Ten years ago. Lori*, a speech pathologist in Virginia, was grocery-shopping when she suddenly couldn't breathe or swallow. "My heart was racing and my chest felt tight -- I thought I was having a heart attack," says the 42-year-old mother of four. The symptoms lasted several minutes before finally letting up. Lori took a deep breath and brushed off the incident as a onetime thing; she had to pick up the kids from day care and didn't have time for a trip to the doctor's office.
But over the next month, Lori experienced several more attacks. After realizing the problem wasn't going to go away, she saw a doctor. He diagnosed her with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) with panic attacks. GAD is a condition of debilitating worry that affects nearly 7 million Americans. "I'd always fretted over my family's well-being," says Lori. "But it never occurred to me that doing so could affect my own."
Lori's experience is especially common among women: Nearly one in three will suffer from an anxiety disorder in her lifetime, making it the most prevalent mental health problem in the United States. In addition to GAD, anxiety disorders can take me form of panic disorder (panic attacks that recur for more than a month), social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and phobias. And while it's no surprise that persistent fretting cripples us emotionally, clouding our thoughts and draining us of energy and joy, it also takes a physical toll, as the body reacts to perceived dangers by releasing a flood of stress hormones. Your heart rate and blood pressure spike, while other functions, such as digestion, slow down. Over the long haul, exposure to these bodily chemicals can set the stage for insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, and heart and lung disease.
While experts aren't exactly sure what causes certain people to experience anxiety, they say genes may be partly to blame: Research reveals some brains may be predisposed to overreact to potential threats. But even if you're a natural-born fretter, you can break free from the worry cycle and prevent it from ruling your life. By gauging your level of anxiety and then learning ways to calm your mind, you can add years -- not to mention tranquility -- to your life. When Angst Goes Awry Unfortunately, anxiety disorders aren't treated properly 41 percent of the time, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. One reason? The main warning sign -- worry -- is a natural emotion that most of us encounter on a regular basis. After all, who hasn't felt antsy before an interview or obsessed about not turning off the curling iron after leaving the house? While it's true that a certain amount of anxiety is healthy (it serves as the body's alarm system, alerting us to danger and spurring us to action), the problem is that many of us worry too frequently and readily. At the slightest hint of threat, we immediately conjure up catastrophic thoughts or wonder "What if?" for hours. "Women frequently use worrying as a way to gain some sense of control," says Michelle Craske, Ph.D., director of the Anxiety Disorders Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. "They mistakenly believe it helps them prepare for disaster." But all that time and energy is usually wasted: Researchers from Australia and New Zealand found that worrying can actually hinder our ability to resolve problems.
To determine if your fretting is over the top, ask yourself what's making you anxious. Most women, for instance, would be concerned about their financial future if the stock market took another nosedive. But if you have a healthy savings account, a secure career, and an affordable mortgage and you still stay up at night wondering if you'll wind up homeless, it may signal an anxiety disorder. You might also notice that you often experience some physical reactions to stress, such as fatigue, edginess, muscle aches, and insomnia. "A more obvious red flag is when you have an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations," says Jerilyn Ross, president and CEO of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. For example, you may start avoiding talking to strangers or taking public transportation. For a clearer list of symptoms, take a free assessment quiz at adaa.org. Stopping the Cycle Once you've established that the emotion is getting the best of you, it's time to start reining in those thoughts. "The way to do that is by reprogramming your habits," says Michael McKee, Ph.D., an assistant clinical professor of medical psychology in psychiatry at Columbia University. In a Purdue University study of adults with a tendency to fret, researchers found that people who don't allow their anxiety to escalate lived longer those who do.
Begin by making a few lifestyle changes, such as the ones in "7 Therapy-Free Ways to Ease Anxiety," on page 79. You also may want to talk to a therapist about cognitive-behavioral therapy, which teaches coping techniques that help change the thinking and behavioral patterns leading to excessive fear. "If you have overwhelming anxiety or symptoms that persist for more than six months, prescription medication may be in order," says McKee. Antianxiety agents, such as Valium, Xanax, and Klonopin, enhance the action of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, which has a calming effect. (Since people can develop a tolerance to these drugs, they are generally prescribed for only a few months at a time, says McKee.) Another option is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, such as Lexapro, Paxil, or Prozac, which boosts levels of the feel-good chemical serotonin in the brain. For Lori, a combination of weekly therapy sessions and an antidepressant helped diffuse her anxiety and panic. "Looking back I realize I had been suppressing my emotions all of my adult life," she says. "But now I've learned how to deal with my worry in a healthy way: by talking dirough my issues with friends and using deep breathing to calm down quickly." The result, says Lori? "My panic attacks are less frequent -- and much more manageable -- than they once were."
