How Old is the Disease of Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety Disorder does not need much of an introduction to the people these days. Thanks to the ever mounting pressure in our daily life, be it lifestyle pressure or professional pressure, anxiety disorder is no alien disease to us. But interestingly anxiety disorder was first recognized only in 1980, by the American Psychiatric Association. Before this, even if people went to a physician received the general diagnosis of just simply ‘stress’ or ‘nerves’. This was one of the main reasons that people hardly cared for this condition thinking that it would soon pass. More over the physicians also had the least knowledge of the disease and that was also one of the reasons that the people never received any effective treatment. It was only after 1980 that people began to recognize the possible threat to a person’s personality and severe disabilities that could be associated with anxiety disorder, like agoraphobia, drug abuse, etc.
Often people used to think that anxiety or stress is basically a ‘woman’s problem’ but in reality it does not spare even the men. In fact the current researches show that anxiety disorder can inflict even the children and the elderly. The awareness that the people have today about anxiety disorder is basically because of the exposure of the researches in front of the media.
History of the Treatment of Anxiety Disorder
Media has been instrumental in spreading the awareness about anxiety disorder and hence more and more people are showing interest now to visit the physician and get them selves examined for their condition. Men, who otherwise considered the disease troubling only for women, now realize that this is not true and hence like to take a doctor’s advice to treat their condition even if it is just the onset of the disease.
In olden days when the disease of anxiety disorder was not much recognized, people used to employ some strange, humorous and sometimes even painful methods to treat themselves of their condition of anxiety. Sometimes the methods of treatment involved were really very dangerous. Many people used herbal medicines or balms to treat their anxiety disorder. Some people tried to give extreme hot and cold temperatures to the body. Some people used to bathe in extreme cold water of the rivers and the streams, used health spas etc. but there were even some crazy people who inflicted deliberate pain to their bodies, like blood-letting using the leeches to suck the blood. With the emergence of psycho-analysis and Freud’s psycho theories, people gradually began to understand the psychological basis of the disease and started visiting a therapist in order to consult about their disease. With the entry of pharmaceuticals in curing the condition people slowly started relying on medicines, although it was not yet known by the name of ‘Anxiety Disorder’.