KHOODEELAAR! evidential note on the economics of anxiety!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5149210/Britons-living-in-fear-as-record-numbers-suffer-from-anxiety.html

Britons 'living in fear' as record numbers suffer from anxiety
Britons are increasingly "living in fear" with record numbers suffering from anxiety and Government attempts to address the problem may be making it worse, new research suggests..

By Caroline Gammell and Kate Devlin
Last Updated: 7:26AM BST 14 Apr 2009
In one of the most wide-ranging studies of its kind, three quarters of people said they thought the world had become a more frightening place over the last decade.
Issues such as terrorism, knife-crime, MRSA and bird flu have all made people more anxious, which in turn is having an impact on the economy.

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Government figures show 800,000 more people in the UK now suffer from anxiety disorders than in 1993, taking the total number of sufferers to above seven million.
Such a predominance of fear and anxiety is contributing to the economic crisis because emotion overrides logical thinking, according to the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) study.
"Individuals and institutions - keen to protect themselves - are now too afraid to lend, spend and invest, despite the fact that these actions could assist in ending the recession," it said.
Women were twice as likely to feel anxious and frightened than men, while young people were more likely than the older generation to be fearful.
A third of all people said fear had prevented them from doing things they want, but efforts to calm the public's fears over issues such as crime often have the opposite effect, the study found.
"Social policy aimed at controlling risk and quelling fear often seems to increase it," the report said.
"The UK Government has recently focused on tackling 'fear of crime', but measures based on installing visible signs of 'security' such as CCTV cameras appear to be counter-productive - they don't lead to people feeling safer.
"Creating visible signs of security may make some people more fearful, as they sense high security must mean high risk."
The UK has an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras, more than in the rest of Europe put together.
The study said 24-hour news, information about threats and the "catastrophic" language often used by politicians, pressure groups, businesses and public bodies all contributed to anxiety.
High levels of fear and anxiety are linked to depression as well as heart disease, and even conditions such as asthma and allergies.
The MHF report, entitled In the Face of Fear, surveyed 2,246 adults and found that 66 per cent of people were worried about the current financial situation and 49 per cent specifically about money.
Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the MHF, urged the Government and businesses to reduce "institutionally-driven" fear.
"This report shows that fear is having a serious negative impact on the mental and physical health of the nation," he said.
"The more fearful people feel in the general population, the more people will be tipped over into diagnosable anxiety disorders.
"The modern world will test our resilience again and again, and people need to know how to process their emotions better to prevent harm to their mental and physical health.
"Prevention campaigns about physical illnesses like heart disease and cancer are often mounted but we have seen little investment in educating people about how they can look after their mental health."
Jane Harris, from the mental health charity Rethink, said funding was desperately needed.
"During the recession, the Government really needs to think about how fear is impacting on people and how it really needs to spend more on mental health to deal with it.
"If someone suffers from cancer, they will have 10 times more spent on their care than someone with a mental illness.
"At any time, one in six people have a mental health problem. We have a really stretched mental health service and the growing number of people suffering from anxiety could push it to breaking point."
Anxiety UK, the country's largest anxiety disorders charity, said the number of calls it received via its helpline had doubled in the first two months of this year.
Chief executive Nicky Lidbetter said: "We have experienced an unprecedented number of enquiries since the beginning of the year from people seeking help, largely due to the economic crisis and its knock on effects on people's mental health."
Phil Hope, the minister for Care services, conceded that more needed to be done: "This report confirms just how important it is to tackle mental health problems and promote public mental health and wellbeing.
"During the last 10 years, we've seen major improvements in the mental health services available for people, but now we need to develop a dynamic new approach, which actively helps create more mentally healthy and resilient communities.
"We're developing a strategy called New Horizons to be published in summer to do that. This report gives us some valuable ideas on how to get there."

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