M6

Anxiety is a mental disorder characterized by feelings of worry, anxiety, or fear that are strong enough to interfere with ones daily activities. Anxiety disorders are real, serious medical conditions-just as real and serious as physical disorders such as heart disease and diabetes. Anxiety disorders are the most common disorders in the United States and affect over 44 million American adults.

I interviewed one of my roommates along with my mom about their anxiety disorders and how it affects their everyday lives.

Growing up, my mom had always struggled with anxiety but as a child I was not really sure what that entailed. She has what is called generalized anxiety disorder or GAD. GAD is characterized by persistent and excessive worry about a number of different things. People with this disorder often anticipate disaster and may be overly concerned about family, money, health, work or other issues. When I interviewed my mom she talked about how some days it feels as though she can't even get out of bed because her anxiety is so bad. She worries about things that should not be that big of a deal. She explains that work is what sparks her anxiety the most. "Its not even that I hate my job, I love teaching kids and molding them into who they're going to be, but at times it can be stressful dealing with middle-schoolers for 7 hours a day" She said that her anxiety has gotten better since we have started to grow up and move out of the house (but reassured me that I was not that cause of her anxiety, just sparked it sometimes when I decided to be a bad kid ;))

Similarly, one of my roommates here at school also has generalized anxiety. She explained to me how her anxiety will make it hard to focus or get things done. She said "A lot of times when my anxiety is high I end up just thinking about how much I have to get done and ultimately end up doing none of it because I can't focus enough to do any of it, which then in turn makes my anxiety worse" She described it as almost a cycle that she cannot seem to break out of. When I asked her what sparked her anxiety she told me most of the time it was things to do with the environment she currently lives in (dorms) and how much she has to balance between school and work. She pays for everything on her own including school and her car which can stress her out and make her anxiety worse when she feels as though she won't be able to pay for something she needs.

The DSM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This manual is "a document that provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders". It organizes the diagnosis of the disorder into 5 dimensions or axes. Both my mom and my roommates conditions fall into axis 1. Axis 1 includes the most usual clinical disorders such as anxiety and mood disorders. These disorders are the most common and affect 21% of adults in America.


Anxiety is a serious issue that most people to not like to talk about because it is not physically diagnosed like some other diseases are, but in fact anxiety can be just as severe if not more than some conditions.


Works Cited (:

Andrade, Nancy De, et al. “Anxiety.org.” Anxiety.org, www.anxiety.org/.

“Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).” Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA, adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad.