anxiety a disease?

[victoria_s]

hi everyone, please dont think ive actually cracked up but do you think health anxiety or any anxiety infact is an actual disease? how can it be for 20 odd year you are fine then one day BOOMPH! your a full blown worrier! to the point of making yourself ill! an old friend (50 odd) who had suffered from anxiety for a few years had done some research into the fact that panic/anxiety was infact a disease and not a mental condition as such. would any one like to share their thoughts...

[Mudskipper]

Well, some psychological conditions can be due to an imbalance of brain chemicals and they're unlikely to get better without some form of medical intervention so I guess that makes them a bona fide physical illness. Who is to say that research may not also find a similar causal factor for anxiety? It would be quite comforting to think that my anxiety, which is high as a kite right now, was actually due to a recognised physical problem rather than my own morbid way of looking at life. Must admit I'm not holding my breath on this one though.

[victoria_s]

It would be quite comforting to think that my anxiety, which is high as a kite right now, was actually due to a recognised physical problem rather than my own morbid way of looking at life. .

I agree. It makes me feel like a mental patient sometimes the way i look at things.

[DavidJ85]

I'd like there to be some "cure" aswell I think we all would!

[PanicMan]

Im on 5mg of Lexapro at the moment which will be getting upped in the next week and I just refer to them now as my mental pills. Anxiety is definately an illness whether it be through a chemical imbalance or not.

[jude uk]

I think because anxiety is connected to how we feel with regard to our thoughts it is difficult to define it. Yet we know when we go to the doctors and say we are feeling a certain way they say its anxiety, which I think is rather vague. Its like now when you go to the doctors with anything they say its a virus.

Will there ever be a cure?

I think there needs to be more research done and this will need more money invested into mental health because everyone's symptoms are different and there is no one pill or cbt that fits all.

Maybe we all need to be pro-active on this and write to our own MPs and ask for more cash to be invested...just a thought

[PanicMan]

I dont think there will ever be a 'catch all' cure to anxiety as the causes are so varied and people chemical make ups so different I can always see it being cured by some mish mash of pills and/or therapy.

Sometimes in the past I've known exactly what sets off an attack and other times it literally seems like one has come out of thin air and there has been nothing to trigger so one attack I can combat but the second has me at a loss so how do I deal with that.