What Causes Anxiety In America

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Mental disorders are a problematic concern in America. Approximately 61.5 million Americans experience a mental illness within a year (NAMI 1). Anxiety is a broad example of a mental disease. According to the Merriam- Webster Dictionary, anxiety is an “overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physiological signs”, and is experienced by 42 million Americans (NAMI 1). Because anxiety is an extensive condition, it is broken into 3 categories. Due to the different causes, symptoms, ways of prevention, and sorting, anxiety proves to be a concerning disorder.
The causes of anxiety differ from genetics to life experiences. Through an experiment with twins, it has been proven that genes play a role in the development of anxiety.
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The way the parent treats and talks to the child can stimulate anxiety within the young person (Mazur- Elmer and McBride 16). If a parent is constantly yelling at, and criticizing a child, the child will be more likely to obtain anxiety. The care gentle parents display, slim the chances of anxiety forming in the adolescent. Furthermore, previous events in one’s life can also be a factor in the development of anxiety. Any traumatic experience can provoke the disorder to form (Mazur- Elmer and McBride 16). The feeling of anxiety will overcome the body as a memory or object representing the past incident is present. As a result, this can be rendered as a learned reaction. Each time a certain object or a memory comes up, it acts like a trigger. Every time the trigger appears, the person will experience anxiety. In addition, the handling of stress plays a role in the cause of anxiety (Yates 1). If a person let’s their stress build up, they are more probable to suffer from anxiety. As the dilemmas and burdens layer, the person feels overwhelmed. The overwhelming sensation then leads to anxiety. Moreover, the lack of sleep a person acquires contributes to the development of anxiety (Petersen 1). “1,037 children revealed that 46% of those who were considered to have a persistent sleep difficulty at age 9 had an anxiety disorder at age 21 or 26” (Petersen 1). The correlation between sleep and anxiety shows the more sleep a person attains, the less likely they will be to develop anxiety. Sleep is a time for the brain to rest. Undoubtedly, this is crucial for children and adolescents. As they are growing, sleep becomes more significant. The activities and traits a person possesses add to the cause of anxiety also. The action of overbooking one’s schedule creates anxiety, as well as the trait of perfectionism (Grooms 1 and 2). When overbooking occurs, one does not get enough rest. Planning ahead can benefit