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Your Right to Mental Health and Wellness

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Your Right to Mental Health and Wellness

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When arriving to college, some people face this unknown; lack of experience in the real world leading to major mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, suicide, etc. Students facing the pressures of being a first time student/ college student could sometimes mislead them from a greater image which is self/ mental care.
Resolutions could be:
-Changing sleep habits, Sleep could lead to levels of stress and anxiety.

-Performing physical Activities, Physical activity releases "happy chemicals" in our brains which impacts in balancing our mind and body's negative reaction toward anxiety.

-Challenging your self to relax, Some people genuinely believe relaxing takes much time ,but honestly by taking a couple minutes out of your day helps. Taking a few breaks, meditating, and even stretching can help.

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Mental wellness is part of the tag line for this blog, "Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness."

Wellness is a relatively new paradigm in health care, and the subject of mental wellness is newer still. The study of characteristics that make up mental health is called Positive Psychology, which was introduced only in 1998. Mental wellness in counseling and therapy is even more recent, being introduced in 2001.

Mental wellness is more than a pop psychology term; it is a part of the future of medicine, which is moving daily toward a concept of holistic treatment. Both presidential candidates envision more holistic health care, and medical practices across the nation are taking up the idea of treating the whole person, rather than just handing out prescriptions.

This post defines mental wellness as it is understood by its originators, and as it is used in this blog. It is the second post in the series defining the terms mental health, mental wellness, and mental wholeness as it relates to this blog's tag line, "Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness."

What is mental wellness?

Wellness refers to a holistic approach in which mind, body, and spirit are integrated

As mentioned, the concept of mental wellness is relatively new, introduced only in 2001. In my research for this post, I looked at well over 50 internet sites that were classified under "wellness." Only two even mentioned mental health. Most of the rest emphasized physical wellness, and quite a few were full of gimmicks and hype for products from spa treatments to shower heads (really!). None had anything resembling spiritual wellness in their contents. Perhaps mental and spiritual wellness are ignored because they have few commercial possibilities!

The best definition of mental wellness that I could find was by Dr. Jane Myers of the University of North Carolina, one of the founders of the concept. She says,

Wellness refers to a holistic approach in which mind, body, and spirit are integrated. It is a way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being in which body, mind, and spirit are integrated in a purposeful manner with a goal of living life more fully... Wellness is more than the absence of disease, [or] a state defined as "health." [It] incorporates a concern for optimal functioning.

Being mentally well is intertwined with being physically and spiritually well

Mental wellness, physical wellness and spiritual wellness are co-equal

By its very essence, mental wellness cannot be separated from physical and spiritual wellness. The three work together to produce the very concept of wellness.

The following list was compiled by Dr. Myers as a general guide to what it is to live in wellness. These are essential areas of concern along life's way and not an absolute checklist that measures success or failure. You may not even agree with them all. Choose the ones you want to aspire to and make them your milestones along the mental wellness continuum.

Note that most of the points below deal with mental health and wellness in some way:

Creative Self

Thinking. Being mentally active and open-minded. The ability to be creative and experimental. Having a sense of curiosity. The ability to apply problem-solving strategies to social conflicts.

Emotions. Being aware of or in touch with your feelings. The ability to express appropriately positive and negative feelings.

Control. Beliefs about your competence, confidence, and personal mastery. Beliefs that you can usually achieve the goals you set out for yourself.

Work. Satisfaction with your work. Feeling that your skills are used appropriately. Feeling you can manage one's workload. Feeling a sense of job security. Feeling appreciated in the work you do.

Positive Humor. Being able to laugh at your own mistakes. The ability to use humor to accomplish even serious tasks.

Coping Self

Leisure. Satisfaction with your time spent in leisure. Feeling that your skills are used appropriately.

Stress Management. On-going self-assessment of your coping resources. The ability to organize and manage resources such as time, energy, and setting limits.

Self-Worth. Accepting who and what you are, positive qualities along with imperfections. A sense of being genuine within yourself and with others.

Realistic Beliefs. Ability to process information and perceive reality accurately. The absence of persistent irrational beliefs and thoughts and need for perfection.

Social Self

Friendship. Social relationships that involve a connection with others individually or in community, but which do not have a marital, sexual, or familial commitment. Having a capacity to trust others. Having empathy for others. Feeling understood by others.

Love. The ability to be intimate, trusting, self-disclosing with another. The ability to give as well as express affection with significant others and to accept others without conditions.

Essential Self

Spirituality. Personal beliefs and behaviors practiced as part of the recognition that we are more than the material aspects of mind and body. Belief in a higher power. Hope and optimism. Practice of worship, prayer, and/or meditation; purpose in life. Compassion for others. Moral values. Transcendence (a sense of oneness with the universe).

Gender Identity. Satisfaction with and feeling supported in one's gender. Ability to be androgynous.

Cultural Identity. Satisfaction with and feeling supported in one's cultural identity. Cultural assimilation.

Self-Care. Taking responsibility for one's wellness through self-care and safety habits that are preventive in nature.

Physical Self

Nutrition. Eating a nutritionally balanced diet. Maintaining a normal weight (within 15% of the ideal).

Exercise. Engaging in sufficient physical activity through exercise or in your work to keep in good physical condition.

General Feeling of Well-Being

Perceived Wellness. The extent to which you believe you have achieved wellness in all areas, or total wellness. Your estimate of your total wellness.

Perceived Safety. The extent to which you believe you are safe in your home, neighborhood, and community, and the extent to which you feel safe from harm by terrorists.

Context. The extent to which your wellness is influenced, in a conscious manner, by individual, institutional, and global contexts, and the extent to which you are aware of and intentional in responding positively to changes in wellness over time.

My definition of mental wellness

Mental wellness is part of a healthy life balance

Mental wellness is thoroughly integrated with physical and spiritual wellness, and should receive the same attention as either. It is proactive, not waiting until something goes wrong to fix the problem, but actively working on mental health as our lives progress and change. Above all, it is being self-aware, self-understanding and self-forgiving, so that a healthy balance can be maintained in all areas of life.

What do you think?

How would you define mental wellness? Or do you even believe in the concept?

Do you have any items that you add to or remove from the list?

Do you think that the emphasis on spiritual wellness as equal to mental and physical wellness is appropriate?

As always, your comments are welcome!
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Related posts:

%RELATEDPOSTS%

Resources used in this post:

Bessinger, Donivan. (2000). Carl G. Jung: A Brief Introduction to His Ideas. Retrieved from Journey into Wholeness Web site: http://users.aol.com/journeywh/jwjung.htm

Myers, Jane. (2004, April 23). Wellness Models, Assessment, Research. Retrieved August 4, 2008 from University of North Carolina at Greensboro Web site: http://www.uncg.edu/~jemyers/wellness/docs/wellness.htm

Satcher, David. (1999). Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General 1999. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from US Department of Health and Human Services Web site: http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cre/ch1_scope.asp

Further reading:

Discovery Health: What Is Mental Health? http://health.discovery.com/centers/mental/whatis/whatis.html

Mental Wellness Information Emotional Wellness Mental Fitness Health Advice, Dr. Ron Sterling http://www.mentalwellness.ws/

Moving Towards Wholeness http://lessonsforliving.com/moving_towards_wholeness.htm

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What is Mental Wellness? Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness

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Mental wellness is part of the tag line for this blog, "Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness." Wellness is a relatively new paradigm in health care, and the subject of mental wellness is newer still. The study of characteristics that make up mental health is called Positive Psychology, which was introduced only in 1998.

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The human right to health means that everyone has the right to the highest sustainable standard of mental wellness. Rather that be food, sanitation, clean environment, etc. Although some may have better health provided to them than others, the human right provides health and protection for all. If mental health and wellness is something one suffers from resources are available.
Seek to a variety of Tips such as:
-Reaching out to someone close when you feel an unbalance within yourself.
-Treating the matter with importance, meaning shrugging it off isn't the solution.
-Seeking help from possibly a therapist, If you can't find someone immediate or find anyone to talk to. Seeking an outside resource could help extremely because its someone on the outside looking in, and that could be important when one doesn't realize the effects of it.
-Finding a place that gives you peace. This place could be physically such as outdoors, or this place could also be just a journal, find what works for you.
-Addressing that you may be lacking mental health and wellness is a big key to improvement for yourself. By pin pointing it out and knowing how to address it, helps tremendously.

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The Human Rights Act (1998)

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to everyone. They cannot be taken away - although some can sometimes be restricted for a legitimate rationale.

Human rights are legally enforceable by the UK under the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 which incorporates into domestic law the rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). ¹ It means all public authorities are legally obliged to respect your rights, and do whatever is in their power to protect your rights then they are at a known risk.

How does the Human Rights Act protect the rights of people living with mental health problems, learning disabilities and dementia?

The rights safeguarded by the European Convention on Human Rights, and which have been domesticated by the Human Rights Act, have had an immense impact in the way people with mental health problems, learning disabilities and dementia are treated. Both, the European Convention and the Human Rights Act have played a central role in empowering people experiencing mental health problems and shifting the power balance between service providers/commissioners/the state and service users and their families.

The rights contained in the European Convention also have an impact on day to day staff and carer practice in the mental health sector. Staff and providers of services in the mental health field have the duty to treat people with dignity and respect people's human rights in everything they do. This includes:

ensuring that people are cleaned and not left for a long period of time in their own waste

avoiding verbal and physical abuse

ensuring that people's family are informed and can visit people who are in hospitals

ensuring that people have access to their medical records.

Human rights law is the foundation of every law, including mental health law. Below are a few examples of improvements which have resulted as a consequence of human rights challenges:

Access to justice for victims with mental health problems.

Changes in the Mental Health Act 1983: the Act was amended in 2007 to be human rights compliant.

Mental Capacity Legislation: The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is underpinned by human rights principles.

The introduction of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

What are my rights?

Below are a number of fundamental rights included in the Human Rights Act, and the impact each has on mental health. ²

Article 2: the right to life

Every person's life must be protected by the state. This right imposes strong duties on the state to refrain from lawful killing; to investigate suspicious deaths; and, to protect life. The most obvious impact of this Article is on the issue of suicide. The European court has held that the article requires hospitals to take measures to ensure steps are in place to secure an individual's right to life.

Article 3: the prohibition of torture

This includes inhuman or degrading treatment, such as severe cases of police violence or appalling conditions in prison. For example, the European court has ruled that giving a patient a cheaper psychiatric drug with worse side effects than a more expensive one was inhuman treatment.

Article 5: liberty and security

Every person has the right to personal freedom. This freedom cannot be taken away without good reason. When it is confirmed by a medical professional that an individual is of unsound mind, there are exceptions to enacting Article 5 through DoLS.

Article 6: right to a fair trial

Every person who has been charged with a criminal offence, or whose civil liberties could be limited by a decision of a public authority has the right to a fair and public hearing. This applies to mental health review tribunal hearings, but also to hospital managers' hearings.

Article 8: right to respect for private and family life

This Article has been interpreted very broadly. Broadly Article 8 grants to every person the right to carry on their life privately, without the intervention of the state. This is likely to have implications for mental health, for instance, patients are likely to rely on this article to ensure that they get family visitation rights, and long-term patients could use it to press for conjugal rights and to ensure that children are not detained without their parents' consent. It could also be used to challenge powers of search. ³

Article 14: no discrimination

This Article requires the state to apply all rights without discrimination.

What should you do if you think someone's rights are being interfered with?

The right to liberty can be referred to as a 'limited right' since it can only be restricted in certain situations. So long as it is in accordance with mental health laws and is proportionate, an individual can be lawfully detained on mental health grounds, however if further clarity is required, the following steps provide some initial guidance for what to do if you think someone's rights are not being upheld: ⁵

Raise the issue informally with the public authority in question.

Raise the issue formally with a letter.

Strengthen the wording of the letter and tie in closely to your human rights argument.

Contact the Health Service Ombudsman.

Contact a monitor and/or regulator, for example, the CQC or Healthwatch England.

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Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to everyone. They cannot be taken away - although some can sometimes be restricted for a legitimate rationale. Human rights are legally enforceable by the UK under the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 which incorporates into domestic law the rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

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You should go to the counseling center to talk to your advisor about your problems. There are many resources on campus to help you so you should never feel like you are alone or that nobody will listen to your problems. Don’t let yourself get to a point where you feel like you don’t have anybody. Depression can be very scary. When you let yourself get into a deep thinking state and begin to think about many things going on in your life. From there your thoughts may begin to get sad. You should always open up and talk someone or make an appointment and let them help you because aren’t alone .

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People around campus feel like they don’t have nobody to talk to about there problems or if they are goin thru stuff.Thats why Eastern Michigan created the program called CAPS Counseling and Psychlogical Services it helps you with mental health for caring staff that helps people a short term model .The appointments they aren’t free but they accept Student Insurance.

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Anxiety exists from people becoming anxious about different situations. People become anxious about big or small situations. It could be as serious as someone not being able to cover their tuition and they have to stop going to school because of that. Also, it could be as minor as someone being anxious because they have a presentation in their next class.

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Take your time, don't rush or do anything at the last minute.

Meet new people, so you will feel comfortable in different places.

Talk to someone like your success coach, advisor, professor, friend, a family member, or just someone you trust to guide you with good advice.

Use a planner so you can keep up with what has to be done.

Call 734-487-1122 to set up an appointment with University Health Services.

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A few tips to overcome mental health and wellness 

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A few tips to overcome mental health and wellness 

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• Talk to someone (friend, parents, or maybe even a professor)
• Try to keep a positive mind set, it is easy to think negative and thinking negative could take over your mind
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help, asking for help could be the best thing you’ve ever done
• Try to stay as organized as possible, being unorganized could cause unnecessary stress that you don’t need
• Make a set schedule so things won’t be all over the place. For example, study time, homework time, reading a book, and maybe even spending time with your friends

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• 70% of directors believe that the number of students with severe psychological problems on their campus has increased in the past year
• The American freshman annual survey from 2012 found that 30% of college freshman report feeling frequently overwhelmed, with the number of women reporting this to be at its highest point (40.5%)
• The survey also has found the fewest members of freshmen describing themselves as emotionally healthy
• One of the most dangerous aspects of depression and mental health concerns in general is suicide

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It is neither an exaggeration nor is it alarmist to claim that there is a mental health crisis today facing America's college students. Evidence suggests that this group has greater levels of stress and psychopathology than any time in the nation's history. The dawning recognition of the crisis is spurring conferences ( see here) and official reports in an attempt to get a handle on the scope of the problem. It is a reality we should all be aware of because the ramifications are difficult to overstate. The goal of this blog is to survey the evidence that points to an emerging epidemic of mental health problems in late adolescence (15-18 year olds) and emerging adults (ages 18-24). A subsequent blog will focus on the possible causes that are contributing to the sea change in mental health.

Directors of counseling centers have one of the most direct lines to observing the state of mental health on college campuses, thus it is instructive to identify their perspective. According to the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors survey of counseling center directors, 95% of college counseling center directors surveyed said the number of students with significant psychological problems is a growing concern in their center or on campus. Seventy percent of directors believe that the number of students with severe psychological problems on their campus has increased in the past year.

Another significant source of evidence is found in survey data from the students. In 2004 the Mental Health Task Force on Graduate Student Mental Health at the University of California Berkley surveyed its graduate students and revealed 45%had experienced an emotional or stress-related problem in the last 12 months that significantly affected their well-being and/or academic performance. The American Freshman annual survey from 2012 found that 30% of college freshmen report feeling frequently overwhelmed, with the number of women reporting this to be at its highest point, 40.5%, since the question was first asked in 1985, at which time the levels were less than half the current numbers. The survey also has found the fewest numbers of freshmen describing themselves as emotionally healthy.

Rates of anxiety and depression have similarly sky-rocketed in the last few decades. A 2013 survey of college students found that 57% of women and 40% of men reported experiencing episodes of "overwhelming anxiety" in the past year, and 33% of women and 27% of men reported a period in the last year of feeling so depressed it was difficult to function. Studies suggest that between a quarter and a third of students meet criteria for an anxiety or depressive illness during their college experience.

Comparing groups across generations is admittedly difficult, but the data clearly point to things being far worse now. Trend data clearly suggest increases in levels of stress, depression and anxiety at least since the 1980s. Consider that one study found that the average high school student in the year 2000 has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient did in the 1950s; and those rates have only increased in the last decade. Utilizing the MMPI to assess psychopathology, Twenge and colleagues found five times as many students in 2007 surpassed clinical cutoffs in one or more mental health categories, compared with those who took the measure several decades ago.

One of the most dangerous aspects of depression and mental health concerns in general is suicide. According to the American College Health Association (ACHA) the suicide rate among young adults, ages 15-24, has tripled since the 1950s and suicide is currently the second most common cause of death among college students. That study also found 9.4% of students reported seriously considering attempted suicide at least once in a 12 month period, a marked increase from several decades ago.

Approximately 11% of college students meet criteria for some form of learning disability. Approximately 4-5% of adults are estimated to meet criteria for AD/HD, and many in college systems report marked increases in the numbers of students reporting problems focusing and seeking AD/HD diagnoses and accommodations. In addition, use of Ritalin and related "study drugs " have dramatically increased in the past two decades.

When we look at lifestyle habits-like eating patterns, sexual activity, sleeping and drinking-we also see evidence of markedly increasing maladaptive patterns. Sleep deprivation is legendary in college life, and many wear it almost as a badge of honor. Yet, with college students averaging just over 6 hours of sleep and the serious problems associated with sleep deprivation clearly documented, the poor sleep patterns are not to be taken lightly and are likely significantly associated with mental health problems in other domains.

Disordered eating has also been documented to be on the rise. Studies in the 1980s indicated that 4 percent to 5 percent of college students have eating disorders, but a 2006 survey by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) found that nearly 20 percent of the more than 1,000 college students surveyed - both male and female - said they had or previously had eating disorders.

Studies have found that over 30% of students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for alcohol dependence in the past 12 months. According to a 2007 NIH/NIAAA report, among college students and other 18- to 24-year-olds, binge drinking and, driving while intoxicated (DWI), have increased from 1998 to 2006. T he number of students who reported DWI increased from 2.3 million students to 2.8 million, and the number of alcohol-related deaths also have increased.

Patterns of sexual behaviors also show cause for concern. First, there is a strong and disturbing pattern of sexual assault, especially in connection with drinking. It has been estimated that each year more than 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking, and more than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. In addition, there has emerged a "hook up" culture which has been linked to psychological problems, such as drinking, anxiety and depression. Finally, the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases and high risk sexual behaviors are a significant cause for concern.

Finally, as was made brutally apparent by the 2007 massacre at VA Tech, mental health concerns pertain directly to episodes of violence. T he frequency of violent campus attacks was examined by the FBI, and was found to demonstrate a marked increase in the 1980s into the 1990s and has probably plateaued since then, although conclusions are very difficult to draw. Interestingly, one possible bright spot are data that suggest that maybe there has been a decrease in violent crime on campuses. One government survey found a 54% decrease in violent crime perpetrated against students.

Despite the complexity of the issues, I believe the overall picture is clear. Today's college students are facing a serious mental health crisis. If so, the next question is what might be causing it and finally what should we do about it. I will be addressing those topics in the future. If you have thoughts about the cause or what to do, please share in the comment section.

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The College Student Mental Health Crisis

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It is neither an exaggeration nor is it alarmist to claim that there is a mental health crisis today facing America's college students. Evidence suggests that this group has greater levels of stress and psychopathology than any time in the nation's history.

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Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) joins the rest of the EMU community in expressing our grief, sorrow and compassion to all of those who have been impacted by the race-based tragedies that have been occurring across our nation. We condemn the persistent violence against our Black community members. While these tragedies can be painful to process for all of us, we recognize that they are uniquely traumatic to members of our Black and African-American communities.

In the aftermath of experiencing or witnessing trauma, it is normal to experience a range of feelings and emotions, such as shock, fear, sadness, anger, helplessness or guilt. We encourage you to reach out to people you can trust and who can support you in coping with reactions to these recent events. For some, talking about the event, acknowledging feelings, or focusing on helping others can assist with reducing the negative emotional impact of violence. We encourage you to contact our office at [email protected] or call 734.487.1118 if you would like support with coping and healing.

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Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)

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Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) joins the rest of the EMU community in expressing our grief, sorrow and compassion to all of those who have been impacted by the race-based tragedies that have been occurring across our nation. We condemn the persistent violence against our Black community members.

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The transition from High school to College can be  quite a difficult stage to go through. Going from being dependant on your parent(s)/guardian(s) to being very independent practically as soon as you get there definitely effects those who are dependent on others for their responsibility. This can also prove to be challenging mentally as well. You are now leaving the home you have been familiar with to pursue a further education. This can be heartbreaking and even depressing.

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Building Better Mental Health - HelpGuide.org

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Want to feel better? These self-help strategies and tips will help you boost mood, build resilience, and strengthen your mental health.

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Many people are anxious because of financial situations, relationships, health, safety, and more. Very little people seek professional help to help them deal with anxiety. People born after 1996 have shown the worst mental health over all of the older generations. These people are dealing with feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress. Researchers thinks social media is adding to the anxiety problem. Anxiety is built from our thoughts. Our emotions are so strong, they can take control of our minds which causes people to become anxious.

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If you think we live in anxious times now, the neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux suggests you consider what life must have been like in the Middle Ages. "That was probably a pretty lousy time to live," LeDoux, author of the 2015 book Anxious and one of the foremost experts on the neuroscience of fear, told Newsweek. "Disease, poverty and just the stress of life."

LeDoux was making a point he also makes in his recent book: Every age thinks it's "the Age of Anxiety."

"We love our anxiety and because it's ours, we think it's so special," he said. "But that's the nature of anxiety-it's all-consuming in your mind. If my mind is charged with anxiety, I can't imagine other people could've felt this bad in their lives."

It was a fair point, but I wasn't entirely convinced. I'd arrived at his office early and, while waiting for the eminent researcher, took a quick peek at my cellphone, which revealed the following news stories: The Amazon rainforest-the "lungs of the world"-was on fire, which could accelerate global warming. The trade war between the U.S. and China had escalated and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had plunged 600 points. There'd been two random mass shootings in recent weeks.

As I contemplated what all this might mean for my children, the planet and my 401k, a text message arrived from my editor at Newsweek. Could I deliver my story on anxiety a week early-say, in three days? If this wasn't the "Age of Anxiety," then what was it?

LeDoux was right about one thing. I am certainly not the only one living in the present who is grappling with fear of the future, even if it sometimes feels like it.

In May, the American Psychiatric Association reported that for the second year in a row, two out of three Americans say they are "extremely or somewhat anxious" about their health, paying bills and keeping themselves and their family safe. The problem is most pronounced for younger adults-70 percent of those between 18 and 34 report anxiety about paying bills and keeping their families safe, and two out of three are also anxious about relationships (compared with 40 percent for those over 55). About one in five has sought professional care.

College graduates are the most anxious of all, surveys suggest. Last fall, members of Generation Z (those born after 1996) reported the worst mental health of any generation, with 91 percent saying they had felt physical or emotional symptoms associated with stress, such as depression or anxiety, according to the American Psychological Association. Meanwhile, more than 60 percent of college students said they had experienced "overwhelming anxiety" during the previous year, and the number of students who visited campus counseling centers increased by more than 30 percent between the fall of 2009 and 2015.

Many researchers think that the internet and social media have contributed to this trend. "The constant access to news-and the constant warnings on news sites-is incredibly stressful and can create a sense of panic," says Jenny Taitz, a Los Angeles-based author and therapist who specializes in treating anxiety. "There's a shooting here, there is this break-in there, all this information that we have access to puts danger at the forefront of our mind. How can you relax when you have access to all the bad news that's happening right at your fingertips?"

When I mentioned this to LeDoux, he conceded that we live in "a particularly complex time." He added: "Other generations didn't have the internet, which has turned out to be one of the worst things that's ever happened to us as a species."

Luckily, the spike in anxiety comes at a time of incredible discovery for brain science. Advances in brain imaging and other techniques in recent years have vastly increased our knowledge of the neurological basis of anxiety and led to widespread optimism about the future of the field. Researchers have found that anxiety is a whole-brain phenomenon that involves the activity of complex neuronal circuits. As they proceed in identifying these circuits, they expect to uncover targets for new drugs and treatments. "I think we are on the cusp of a mental health treatment revolution," says Kay Tye, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. "It's an extremely exciting time."

For many of us, the revolution can't come soon enough.

Follow the Brain Circuits

Few scientists have contributed more to our understanding of fear and anxiety than Joseph LeDoux. When he began working on the problem in the 1980s, scientific dogma held that the emotional processing areas of the brain relied on signals that must first pass through the neocortex, the thinking part of the brain-suggesting that emotional reactions come after, and are caused by, our conscious thoughts about a situation.

Freud had famously established the notion of "unconscious factors" that play a role in anxiety, but there was no solid science to support the idea-until LeDoux came along. Working with rats, he discovered a new pathway that operates independent of conscious thought. Sensory stimuli could travel directly to a part of the brain known as the amygdala, a primitive structure that serves as the seat of the emotions. The implications were profound. It helped to explain how emotions can overpower our rational minds, why we are sometimes captive to irrational phobias and the mechanism by which it is possible to feel overcome by a deep sense of foreboding and anxiety or "gut feeling" without knowing why.

The amygdala was evolution's way of allowing humans to gain a few precious extra seconds in dodging an attacking lion or jumping out of the way of an oncoming car. There was a "slow" or "high road" to the mind, which ran through the cortex, the more reasonable part of the brain. And there was a "fast" or "low road" that traveled directly to the defensive and survival oriented areas of the brain, which allow us to react instantaneously-the "fight-or-flight" reflex.

The amygdala helped explain how the human brain processes fear, which is generally triggered by an immediate threat in one's environment. But it didn't entirely explain anxiety, which is what we feel when we are worried about the possibility of misfortune or personal injury at some point in the future.
In the 1990s, researchers identified a tiny structure that played a key role in how rodents dealt with "ambiguous threats"-ones that didn't place them in immediate danger. Called the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis (BNST), it was about the size of a sunflower seed and located near the amygdala. While the amygdala appears to be the brain area primarily involved in activating the fight-or-flight response, the BNST kicks in when we have reason to remain hypervigilant-that hormone-driven state of hyperarousal we feel in our bodies when we are tense in the face of uncertainty.

"What the amygdala is to fear, the BNST is to anxiety," LeDoux says.

In a neuroimaging lab at the University of Louisville, Brendan E. Depue, a psychology professor, has shown how these findings in rodents manifest in humans. Placing students one by one in an fMRI machine, Depue simulated fear conditions by showing subjects images of fearful faces and playing them sounds of human screams. To simulate ambiguous threats, he simply projected a blank screen and informed subjects that a scream or fearful face could occur at any time, but the subject might also at any time be shown a neutral face and hear indistinct coffee shop chatter instead. Under these conditions, the amygdala consistently activated when the screams and scared faces appeared and the BNST was more engaged with the ambiguous threats.

"Mostly people who complain, or go into counseling, or seek therapy are really not there for a reaction to a fear stimulus," Depue says. "They're there because they're tormented by anticipation of an unpredictable event. It's just in their mind. It causes them to develop a chronic and maladaptive vigilance to the environment. We think that can be attributed more to the BNST than the amygdala."

But the hormonal cascade engineered by the amygdala and the BNST, it turns out, is only one piece of the puzzle. In recent years, new techniques have come online that have allowed researchers to begin to trace the "circuits" of the brain in even greater detail and to better understand how disparate parts of the brain interact-creating both widespread excitement and the sense that there is a lot more to learn. Since 2011, Tye, of the Salk Institute, has been using genetically-modified light-sensitive proteins to turn neurons on and off, and systematically tracing the connections between different parts of the brain involved in fear and anxiety.

Her work has added to a growing body of evidence that brain structures other than the amygdala and BNST play a role in anxiety. These include the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the cingulate gyrus and a number of other areas.

"If you think of an analogy of the brain being like the world, and neurons being like people, and you want to understand how information is propagated across the world, you would say, 'yeah, it's important to know where someone lives, I guess,'" she explains. "But it's way more important to know what they're saying, who they're saying it to, who's listening and how do the people that are listening respond? How are those messages sent and filtered to different corners of the brain?"

These findings make the focus on the amygdala and even the BNST seem outdated. LeDoux, the scientist many credit with establishing the importance of the amygdala, is quick to agree. Like Nixon in China, LeDoux has been proselytizing his colleagues to pay more attention to the contributions of the higher-order structures in the anxiety circuit. What parts of the brain the amygdala and BNST are "talking to" may eventually prove crucial in finding more effective ways of treating anxiety.

Indeed, LeDoux believes that a true understanding of anxiety lies in an exploration of one of the most complex subjects left in neuroscience: The nature of consciousness (the subject of his recent book, The Deep History of Ourselves).

While the amygdala or the BNST prime our bodies to react defensively by activating hormonal cascades and defensive behaviors, our minds-the higher-level processing areas of the brain-give meaning to what we are experiencing. In a way, what we call "fear" and "anxiety" are manifestations of our consciousness. Any truly effective treatment for anxiety, LeDoux argues, will require a better understanding of processes beyond the ancient brain structures that trigger behaviors and release hormones, extending to what creates our awareness of self.

We all have an anxiety "set-point," a state we are likely to return to throughout life. Although this is partially genetically determined, a growing body of research suggests that it can be molded by life experience. In one 2011 study, for instance, Virginia Commonwealth University psychiatrist Charles Gardner and his collaborators examined nine data sets of longitudinal studies of 12,000 twins across three continents, and examined self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression at different stages of their lives. While the set points for 10-year-old identical twins were the same or very close to one another, they diverged sharply as the twins moved through adolescence and into adulthood, which suggests that genetic predisposition played only a part.

LeDoux argues individual experience exerts its influence on the set point in part through the development of "mental schema," sets of memories organized around a topic that are activated every time you're in a potentially fear- or anxiety-inducing situation. We might "fear" failing an exam at school because our parents told us that we would never succeed, or we heard the exam was hard or perhaps we failed a previous one. Each time we walk into an exam room, we carry a sense of anxiety into it. Even were it possible to deactivate the BNST and amygdala with a drug, LeDoux says, these mental schema would still interfere with our taking the test.

Bad Treatment

The new emphasis on brain circuits and the newly emerging tools available to study them have electrified neuroscientists and researchers working in the lab. But they haven't yet been translated into new treatments that might relieve anxiety. The last big anti-anxiety medication was Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, which came out in the 1980s.

"The field has been sort of stagnating for quite a while, actually," says Stefan Hofmann, a professor of psychology and director of the Psychotherapy and Emotion Research Laboratory at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorder. "SSRIs came on the market a couple decades ago with big hype. But since then, not much else really happened and I think people are more or less desperate."

The awkward truth about current anxiety treatments is that they are for the most part unproven. Although 75 percent of patients who seek help for debilitating anxiety get "substantially better" during the course of treatment, medical scientists don't know to what extent these improvements are due to the treatments themselves or to the placebo effect. Drugs that are effective in tamping down anxiety tend to have many unwanted side-effects. Why 25 percent of patients fail to respond to any treatment at all is another mystery.

One problem is that mental-health clinicians don't have good ways of diagnosing and classifying mental disorders. For almost 70 years, the diagnostic bible for clinicians treating anxiety and other psychiatric disorders has been the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which assigns symptoms to different classifications of various conditions. As brain science has advanced, the DSM has come to be seen by many in the field as an increasingly antiquated and blunt tool that doesn't fully help define what is wrong with a patient.

"The problem is, you have a list of some 30, 40 different symptoms for any given disorder, and often you have to only meet four or five of them to get a diagnosis," says BU's Hofmann, who helped revise the latest edition, the DSM-V. "You get an astounding number of possible combinations that all would be described as depression and generalized anxiety disorder. So you have this wide array of people that are assigned to the same diagnostic category. Even though they seem to have similar problems on the surface, they might have very different problems that give rise to these problems."

There is widespread agreement among mental health professionals, says Hofmann, that the system needs to change. But reaching consensus and rewriting the approach is still likely years away.

Eventually, clinicians will have more measures from genetics, neuroscience, neural imaging and other disciplines that would help shape the clinician's ability to pick a treatment applicable to individual patients, says Daniel Pine, chief, section on development and affective neuroscience, in the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program. Finding new and more specific ways to classify patients who are experiencing symptoms is an important initial step.

When it comes to finding new drugs to treat anxiety, the pharmaceutical industry has yet to incorporate the new science into its drug discovery methods that might target specific circuits or parts of the circuit. Instead, says the Salk Institute's Tye, they have relied largely on trial and error-"shooting into the dark." In recent years, many pharmaceutical companies, discouraged by the complexity of the mechanisms of anxiety in the brain, have reduced spending on R&D for anxiety medications.

"We're just bathing the brain and body in these drugs," she says. "And, when you take a drug systemically, it's going to go through your circulatory system. It's going to pass through the blood brain barrier. And it's going to bathe the entire tangled mess of wires that is our brain in a soup."

This, she notes, will activate a wide array of circuits, including those that have opposite functions. "And then, that has two results. Number one, you get zero sum effects, because the neurons that have opposing effects cancel each other out, and that's probably why it doesn't work on some people," she says. "And number two, we have nonspecific effects, where you're targeting a bunch of neurons that do something totally different than what you wanted to target, and that give you undesirable side effects."

Tye points to benzodiazepines, like Klonopin, Xanax and Valium, as a prime example of the pitfalls of this approach. The benzos suppress activity in the fear centers of the brain by downregulating key neurotransmitters, but also suppress them everywhere else. Thus they can cause sedation, locomotor suppression, respiratory suppression and cognitive impairments, among other things.

Despite this critique, Tye is optimistic. Once all of the circuits involved in anxiety and other disorders are identified, she says, the circuit-specific neural machinery can be genetically sequenced to identify unique characteristics. And once that happens, drugs can be developed that are more directed. But it may take five to 10 years for scientists to map out, characterize and sequence the majority of circuits of the brain.

Beyond Medicine

Those of us who can't wait that long have some options. In addition to medications like SSRIs and benzodiazepines, psychotherapeutic approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy help patients learn how to identify-and then change-the thoughts that feed negative behaviors and emotions. And there are other remedies that are not necessarily medical, such as exercise, which studies have shown is particularly helpful for anxiety.

Ironically, many clinicians say one of the most exciting trends in mental health in recent years is the rise in the use of a technique that is thousands of years old and actually predates many of the current treatments: mindfulness. Using techniques that help patients to focus on the present moment can often serve as a potent tool to help them manage overwhelming fears about the future.

"Uncertainty is absolutely central to anxiety," says Jack Nitschke, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin and a practicing psychotherapist. "Anxiety is about being concerned about something that might happen in the future." Often, this worry turns out to be impractical and a waste of time-nine in 10 things people most frequently worry about never come to pass.

"If we're living in some sort of future, what-if scenario about something bad that might happen, if we can realize that we're off there and actually I'm sitting in a chair in a room, here many days in advance of this future event that I'm imagining, that point right there is a kind of mindfulness," Nitschke explains. "We've just gotten back into the present moment, realizing where we were and seeing where our mind has gone. And that can indeed be helpful for people with worries."

It makes an odd sort of sense that the most promising technique in a time of technological-influenced advances in brain science dates back thousands of years, especially considering the technologies that bombard us with information and take us out of the present.

So if you're feeling anxious, perhaps there is something you can do while you're waiting for science to come up with the next great pill to help you relax: Put down your cell phone, turn off the cable news and try to be present in the moment. Listen to the sounds around you. Take a walk with a loved one and feel the sun on your face. Above all, don't look at social media or read the news. Except perhaps Newsweek, of course.
Correction (9/6 12.45 p.m.): A previous version of this article did not include Jack Nitschke's expertise. He is a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin, and a practicing psychotherapist.

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Scientists' understanding of anxiety is radically evolving-but how long will it take for treatments to catch up?

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If you think we live in anxious times now, the neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux suggests you consider what life must have been like in the Middle Ages. "That was probably a pretty lousy time to live," LeDoux, author of the 2015 book Anxious and one of the foremost experts on the neuroscience of fear, told Newsweek.

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