Anxiety disorders now seen as brain ailments

[HuckleB]

umm. like, duh.

Anxiety disorders now seen as brain ailments

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/216175_anxiety16.html

"Once considered a kind of self-inflicted state of constant concern a la Woody Allen, anxiety disorders are increasingly thought to have genetic roots.

"For so long, people thought of anxiety disorders as the 'worried well,' and they trivialized it," said Jerilyn Ross, president and chief executive officer of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, which is holding its annual conference this week in Seattle. "They thought people just kind of learned it from people around them. Now we understand these are brain disorders."

A group of about 1,000 anxiety disorder experts and others will meet to discuss the latest research on a cluster of conditions that can lead to paralyzing fears and obsessive thoughts in those afflicted. About 19 million Americans, or 13.3 percent of the population, suffer from an anxiety disorder, according to the association.

"What they all have in common is irrational, involuntary fears or thoughts or obsessions that interfere with people's behavior," Ross said.

..."

[politicat]

1. About Bloody Time.

Those who treat anxiety and PTSD know they're chemical and physical, not mental.

Now if we can just get the memo to the public and the insurers.....

[punpirate]

2. Who does the math...

... in such stories? This says 19 million people represent 13.3% of the population. That means that the current population is 142.8 million.

That might be 13.3% of the population over 40, but not the total population.

Well, why should I expect fact-checking from the press? They seem to be mostly good at just rewriting press releases, anyway.

[Tux]

3. Yeah

I have a bachelor's degree in psychology and I known this for awhile. All fMRI scans shown that many mental illness are neurochemical in nature. Of course, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, and physicological psychology will be fine but, hopefully, it'll shut down clinical psychology. My degree has research orientation and I could never find a job with it since clinical psych took over and only hire thier own even for stupid jobs like having people fill out forms.

[kineneb]

4. Duh- I could have told them that

Having had a two-week long panic/anxiety attack with a major depressive episode, I know it is not an "attitude" issue. It took almost a year along with an increase in my meds to recover, and it seems to have made the memory problems worse. And we won't get into the OCD problems.