can bereally hardon your body and having anxiety attacks can be extremely scary. I have experienced these things and attacks are something that are hard to forget about. I do not understand why anxiety is such a common thing and I want to know what the main causes of anxietyareand the main types of things people do to treat it. What could be the causes of anxiety becoming more common?
How many peoplein today’s societystruggle with Anxiety or panic disorder? Over 40 million adults in the United States or 18% of the population are affected by anxiety disorder (Anxiety and Depression Association of America). This is not including the many teens and children that struggle with it also. This percentage might seem very low but when thinking about how many people are in the population, 18% is a lot of people! This explains why anxiety and panic disorder is the most common mental illness in the United States.
Are there different kinds of anxiety or does everyone have the same type? “All anxiety disorders are not alikethere are many different triggers that can set off an attack, and even symptoms can vary greatly depending on thetype of anxiety. If you recognize yourself in some of the following symptoms and find they’re beginning to interfere with your daily life, it’s time to seek professional help, says Barlow.” (Types of Anxiety Disorders 63). The types include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder. There are also other types such as Social Phobia, Agoraphobia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and sports anxiety. This means that when someone says they have anxiety they could be anxious about many things. They could also have a type that causes them to not be able to control when or why they are anxious. This makes me very curious as to what could cause someone to not be able to control how they feel or even to not know why they are anxious!
What causes a panic attack to occur as far as chemicals in the brain? Anxiety causes the same “fight or flight” response that stress does which means that it will also evoke stress hormones to flood our bodies enhancing our reflexes, speed, heart rate and circulation. (Roy-Byrne,Craske, et al.) This made complete sense to me because during my panic attacks I can feel my heart racing, my hands sweat, and my face gets extremely hot. It also gets very hard for me to breathe which causes me to panic even more. Roy-Byrne,Craske, and others also explained that the main difference between the responses of stress and anxiety is that stress may cause anger,sadnessor excitement, while anxiety is almost always fear or dread. Anxiety is also a more internal response and is held in rather than noticed from the body language. This information hit home for me because when I first began to have panic attacks I never told anyone because I did not know what was going on. I eventually told my parents but only after I would have the attacks, never during. The article revealed that your brain is deeply involved with anxiety but the exact cause for anxiety disorders is unknown.

I began to have panic attacks at a young age, what ages are affected most by anxiety? Anxiety affects one in eight kids and can potentially put them at higher risk to perform poorly in school, miss important social experiences, and get caught up in substance abuse. Anxiety is just as common in adults as it is children. Children might have things trigger their attacks such as school, bullying, social media, and any phobias whileadults are mainly triggered by