Psych Central’s Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., wrote a comprehensive post about anxiety disorder and how to treat it. She also lays out four common misconceptions about anxiety disorder that I thought was worth excerpting here.

1. Anxiety disorders aren’t that serious.

This myth persists because “anxiety is a universal and normative emotion,” said Risa Weisberg, Ph.D, Assistant Professor (research) and Co-Director of the Brown University Program for Anxiety Research at Alpert Medical School. However, anxiety “can be a hugely distressing and impairing symptom.”

2. “I can overcome this on my own.”

In her research on anxiety disorders in primary care, Weisberg found that nearly half of primary care patients with anxiety disorders weren’t taking medication or attending therapy. When asked about their reasons for not engaging in treatment, one of the most common answers was that they didn’t believe in receiving these treatments for emotional problems. Anxiety disorders have a chronic course and “the bottom line is that good treatments exist, so there is no reason to suffer on your own,” Weisberg said.

3. Anxiety disorders are a character defect.

“Anxiety has a genetic and neurological basis,” said Tom Corboy, MFT, Director of the OCD Center of Los Angeles.

4. “I need medication in order to improve.”

Though medication can be effective in treating anxiety disorders, “research suggests that in many cases, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is better or just as good as CBT plus medication,” said Jon Abramowitz, Ph.D, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of the UNC Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic. CBT teaches patients the skills for lasting benefits.

To read her entire post click here.

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