Constant anxiety often does not seem like something serious to outsiders. It’s enough just to “pull yourself together” and “not worry about trifles,” they think. Unfortunately, sometimes unreasonable excitement becomes a serious problem, and for a person prone to it, there is nothing more difficult than «just calm down.»
In the world, women are most often affected by anxiety disorders, as well as young people under 35 years of age. They most often note: anxiety without a specific reason, attacks of severe fear (panic attacks), obsessive thoughts, to get rid of which it is necessary to perform certain rituals, social phobia (fear of communication) and various types of phobias, such as fear of open (agoraphobia) or closed (claustrophobia) spaces.
But the prevalence of all these diseases in different countries is different. Psychologists from the University of Cambridge (UK), led by Olivia Remes, found that about 7,7% of the population in North America, North Africa and the Middle East suffers from anxiety disorders. In East Asia — 2,8%.
On average, about 4% of the population complains of anxiety disorders worldwide.
“We don’t know exactly why women are more prone to anxiety disorders, perhaps because of the neurological and hormonal differences between the sexes,” says Olivia Remes. “The traditional role of women has always been to take care of children, so their tendency to worry is evolutionarily justified.
Women are also more likely to respond emotionally to emerging problems and difficulties. They often get hung up on thinking about the current situation, which provokes anxiety, while men usually prefer to solve problems with active actions.
As for young people under 35, it is possible that their tendency to anxiety explains the high pace of modern life and the abuse of social networks.