Anxiety Stigma

Mental health conditions are victim to vast amounts of misunderstanding. The various forms, there of, are only truly understood when experienced. Anxiety disorders are, for example, often interpreted simple as social anxiety which is simply a POSSIBLE symptom of a a true anxiety disorder. 

Have you ever gone without sleep or food for an unreasonable amount of time until you feel as if someone is applying a cheese grater to your nerve endings? That is how people with anxiety disorders feel pretty much all the time. 

In stressful or dangerous situations our brains release adrenaline to equip our bodies and minds with heightened awareness and sensitivity. When the situation has passed our brains release endorphins and dopamine in order to recover from the adrenaline (so to speak). This is, incidentally, how people can become addicted to "thrill seeking".  With a person suffering from anxiety disorder it's as if someone has switched on their adrenaline and forgot to turn it off. There are no endophins or dopamine to compensate for the adrenaline and it forces them to feel that "cheese grater" sensation previously described. 

Depression and anxiety often go hand in hand simply due to the deficiency in tension releasing chemicals. These chemicals can be forced (short term) through exercise, drugs, and certain types of foods. In some cases, a regular exercise routine is all it takes to force your brain to "kick in" and start manufacturing necessary relaxing chemicals. For some, it requires a little more than that. 

Many people suffering from true anxiety resort to synthetic medications to allow them to feel "normal" enough to function. As described to me by a therapist "Medication for an anxiety disorder work like a coat on a snowy day. You still feel the cold, but it's not unbearable." 

Most of those on medications are on them for a temporary basis, averaging about 1 year, and then are weaned off of them as their condition improves. 

Social anxiety can make it very difficult to for the sufferers to communicate with others and to be in large groups of people, and social anxiety is very common in those already suffering from an anxiety disorder (although they can be mutually exclusive), but a true anxiety disorder is not actually a sensation necessarily of fear, but more often is it's a feeling of tension, frustration, and depression. 

It's incredibly easy to misunderstand a condition in which you've never experienced. It's also difficult, at times, for people suffering from conditions to really explain how their feeling, because it's inexplicable and/or they are ashamed, due to social stigma. Those with minor anxiety disorders would undoubtedly  have an easier time recovering from their conditions without said stigma for both the disease and the medications associated with them. The best road to recovery from anxiety is empathy and understanding.