Anxiety

As a person who is not currently anxious, a health care professional and someone who has had past treatment for some severe episodes of anxiety and ptsd, I feel this is quite complex. I remember thinking when did feeling anxious tip over into a diagnosis of pathological anxiety / mental illness and when would we decide I was 'better'. It's a spectrum and it can also vary - I wasn't anxious all the time. But my pre morbid state was no anxiety. It was a process to get better and not an overnight fix, and now it's easy for me to know I am better.
I never missed any days at work, I had no medication but I suffered with episodes of severe anxiety with physiological symptoms and distress nevertheless.
So what I'm saying is, it's a massively broad term and you need more detail to know what's going on.

I am sorry but I think you might want to take a step back and see who is being rude. You can't say you are not judging when you also say "so is it that people don't understand some anxiety is normal so panic, then the situation becomes self-perpetuating". Say this to a friend who tells you they have anxiety - and test how this comments affects your friendship and whether they think your opinion is valid.
Until my daughter was diagnosed with severe anxiety I must admit I did not fully understand people with 'anxiety' - but now I do I can also see why your post is so condescending.

They say they have an anxious child because their child is anxious, especially in certain situations. I wouldn't take that as someone saying their had an undiagnosed disorder.

People are anxious / have anxiety at times.

@PrivateClub

I definitely think the mental health of this country has got worse over the last few years. I see it with one of my teens and her friends too.

Has it for worse or do we just know about it?

I was that teen 30 years ago. Nobody knew how I felt. Nobody at home cared anyway but I was autistic and didn't communicate unless someone spoke to me. I masked my way badly through a bit of high school before coming one of the schools most prolific bunkers. Even when taken to school by my mother I would walk out the back doors. I was punished at school and at home for this. Even when I did stay in school my behaviour in classes was punished. Nobody ever stopped and asked 'why?'

You may think it's for worse but I'm not an outlier here, there are many people my age who suffered the same problems as our teens do now. The only difference is our teens know and understand themselves/

I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder (generalised anxiety) and it can be triggered by a variety of things. Mine mostly manifests itself in worrying excessively about things and not being able to control that.

I do find lots of people say they have anxiety but not necessarily everyone does - I think people can feel anxious at times as most people do but it isn’t the same as having chronic anxiety or being triggered by very specific things.

I do think we need to be very careful though as dismissing people and how they feel as that’s what led to so many problems over the years of people not wanting to speak up.

The problem with this is that before the child gets to crippling, debilitating stage they are what you would consider a 'cry baby'

Someone made the link to tiktok and whilst I feel far to old to understand social media, I’m not on anything other than mn, and use this less and less, I do think it’s been useful to move mental health into the forefront of young people’s minds.
The stories on here of people failing to get a diagnosis 7,8,9,10+ years ago, is due to lack of awareness. That doesn’t seem to be happening as much now, granted the pendulum may be swinging too far the other way, but I believe we will find the balance. If nothing else, I would like to think future generations are a little more aware of other peoples struggles. Even my own mother failed to hear me, and it’s not her fault, but the stigma of being ‘mad’ was very much apparent and you daren’t say anything to anyone, I was struggling to get out of bed some days.

I think people who are mentally fragile, may be attracted to Internet forums. So many posts I read on here are people suffering from anxiety. They worry about being judged all the time, don’t like confrontation which includes stuff like complaining about very poor service in a restaurant. People worry about bringing things up with their partners. They are anxious about raising stuff with school. Some people can’t open the door or make phone calls. And of course people are more honest online, than in real life.

I think people are genuinely anxious, a little bit paranoid and tend to overthink a lot. I don’t doubt what people write about here.

I definitely think the mental health of this country has got worse over the last few years. I see it with one of my teens and her friends too. I don’t know if it is the pandemic or social media. I think the latter plays a huge part in the poor mental health of teenagers, especially girls.

It's not a competition but some of these comments would make you think it is, and it's not an insult to the more extreme sufferers to discuss it

I do agree though that the normal spectrum of human emotions has become increasingly pathologised, possibly driven by US pharmaceutical companies who advertise 'a better life' in the form of their drugs on the television there.

This kind of comment really pisses me off.

While there are some children who are pandered to, there are also plenty of them who are genuinely struggling.

Lots of conditions aren't diagnosed until the teenage years or even into adulthood. The lack of a diagnosis in a young child is pretty meaningless, really.

People are also a lot more open about these things now, and it didn't really used to have a label.

I first became unwell in 2001 when I had a rather spectacular nervous breakdown. I was in secondary school at the time. I don't remember any of the other pupils having MH issues, or even any adults talking about it. Doesn't mean it wasn't rife. The first time I learnt about depression was when my GP diagnosed me with it, shortly after the breakdown. I only learnt about it in more depth from watching a special on depression on Ricki Lake, which I still remember vividly.

Anxiety / worry/ stress is normal, but if it interferes with life functioning it becomes more pathological - on a spectrum.
Severe anxiety is debilitating and distressing and can be all pervading. not all mental health professionals share the diagnostic approach of labelling , generally psychiatry is moving away from rigid diagnosis. Psychologists' approach is more ' how is this person presenting and feeling, how is this explained by their life events etc?'
Pathologising normal emotions is something of a modern problem eg feeling down becomes depression and is medicated by GPs whereas medication will probably be ineffective for mild low mood.

That sounds absolutely awful, I'm glad you've found medication to help with it ❤️

I agree that day to day lie stresses are often grouped in with mental health issues. And in truth the difference is startling.

About twelve years ago I started having panic attacks, my mom couldn’t understand me, friends didn’t understand me, and I was eventually diagnosed with PND, which in fairness could have been a factor. Years of antidepressants that didn’t work, various talking therapy, and CBT, I was eventually told I have GAD and was put forward for a medical trial using THC & CBD to treat my panic attacks. It’s been life changing.

If you consider you may feel stressed if you are late for work and rushing to the train, that heart racing, high temperature, headache, I can get that feeling, ten fold, for no obvious reason whatsoever. Now I know my personal triggers and I have ways of calming myself down, (running and writing), and the medication I take now 100% takes the edge off, but I still have the odd panic attack.

It’s mildly amusing to me when I see people say they have anxiety and then go on to explain how they have a lot on. Yes that’s tough, but until you have had a panic attack where you quite honestly felt like you were dying, and then say you have anxiety. They are worlds apart and I hope no one has to deal with that to be honest.

It particularly annoys me when they say they have an 'anxious child'. Does that child have actual anxiety? If he does, it is crippling and debilitating and he has my full sympathy. If he is just an oversensitive crybaby, it is an insult to all those children genuinely suffering.

Also, totally agree with @Agix, my panic attacks can come out of nowhere too, so can anxiety - when I feel absolutely fine! That's one major difference between having the disorder and just feeling a bit anxious I think

I have been diagnosed with GAD, panic disorder and health anxiety, although back when I was diagnosed some 19 years back, it was called hypochondria - nice!!

I do see where you're coming from, it would be nice if people didn't throw the term around for 'normal' worries. I suppose it would be like someone saying "Ugh I'm so diabetic today after eating all that sugar yesterday".

It's like the overuse of "triggered", seemingly in every TikTok video my daughter watches! Everyone is "triggered" by something

I don't think it helps that a lot of medical professionals are quick to use the term anxiety either

And you should be able to ask questions without being jumped on. As an (officially diagnosed and medicated) anxiety sufferer, I wasn't offended 😉

My DD has diagnosed anxiety which has been debilitating for her, though thankfully less so now.
She can also get anxious about other things such as exams.
The two are quite separate.

I also had a terrible childhood, hence the ptsd.

Growing up with undiagnosed autism and ADHD really does come damage ones mental health never mind in a neglectful situation.

which suggested that part of the problem is that we've made childhood too "nice", and kids are being sheltered from anything unpleasant - it leads to adults who have no framework for handling any kind of difficulty

I had a horrible childhood, certainly no mollycoddling in our house, and I've had some terrible (diagnosed) MH struggles. I don't know anyone who had a difficult childhood with good MH.

My diagnoses are ADHD, Autism and complex PTSD. Along with those comes massive anxieties, but no, I don't have a specific anxiety disorder diagnosed. I would argue at anyone saying I'm self diagnosed though, it's just part of a wider condition.

Anxiety is an emotion, the emotion that tells us something is too important to ignore. Very useful when you're about to leave your cave and almost forget your spear - anxiety triggers the imagination/memory of a sabre toothed tiger.

It might not feel comfortable but it is there for a purpose, we wouldn't survive for long without it. One (of many) issues surrounding anxiety in the last few years is that it's feared, even the tiniest twinge is seen as confirmation that there's something wrong with us and that we therefore must need medicating to stop that discomfort.

I'm not dismissing those people who's anxiety response is so out of kilter that it makes life unbearable - it's not only horrible but it can have a serious knock-on effect on short/long term physical health - but if understanding emotions were taught at school it would go a long way to dealing with the current MH problems.