Anxiety Disorders

Although widely accepted as the most common mental illness in the U.S. affecting 18% of the population (40 million adults) (NIMH, 2016) (Kessler, Chiu, Demler, & Walters, 2005) and one of the most physically and financially costly ($65 billion annually in the US in 1994) (Rice, 1999), Anxiety Disorders are frequently bundled and treated under the “General Mental Health” classification with substance abuse or depression while specialized, targeted anxiety treatments are considered gratuitous. While conceding that co-morbidity with other disorders is both high and challenging to demarcate cause from effect, almost $23 billion of the costs noted above are associated with the repeated use of health care services as people with anxiety disorders seek relief for symptoms that mimic physical illnesses (Rice, 1999; The HSM Group, 2012), instead of receiving targeted, evidence-based treatment for the actual cause: an anxiety disorder. The Anxiety Center strives to teach clients to accept anxiety, choose to move beyond it and take action using evidence-based treatment options.

Anxiety disorders happen when excessive anxiety interferes with everyday activities such as going to work or school or spending time with friends or family. Anxiety disorders are serious mental illnesses affecting more than 40 million Americans (18% of the adult population). That would mean that approximately 234,000 individuals are struggling with a diagnosable anxiety disorder within an hour drive of The Anxiety Center at Renew Counseling. (According to the US Census Reporter approximately 1.3 million adults (18-64) live in the KC metropolitan.) Research has also discovered that anxiety disorders are more than twice as common in women (who make up 51% of the local population) than men. Sadly, regardless of gender, the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City found that 41% of anxiety disorders go untreated (The HSM Group, 2012).