When Does Anxiety Go From an Emotion to a Mental Health Condition?

The discussion over Anxiety has the potential to be rather controversial. Many consider anxiety to be an emotion that is an inevitable part of life.

Such people may believe that there is no such mental illness relating to Anxiety. But those with crippling Anxiety, and the scientific consensus, would suggest otherwise.

We get to a situation where there is a fine line between anxiety being an emotion and an overall mental health condition. In this article, we explore this further.

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety in general is the feeling of being worried, afraid, or generally tense – usually in anticipation of an imminent event, or a predicted event.

Many people will get anxious over an upcoming event, such as needing to complete a presentation, making a speech, going on a flight, or anything else that involves nerves.

Anxiety is a perfectly natural emotion, with the vast majority of people going through periods of anxiety in their life.

Yet for some people, anxiety can become a constant problem. It is normal to wonder when the natural feeling of anxiety actually turns into a diagnosable condition.

Anxiety as a mental health condition

In general, anxiety becomes an actual mental health condition when the level of anxiety causes an individual to not live their life how they would want to.

For instance, their anxiety disrupts every-day activities, resulting in a negative impact on their life. They may struggle to complete day-to-day tasks.

Just some of the signs that anxiety has become a mental health condition include:

• An individual’s feelings lead to them not living their life as they would want to
• An individual regularly experiences symptoms of anxiety
• The individual has a history of panic attacks
• Feelings of anxiety last a long time
• An individual’s worrying is out of proportion to the situation
• An individual purposefully avoids events due to their feelings

Of course, sometimes these symptoms don’t all apply, or someone finds they don’t fit into a certain type of Anxiety.

But more often than not, an individual will fit the criteria for an anxiety condition – which should lead to a diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

There are a few different types of Anxiety-based conditions, including General Anxiety Disorder, Phobias, Social Anxiety Disorder and Selective Mutism among others.

Each anxiety condition is normally treated with talking therapy like Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy or Exposure Therapy. However, a range of other types of talking therapy exist.

In some cases, medications like antidepressants can be prescribed. But this is normally reserved purely for more moderate or severe cases of anxiety.

Summary

Overall, there is a balancing act between anxiety being a regular emotion, and then becoming a mental health condition. But as discussed above, anxiety is a very real condition.

Seeking treatment for Anxiety is very important. This can lead to a much improved quality of life being attained, which is always the aim.

See Also

• Rumination in Mental Health: What Is It and Why Do We Do It?
• What is the “Fight, Flight, or Freeze” Response in Mental Health?
• Stress: What is it and How to Cope with it?
• Everything You Need To Know About Mental Health Medicine
• Sophie Gradon: The Mental Health Struggles of Reality TV Laid Bare