According to the Mental Health Foundation, a UK organization, anxiety may be highly prevalent all over the world, but it is still under-reported. In line with the 2014 Mental Health Awareness week, a YouGov survey of 2,300 adults reveals that:
- Almost one in five people feel anxious all of the time or a lot of the time.
- Only one in twenty people never feel anxious.
- Women are more likely to feel anxious than men.
- The likelihood of feeling anxious reduces with age.
- Students and people not in employment are more likely to feel anxious all of the time or a lot of the time.
- Financial issues are a cause of anxiety for half of people, but this is less likely to be so for older people.
- Women and older people are more likely to feel anxious about the welfare of loved ones.
- Four in every ten employed people experience anxiety about their work.
- Around a fifth of people who are anxious have a fear of unemployment.
- Younger people are much more likely to feel anxious about personal relationships.
- Older people are more likely to be anxious about growing old, the death of a loved one and their own death.
- The youngest people surveyed (aged 18 - 24) were twice as likely to be anxious about being alone than the oldest people (aged over 55 years).
- One-fifth of people who have experienced anxiety do nothing to cope with it.
- The most commonly used coping strategies are talking to a friend, going for a walk, and physical exercise.
- Comfort eating is used by a quarter of people to cope with feelings of anxiety, and women and young people are more likely to use this as a way of coping.
- A third of the students in the survey said they cope by 'hiding themselves away from the world'.
- People who are unemployed are more likely to use coping strategies that are potentially harmful, such as alcohol and cigarettes.
- Fewer than one in ten people have sought help from their GP to deal with anxiety, although those who feel anxious more frequently are much more likely to do this.
- People are believed to be more anxious now than they were five years ago.
- There is a tendency to reject the notion that having anxious feelings is stigmatizing.
- People who experience anxiety most frequently tend to agree that it is stigmatizing.
- Just under half of people get more anxious these days than they used to and believe that anxiety has stopped them from doing things in their life.
- Most people want to be less anxious in their day-to-day lives.
- Women and younger people are more likely to say that anxiety has impacted on their lives.
Information from Mental Health Foundation