Anxiety Disorders : Introduction

Anxiety disorders are serious medical illnesses that affect approximately 40 million American adults. These disorders fill people's lives with overwhelming anxiety and fear. Unlike the relatively mild, brief anxiety caused by a stressful event such as a business presentation or a first date, anxiety disorders are chronic, relentless, and can grow progressively worse if not treated.

Effective treatments for anxiety disorders are available, and research is yielding new, improved therapies that can help most people with anxiety disorders lead productive, fulfilling lives. If you think you have an anxiety disorder, you should seek information and treatment.

• help you identify the symptoms of anxiety disorders,
• explain the role of research in understanding the causes of these conditions,
• describe effective treatments,
• help you learn how to obtain treatment and work with a doctor or therapist, and
• suggest ways to make treatment more effective.

• panic disorder,
• obsessive-compulsive disorder,
• post-traumatic stress disorder,
• social phobia (social anxiety disorder),
• specific phobias, and
• generalised anxiety disorder

Each anxiety disorder has its own distinct features, but they are all bound together by the common theme of excessive, irrational fear and dread.