Courtney Taylor (FGCU) How Stress affects people and the economy.

Anxiety/panic attacks are not to be confused with “just being nervous”; panic attacks are on a much larger scale.  Normally, someone can feel anxiety before taking a test or right before his or her first day of school, or even before their first date; but there is a point on the line that differentiates and teeters between pure nervousness or stage fright and being completely terrified and feeling like you are going to die.  People who have panic attacks feel like the worst is inevitably going to happen, and whatever is coming, it is right around the corner.  When you cannot live your daily life without fearing every single oncoming obstacle, no matter how menial, it is a problem.  Anxiety is something relatively normal that happens to everyone; it is the body’s natural response to danger or stress; but for some reason, it affects some more than others.             There are two different groups of symptoms that someone can experience, either separate or together all at once. There are emotional effects (anxiety attack) as well as physical (panic attack). The emotional symptoms of having an attack can include feelings of apprehension or dread, trouble concentrating, feeling tense or jumpy, thinking that the worst is going to happen, being irritable or restless, looking around for any signs of danger, or sometimes feeling like your mind is blank.  Not all panic attacks have a cause or reason.  In some cases, anxiety attacks come randomly with no emotions attached, strictly physical.  The physical symptoms more commonly associated with panic attacks can also be very intense, including having a pounding heart, sweating, stomachaches or dizziness, frequent urination or diarrhea, shortness of breath, tremors and twitches, muscle tension or muscle cramps, headaches, fatigue, or insomnia.  Hyperventilating, trouble breathing, and feeling as if you lost control are some of the key signs that you are having an attack.  Either way it is a lot to handle while trying to carry on a normal lifestyle with everyday responsibilities.  For the most part, panic/anxiety attacks climax within ten minutes and generally never last more than a half hour.  It may not seem like a long time but to that person, it is as if they are going to die, it may seem like hours until they finally calm back down.  Many people who suffer from this disorder compared their attacks to having a heart attack and felt too crazy to rationalize through anything.              Besides anxiety/panic attacks there are four other major types of anxiety disorders; OCD, PTSD, social anxiety disorder, and phobias.  In the United States alone there are approximately 6.8 million people affected by anxiety attacks and panic attacks, 7.7 million for PTSD, 15 million be social anxiety disorder, 2.2 million with OCD, and 19 million with phobias.  Throughout my research, I found that anxiety and panic attacks are even more prevalent than bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, or depression; I was amazed at the statistics.  These two disorders alone cost America around $42 billion dollars a year and according to “The Economic Burden of Anxiety Disorders,” a study commissioned by the ADAA then published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, this is almost 1/3 of the country’s $148 billion dollar health bill.  Some other statistics I found important were that it affected mostly adults between 18 and 54, mostly women, and approximately eight people per minute are going through an anxiety or panic attack.  Attacks are easily triggered, whether by a demanding schedule, lack of exercise or sleep, pressure at home or work, or even from too much coffee, but it’s important for people to know that they can get help, in fact most anxiety is wiped away with 5-8 treatment sessions including behavioral therapy, medication, or some combination of the two.  There are two types of behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy and exposure therapy.  Medications can include benzodiazepines or antidepressants.  Some health alternatives would be doing some exercise, relaxation techniques, biofeedback, or even hypnosis.

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