ANXIETY DISORDERS affect 40 million adults, or 1 in 5 people.
For these adults and children, it can be suffocating and debilitating. Uncertainty: Why We’re So Anxious About Anxiety, a new original documentary from Connecticut Public Television, explores this common mental illness.
This documentary premiered on CPTV on Thursday, May 30, 2019 and features CHR staff. It is also available to stream in its entirety – click here to watch.
Associate Professor in the Child Study Center and Associate Director of the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program in the Yale School of Medicine, Eli Lebowitz, is featured in the documentary, and joined us to discuss the prevalence of anxiety disorders, some of its signs and symptoms, and why the conversation is so important.
What is the difference between stress and clinical anxiety? Whenever we are faced with a challenge, even a positive one, we experience stress. And when those challenges accumulate, or when we feel insufficiently or inadequately equipped to deal with them, the stress can become distress, and we may begin to feel overwhelmed and anxious.
When our brain is anxious we tend to misinterpret things, to see them as more negative than they are, and to overestimate the likelihood of bad things happening. And so too much stress can lead to anxiety, but having an anxiety disorder means always feeling overly stressed.