Anxiety. Makes me anxious just to type the word. And I’m not the only one, by a long shot. The National Institute of Mental Health reported that in 2018:
- An estimated 19.1% of U.S. adults had any anxiety disorder in the past year.
- Past year prevalence of any anxiety disorder was higher for females (23.4%) than for males (14.3%).
- An estimated 31.1% of U.S. adults experience any anxiety disorder at some time in their lives.
Well before our current public health crises, anxiety was on the rise. In 2016, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 1 in 6 adults took a psychopharmaceutic medication.
Today, the Women’s Preventative Services Initiative – a coalition of national health professional organizations and consumer and patient advocates with expertise in women’s health across the lifespan – issued a recommendation that all women 13 and older be screened for anxiety disorders at their medical appointments. “Given the high prevalence of anxiety disorders, lack of recognition in clinical practice, and multiple problems associated with untreated anxiety, clinicians should consider screening women who have not been recently screened.”
Anxiety can wreak havoc on our lives in a whole host of ways. For example, its extraordinarily bad for your sex life. But fear and worry are part of the human condition – life certainly knows how to throw us some curve balls and then some. So, if you are experiencing anxiety, is sexual dysfunction pre-ordained?
Absolutely not. The good news is that there are several evidence-based treatment options to help the anxious among us. As a matter of fact, this is one of our specialties at Maze.
