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Boland, Maureen.  Worried sick?  Don't let anxiety harm your health.
FAmily Circle, 4/22/97, p 72.

Ever since she was a child, Susan Sechrist, 30, recalls feeling worried
and slightly nervous. By the time seh hit her mid-20's, she regularly
suffered from bouts of dizziness, mild nausea, heart palpitations,
insomnia, concentration problems and tingling in her hands and feet.

"It was this underlying anxiety that I couldn't seem to shake.  I was
constantly worrying about what would happen next," recalls Susan, now
newly engaged and enrolled in school full time for communications at a
university near her home in East Greenbush, New York.  "And because I
didn't feel well physically, I was sure that there was some disease I had
that just hadn't been diagnosed yet.  So I jumped form doctor to doctor.
All tey said was to cut back on caffeine, and that if things got really
bad, they'd give me a prescription for sedatives."

...

According to the National Institute of Menatl Health (NIMH), approximately
23 million people have an anxiety disorder.  Of these five million siffer
from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) - the disorder that Susan was
eventually diagnosed with.  Like toher anxiety disorders, such as
obsessive-compulsive disorder, where victims become obsessed with a single
thought or behavior, liek washing their hands, GAD is also distiguished by
certain characteristics.  It can strike as early as childhood or
adolescence, and causes victims to worry constantly about a number of
things for six months or more.

Most GAD sufferers worry excessively about everyday concerns such as
whether or nt the boss thinks they're doing a good job, or how they're
going to pay the bills.  In more severe cases, a victim may become
preoccupied with catastrophic thoughts and visions. (What if the plane
blows up or the car crashes?)

In most cases, people with GAD, despite their constant feelings of
uneasiness, are able to function perfectly well in their daily routines.
"But when constant worry interferes with that ability, it can be
extremely impairing," says David H. Barlow, PhD., professor of psychology
and director of the Center for Anxiety and RelatedDisorders at Boston
University. 

The effects of GAD are felt in varying degrees from person to person.  The
symptoms include overall fatigue, muscular tension and restlessness.  In
75% of cases, a person will experience intermittent, brief episodes of
heart palpitations, chest pain and dizziness, or may experience the
feeling that she is going to suffocate or faint.  

Diagram:

How the body reacts:

In response to anxiety, the body releases adrenaline to get blood flowing
to teh muscles and heart.  As a result, you may experience heart
palpitations, chest pain and a tingling sensation in the fingers and toes.
The nervous system may trigger perspiration, hot flashes, trembling and
dizziness, along with stomach distress and concentration problems.

- blurry vision
- pressure in head
- dry mouth
- muscular tension
- chestpain and rapid heartbeat
- back pain
- gastrointestinal problems
- overall flushed feeling
- cold and tingling hands and feet

Because of these symptoms, a GAD sufferer may thin she's physically ill
when she's really not.  Yet the irony is that when GAD is overlooked it
can, in fact make you sickover time.  "We know that repeated stress and
anxiety do have deleterious effects on one's health," explains Dr. Barlow.
"So if you go for years with a full-blown anxiety disorder, your immune
system is likely to become suppressed and, therefore, you'll be more
susceptible to disease."  Conditions like hypertension, migrains and
gastrointestinal disorders may develop as a result.  It's also not
uncommon to find anxiety disorder sufferers who become depressed or abuse
alcohol and drugs.

THE PHANTOM DISEASE

Only within the last 15 years or so have anxiety disorders gotten any real
attention from the medical community and the press.  This is largely due
to NIMH's first-ever survey of mental health, done in the United States in
the early 80's,which found that, as a group, anxiety disorders are our No.
l mental health illness.  Still, despite the numbers, only about 25% of
those affected receive treatment.

In many instances people are too embarrassed or frightened to seek help,
for fear of what they'll learn.  "Most people with an anxiety disorder
don't know what they have - they think they have a physical illness or are
going crazy," explains Dr. Barlow.

Jerrilyn Pinsky, 46, a speech pathologist and weight loss counselor from
Marlton, New Jersey, says she struggled for years to keep her anxiety
hidden from everyone.  "Everyday living ws completely exhausting for me
because I was always trying to appear as though things were fine when they
realy weren't," she admits.

Another common reason people fail to get treatment is that anxiety
disorders are missed by family doctors about half the time, according to
Dr. Barlow.  Many patients remain undiagnosed becaue they tend to seek
help for a specificx physical ailment, such as breathing problems or
fatighe.  Often, these complains lead to a series of expensive medical
tests that fail to turn up any "real" illness.  

"The typical person suffering with an anxiety disorder sees as many as 10
doctors before they ever get a definitive diagnosis," explains clinical
social worker Jerilyn Ross, director of the Ross Center for Anxiety and
Related Disorders in Washington, DC., and author of Triumphover Fear.