Anxiety Support Group

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by everyone at one time or another. However such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate an anxiety disorder that warrants medical support.

Anxiety Causes

Biology, environment, and psychology constitute a group of factors that can lead to anxiety disorder. Biological influences include genetics, hormonal and chemical imbalances, and chronic fatigue or exhaustion. Environmental influences include events that cause extreme stress, with common triggers being career trouble, financial hardship, and the death or loss of a loved one. Internal psychological influences usually include an abnormal relationship to fear, not based on fact and often characterized as "irrational" by others.

Anxiety Treatments

There are a range of treatment options that offer both the emotional support and knowledge essential for coping and relief. Lifestyle changes can aid in the healing process for many mood-based disorders like anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy that coaches and encourages a person to modify her underlying assumptions, beliefs and reactions to the outside world. Pharmaceutical medications are widely prescribed to soothe the physical symptoms of anxiety disorder. In most cases a combination of therapy and medication works best. DailyStrength users have experience with both types, and offer their own reviews of prescriptions like Xanax, Effexor and Cymbalta, as well as therapy or lifestyle-based approaches like yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, and positive thinking.

Anxiety Resources and Support

In DailyStrength's anxiety support group, you can find help from people from all walks of life. Chat with others who understand exactly what you're experiencing. Ask and answer questions in the discussion forums about how to cope. Some of DailyStrength's users have just begun managing their anxiety while others have successfully coped for years. There are two helpful anxiety support groups: the general anxiety support group and the teen anxiety support group.

If you have been recently diagnosed, you may want to read through these very informative resources and discuss them in DailyStrength's anxiety forum:

• Anxiety Disorders Association of America offers an excellent self-help test.
• National Mental Health Information Center's Anxiety Disorders Page.