Anxiety is a normal response to threat, not a mental illness

• Anxiety as THE spark for varied neuro responses by John Bradley, 2/20/98
  
  

I would disagree. The data suggest that anxiety is a response to threat. There is no evidence of a pathological or pathogenic excess of neurotranmitters in anxiety. The idea that illness is a protection is an old Freudian one ("neurotic defence") which has been invalidated repeatedly over the years. Why not consider anxiety to be the normal response to threat? Avoidance is also a response to threat. Lets normalise the suffering of those we try to help, not complicate and pathologise.

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