Anxiety — Or My Life as a Worrier

by Kristyne McDaniel

From the time I was a small child I was a little bit different from the other children in the family. Mom's name for me was "drama queen". Perhaps she truly felt that my traumas were all in my head, but I can definitely tell you that I recall vividly that each trauma seemed truly life threatening when I was a child. In fact, that's one of the identifying traits of an anxiety disorder, as I've been told -- blowing up a small trauma into a very large one and having difficulty being able to tell that the trauma is indeed a small one. A difficulty of scale, so to speak.

I have read that there are several factors believed to contribute to an anxiety disorder

• Biological (e.g. a physical over-reaction to stress)
• Genetic Factors
• Stress Overload
• Thought Patterns
• Childhood Environment

Of course, most things in life are really due to multiple causality, or a combination of several factors. One factor alone won't typically produce an anxiety disorder, and all of them together won't generally do it either unless they occur over a period of time.

I'm no expert on all of this, and I'll have to leave it to Steve to flesh in with his own opinion later on. As an adult, however, I do show symptoms of panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder. These days my magic pill treatment is Lexapro, which is recognized as an excellent anxiety disorder treatment. It does seem to have calmed me down so that I am no longer as fragile. I know that drug treatments are safe and effective. Personally, though, I'd prefer an approach for the long term that does not require drugs and am looking into new approaches.

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In addition to the various anxiety treatments your doctor can prescribe, you can also look into the use of various anxiety supplements which may be able to do many of the same things. Finally, check to see whether there are any anxiety support groups in your area.

I still have times where I have a generalized dread about getting out where people were and trying to avoid large groups of people. I am especially bothered by groups of people surprising me with a visit that I don't expect -- so for example a surprise party would be a surprise to more than just me! I'd be quite likely to leave such a party for an hour or more just to calm down enough from the shock to talk to people! But I'm getting better.

_{This page was last updated on Tuesday, August 22, 2006}