If your life is often disrupted by persistent or extreme fears, worry and anxiety, you are not alone. A staggering 44 million Americans (15% of our population) suffer from excessive fear. Experts warn that anxiety is an emerging epidemic. Further, it’s estimated that 75% of adults with anxiety had their first episode before the age of 21. These statistics are enough to frighten anybody!
Why so much fear? Work, home, relationships, finances, health…each aspect of our life is like a ball in a juggling act. Keeping them all in the air while balancing emails, voice mails, and unending responsibilities creates mounting stress that can erupt into a full-blown anxiety attack.
Once it breaks through, anxiety can persist. One survey found a shocking 84% of workers feel stress and anxiety on an everyday basis. During such high-pressure times, your body cranks out hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline that quicken breathing and turn the body into physiologic frenzy. Many researchers feel that continuing, long-term stress coupled with a sense of separation or lack of direction in one’s life help to seed feelings of hopelessness that may accompany and exacerbate anxiety as well as depression. Panic attacks and agoraphobia (fear of being closed in or unable to escape) may symbolize a sense of being “stuck” with your life or having “nowhere to go.”
Now, more than ever, many are seeking help using more holistic approaches that blend concepts of mind-body-spirit. Such interventions treat all levels of the whole person: body, mind, feelings, relationships, self-esteem, and spirituality.
Although only a small proportion of people who suffer from anxiety seek treatment, the good news is that once recognized, anxiety disorders are a very treatable problem. Now, more than ever, new mind-body-spirit approaches coupled with behavior modification, cognitive therapies, and medications offer new optimism for treating stress and anxiety.
Anxiety Rescue couples a mind-body-spirit approach with practical strategies to overcome fear and anxiety. The book also offers added resources to help readers