Is Anxiety A Mental Illness?

“Is Anxiety A Mental Illness? No. Temporary Challenge Relating To Irrational Thinking And Wrongful Programming? Yes.”

Anxiety is not a new word for us. With the rise in stress and depression in society, every other person is suffering from what they call an anxiety disorder.

Many of these people have panic attacks, chronic stresses without reasons and inability to be happy and content. However, contrary to popular belief, many of these people don’t actually have a disorder. Instead, they are going through an attitude change, which they themselves don’t understand.

There is an inherent misconception in our community which links anxiety with something being wrong with the brain. So, is anxiety a mental illness? Although ancient lore and traditional medicine link anxiety disorders to an unknown pathology within the brain, new research declares otherwise.

Is anxiety a mental illness or a behavioral wellness issue?

The problem with anxiety is its lack of awareness. Anxiety is not a mental illness. Instead, it is a change in the thinking patterns, beliefs, emotions and actions of a person.

Treating people as if they have a mental disorder does more harm than good.

It is time we shift out of this false perception and embrace the fact that anxiety is a mere alteration in the person’s way of thinking and behaving. This becomes even more important when we find that problematic anxiety can be cured completely with the right information, help, and support.

Hence, anxiety is better classified as a behavioral wellness issue rather than something wrong with the person’s brain.

What causes anxiety?

So, if it’s not due to a disease process of the brain, what really causes anxiety? There are some changes evident in a person with problematic anxiety that set off the alarm. So, what causes these changes?

For us to get to the routes of the problem, we need to analyze the condition itself. Consider what anxiety really is? It can be defined as a feeling of worry, unease, nervousness that is particularly associated with an uncertain outcome. Now, we ask ourselves the question, what causes excessive worry, nervousness and unease? The answer is simple, apprehensive behavior!

Apprehensive behavior or fearful and agitated behavior lies at the bottom of this trouble. Anxiety is NOT caused by a diseased brain, instead, it is caused by a particular mode of actions. Hence, there are no chemical derangement’s in the brain, no biological problems or gene defects.

So, for all the people asking the question, is anxiety a mental illness, the answer is that it is a simple disorder of behavior that is aggravating feelings to result in a chronic, stressful state. 

Many people may argue that people with chronic anxiety change and view everyone differently. Well, yes, they do so. However, it is not because something is wrong with their brains. People suffering from chronic anxiety have learned to regard the world in an apprehensive manner which makes them perceive the world differently.

A common misconception is when people associate the feelings of anxiety as being the actual problem, instead of the thoughts or actions causing them. For instance, if you have pain in your arm due to a fracture, you wouldn’t say that you have a pain-in-the-arm disease. You will look through the many possibilities to find the actual cause, the fracture.

Most people with anxiety have a similar problem at the core which needs to be identified. Often it is associated with relationships and relational value. Hence, one of the first places to look for a problem is in the person’s relation with his parents, siblings, loved ones, the need for a partner and so on. The majority of cases stem from these disruptions in relational value and can be easily treated.

A typical anxiety attack may be set off by any problem or stress. Grief for a loved one who recently died, impending results for a final exam or even the expectancy for the result of a job interview can act as triggers. Unless a person combats his behavioral capabilities and has proper management of stress, these anxiety attacks will be triggered and will continue to be a problem.

How do you ‘treat’ anxiety?

Now that we have answered the question of, is anxiety a mental illness and established the fact that anxiety is, in fact, a behavioral wellness issue, its treatment protocol should follow a similar line of approach also.

Conventional treatments aimed at treating anxiety as if it were a mental disorder. Hence, medicines that influenced the neurotransmitters in the brain and others aimed at controlling hormones were frequently applied. However, people suffering from anxiety should not be given mental illness drugs or mental illness treatments.

They are not suffering from a mental disorder, to begin with!

Contrary to popular belief, problematic anxiety can easily be treated by behavioral treatments. Rather than trying to fix a brain that isn’t damaged in the first place, you need to focus on the behavior of the patient and The support from the surroundings.

To effectively handle a person with anxiety, you need to familiarize with him and address the cause of the apprehensive behavior. Generating a list of problems that could be the root cause of a person’s apprehensive behavior is an essential part of the treatment. You can then assess which problems could have contributed into exaggerating the condition and how you can counteract it.

Finding the root causes may not be easy, but it is the first step towards healing.

Careful handling and warm behavioral support and guidance are often enough to treat a person with problematic anxiety. Treating anxiety isn’t difficult, but it does require persistence.

You need to support the person and introduce positivity, optimism, and most importantly rational thinking. Try and combat the apprehensive nature by providing alternate solutions and approaches to everyday problems. When needed, pharmacological aid can be added, but mostly, these drugs are relaxants rather than drugs that result in chronic brain transmitter derangement’s.

So… Is anxiety a mental illness?

Research and treatment protocols have stated the answer. In short, anxiety is NOT a mental disorder that needs to have thorough treatment. Instead, it is the result of day-to-day factors that aggravate a behavior and particular ways of thinking in an individual.

This behavioral issue can be treated by implementing behavioral modifications, vigilant support and sometimes, pharmacological relaxants. People suffering from anxiety shouldn’t worry about suffering from an irreversible disease.

Anxiety is readily reversible, you just need to have the right state of mind and added encouragement to reverse it.

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