Who suffers from anxiety disorders?

Anxiety symptoms are common and may be mild, causing little or no impairment in social and occupational function. But many people are troubled by severe and persistent symptoms that cause significant personal distress, impair function and reduce quality of life.

Anxiety disorders can occur at any time from childhood through to old age. They can affect boys and girls, men and women.

The age and gender distribution of individual disorders varies. For example, specific phobias are more common in women than in men across all age groups, whereas panic disorder is almost as frequent in men and women aged 51-65. Nevertheless the pattern for all disorders taken together if fairly constant with an overall female:male ratio of about 2:1.

People who are suffering from depression may also experience anxiety symptoms because anxiety and depression are closely linked. And if you are suffering from an anxiety disorder, you may be depressed as well.