What Clues Suggest You're More Likely to Suffer From Anxiety?

To paraphrase the "Wall Street" movie character Gordon Gekko, anxiety is good. Gekko, of course, was talking about greed and how it powers economic growth, though he failed to see its destructive downside. In a similar way, anxiety is good. A certain amount of anxiety keeps us from taking dangerous risks, like walking in traffic or eating unknown foods. Too much anxiety, however, has its own destructive powers, as nearly 40 million people in the U.S. who experience an anxiety disorder every year would know.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, that figure includes about 8 percent of children and teenagers, with most people developing symptoms of anxiety before age 21, the ADAA says. Anxiety disorders take several forms, among them generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and panic attacks, social anxiety disorder and various phobias. Anxiety becomes a diagnosable disorder when it is "persistent, seemingly uncontrollable and overwhelming," the ADAA says, and this excessive, irrational fear of common situations interferes with one's daily life.

[See: 11 Simple, Proven Ways to Optimize Your Mental Health.]

Anxiety is universal, says Dr. Simon Rego, chief psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. " Having some anxiety does not mean you have a disorder. There are certain times in all our lives, certain situations, where anxiety may be intensified, and that might be the most realistic and valid response," he says. For instance, the interview he is conducting for this article. "If I'm not a little bit anxious about punctuality, we might not be talking right now," he laughs. "It is arguably useful and adaptive to experience anxiety, so we don't want to overpathologize it."

Rego's rule of thumb for diagnosing anxiety disorder is typically one of two things: "Either it is present so much of the time it causes high levels of distress in the individual, or it occurs in ways that cause some impairment in functioning at one's occupation, education, social or home life. If it is disabling you from doing things you would like to do, then it is a disorder."

'An Extreme Signal of a False Alarm'

An anxiety disorder is "an extreme signal of a false alarm, nothing more than that," says Debra Kissen, clinical director of Light on Anxiety, a cognitive behavioral therapy treatment center in Chicago. What causes these extreme signals? There are arguments for both the "nature" and "nurture" components to this disorder, Kissen says. There is a biological risk factor: "If you come from a long line of worriers, have a family member diagnosed with anxiety disorder or you feel that mom was never diagnosed but she worried when I went on the swings as a kid," she says.

[See: 8 Proven Strategies to Stop Overthinking and Ease Anxiety Now.]

Environment, and how it interacts with family history, also plays a role. "Even if there is a predisposition [to anxiety] but you grew up in an environment where it was cool to take chances," that could be protective, Kissen explains. Likewise, growing up in a family that is overly fearful can instill cognitive patterns of worrying in someone without a genetic history of anxiety.

It is hard to determine which component -- genetics or environment -- has the upper hand. "What complicates it is, even with a parent with anxiety disorder, not all the children develop it," Rego says. "It is not a one-to-one relationship." Whatever the cause, there are certain risk factors that can be a clue to an increased risk of developing anxiety disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic, these include experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event; stress from an illness, work or life event; having another mental illness such as depression; or having an overly cautious or worrying personality.

Effective Treatments

The physical signs of anxiety are essentially the same as those experienced in a fight-or-flight moment: The body tenses, the heart races, breathing becomes labored and senses are heightened. Typically, those feelings only come in a truly dangerous moment, like a near-accident or a charging, angry dog, and they go away when the threat passes. In an anxiety disorder, those feeling are triggered by everyday events -- or by nothing at all.

A disorder is signaled when those feelings change behavior. "I tell patients, if I had a magic wand and you could feel great, what would you be doing? And then I ask, what are you actually doing?" Kissen says. "How much are you avoiding to not feel anxious? Why are you not going to a baseball game -- because it's boring, or because a terrorist could blow up the stadium? One is a choice, one is avoidance."

[See: 8 Unexpected Signs You're Stressed.]

Not all fears and phobias need treatment. "Most people would say they have a fear and phobia of great white sharks, but most of us aren't encountering sharks, so we can go about our lives," Rego says. Similarly, if you fear flying or public speaking but rarely need to do either, your life is not terribly affected. But if a new job or other venture requires more frequent flying and public speaking and you are constantly stressed, that might need treatment, he says.

Too many people fail to get the help they need, however. Only about one-third of those suffering from an anxiety disorder receive treatment, the ADAA reports, even though it's highly treatable. That is due in part to the stigma and myths that still surround mental health issues, Rego says. "But these are bona fide medical conditions. They are not just made up or in your head. It is real, and it does not mean you are weak or inferior."

More than 50 years of research has shown that talk therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy and certain classes of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications -- including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, such as citalopram and escitalopram, or benzodiazepines such as diazepam and lorazepam -- are effective treatments. "We know a lot about anxiety now, and in a relatively short time you can get your life back," Rego says. "It is one of the true victories we have."

David Levine is a freelance health reporter at U.S. News. He is a contributing writer for athenaInsight.com and Wainscot Health Media, a former health care columnist for Governing magazine and a regular contributor to many other health and wellness publications. He also writes about lifestyle and general interest topics, from history and business to beer and baseball, as a contributing writer for Westchester, Hudson Valley and 914INC magazines. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, American Heritage and dozens of other national publications, and he is the author or co-author of six books on sports. You can connect him on LinkedIn.