"Feeling anxious can be normal. When can anxiety become a mental disorder? As humans, we need the capacity to feel anxious. Moderate levels of anxiety actually improve performance on things like taking tests, playing sports, or giving a presentation. It can be helpful because it encourages people to pursue things that are challenging, and it gives them the opportunity to feel the rewards of success."
"The problem with anxiety is that it feels terrible. For some people it can feel intolerable. And this is when it becomes problematic. When we believe that anxiety is bad, we may start avoiding the sources of anxiety to make those bad feelings go away. Anxiety and avoidance reinforce each other in a vicious cycle. It becomes a disorder when it meets diagnostic criteria, causes clinical distress, and interferes with normal functioning."
"If you think about anxiety disorders, there is a large genetic component so we wouldn't expect that to change over time."
Anxiety is a normal human capacity that at moderate levels improves performance on tests, sports, and presentations. Moderate anxiety motivates pursuit of challenges and enables enjoyment of success. Anxiety becomes problematic when it feels intolerable and leads people to avoid anxiety-provoking situations to escape bad feelings. Avoidance and anxiety reinforce each other in a vicious cycle, and a disorder arises when anxiety meets diagnostic criteria, causes clinical distress, and interferes with normal functioning. Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders, and about a third of adults will experience one in their lifetime. There is a substantial genetic component to anxiety disorders.
Read at Harvard Gazette
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