Introduction Empowering People with Anxiety and DepressionAnxiety and depression are two of the most serious medical disorders. The suffering caused by these conditions is not only miserable, grinding, and so intolerable that suicide can appear a welcome relief, but it is diabolically long- lasting if not treated. We used to view anxiety and depression as afflictions of middle age. We now know that they strike the young with equal force and can be ruinous throughout life unless treated. We used to think that anxiety and depression were purely mental ills- disorders of emotion, thinking, and perspective. In fact, anxiety and depression are deeply rooted in the body, and their corrosive effects raise a persons risk of contracting a host of diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Depression alone is the leading cause of disability in the United States and the rest of the world. It costs employers an estimated $44 billion a year in lost productivity, according to a 2003 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Tragically, not only is the true magnitude of the damage wrought by these diseases widely unknown, but millions of people do not recognize their own anxiety or depression, or if they do, they suppress this recognition because of the stigma that stubbornly clings to psychological conditions of all kinds. This book is our attempt to fight that stigma, raise awareness about the true nature of anxiety and depression, help people find optimal treatment, and empower them so they can better navigate often complicated health-care systems. We live in remarkably stressful times, filled with information overload, demands to perform at high speed, and pressure to multitask. The terrorism and war that have touched all of us in recent years have also added uncertainty and tension to our lives. Unfortunately, humans are not built for this kind of stress. Our brains, our moods, and our emotional responses evolved over millions of years to deal with the challenges of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, in which new information came at a trickle and the pace of life was, literally, at a walk. The contrast with the demands of the twenty-first century is so stark that the steady rise in anxiety and depression is not surprising. Between 1987 and 1997, for example, the percentage of Americans diagnosed and treated for depression more than tripled. Anxiety and depression are now the two most common mental disorders, affecting 38 million people in the United States alone. We urgently want to address these dire statistics by improving care for those who are anxious, depressed, or both. Until now no comprehensive and authoritative guide has existed for people seeking the optimal treatment they deserve. In part, thats because until recently experts have considered anxiety and depression separate maladies. We now know this is false: people often experience symptoms of both, and proper diagnosis and treat Excerpted from The Peace of Mind Prescription: An Authoritative Guide to Finding the Most Effective Treatment for Anxiety and Depression by Dennis Charney, Charles Nemeroff All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
