Help available for anxiety disorder victims

Last week I began a discussion of anxiety disorders that included panic disorder and agoraphobia. Estimates are that 6 percent of Americans suffer from anxiety disorders.

Panic disorder is a sudden wave of terror that can strike anywhere and anytime. Agoraphobics may become so severely incapacitated by their fears that they become housebound.

Unfortunately many victims of these problems fail to seek help because they are embarrassed to admit their difficulties. They see these problems as signs of weakness and often have little success in finding someone to sympathize with them or understand their problems.

In both disorders, the individual generally begins to anticipate the problem even if they are not already feeling nervous, anxious, panicky or fearful. It then becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy and the fear or the fear becomes part of the problem.

Such difficulties may have lead to the labeling of people with these disorders as eccentric, unsociable or even peculiar, which often causes them to retreat even further into their illness. Left untreated the problem can lead to complete social isolation and impair or destroy a relationship, such as marriage.

These individuals often “work around” their problem and consequently are severely handicapped by self-imposed “rules” often impairing advancement in social relationships.

In an attempt to deal with their fears, they often develop elaborate and time-consuming patterns of behavior or rituals as ways of avoiding unpleasant and anxiety producing situations. This becomes a vicious cycle that makes the problem even worse.

Anxiety attacks frequently occur during periods of high stress. In talking with individuals suffering with panic attacks, I find the onset of the problem and first attack frequently occurred during a stressful period of the person’s life. It may have been a period of great change, financial problems, death or divorce. Many of these victims were often worriers, perfectionists or those who craved a lot of attention and had strong need for approval.

There is a growing evidence that certain types of anxiety disorders may have biological roots as they tend to occur more frequently in families and are often passed from one generation to the next. This tendency, although not proved, has been reported by some researchers in other psychological illnesses and problems including some forms of depression, bipolar illness and obsession-compulsive disorders.

Treatment is available and effective for anxiety conditions. Mental health care professionals have made dramatic advances during the past several years in treating these problems with medication, counseling or, frequently, a combination of the two.


Limit caffeine consumption and situations dealing with a lot of tenseness and pressure, if possible.
Avoid skipping meals, stick to a balance diet and carefully control alcohol consumption.
Exercise regularly and develop techniques for managing stress.
Don’t let your fear of the fear cause you to neglect help. Anxiety is a treatable problem.


Copyright c 1991 Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D.