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Chronic Anxiety A Serious Condition

By Zinn Jeremiah

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 27Aug2007
Word count: 439
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Anxiety is a broad description, used often, and as such has become a bit of a watered down term. Anxiety is actually a classified psychological disorder, but it's often used interchangeably with nervousness and fear and upset, among other descriptions of common emotional states. Reducing anxiety to a generic form, however, may diminish the reality that anxiety can be a quite serious condition.

There's nothing inherently wrong with an anxious condition. In fact, all people at some point or other feel anxiety, and the anxiety a person feels can have beneficial effects. An anxious condition focuses one's mental and physical state in preparation for some form of coping. In the most dramatic possible scenario, enhanced mental and physical focus from anxiety would enable someone to try and escape physical danger. Anxiety then can be an asset.

Where anxiety becomes problematic is when it becomes chronic, or the anxious response is an overreaction to the circumstances. The chronically anxious condition can be characterized as a person being almost incessantly on edge, expecting the worst and constantly prepared for flight. The damage this sort of chronic state can cause can be quite extreme. A perpetually anxious person is placing incredible physical strain on his or her body, keeping their body constantly vigilant, and ready for a sudden burst. The body greatly fatigues under these sorts of physical demands, and begins to break down. As blood pressure rises under an anxious state, chronic anxiety can also lead to the problems elevated blood pressure causes: stroke, coronary problems, compromised kidney function, and other physical problems besides.

An anxious overresponse can be disabling as well. The person who feels anxiety when there's no real threat at hand is overreacting to life's circumstances. People who tend to react in this way are prone to withdrawing as a way of averting their upset, or self-medicating themselves through alcohol and drugs, or both. Withdrawal often, if not always, leads to mood problems such as depression, and even anger and hostility. The use of alcohol and drugs in a coping pattern is, obviously, an open door to addiction.

Chronic anxiety is a serious state, and can lead to further emotional and physical disorder. Any chronic dysfunction is unlikely to just go away on its own: the fact that a dysfunction is chronic indicates the problem has become set in place. Some form of treatment then for chronic anxiety is always called for. The good news is that there are effective methods for anxiety treatment, and once a person has gone through treatment for an anxious condition their outlook can change almost entirely.

Zinn Jeremiah is an online author. To get help with anxiety, visit anxiety help or social anxiety treatment.

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