Everyone gets anxious about certain things, but some people face more severe forms of anxiety. In fact, anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness in the United States. It is estimated that about 40 million Americans suffer from some form of anxiety disorder.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America:

• Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment.
• People with an anxiety disorder are three to five times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than those who do not suffer from anxiety disorders.
• Anxiety disorders develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events.

In a vast majority of cases, anxiety disorders often accompany some form of depression. The two are so common together that about half of all people diagnosed with depression have also been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

Some of the various forms of anxiety disorders include:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – affects almost 7 million Americans and is found in twice as many women as men.
• Panic Disorder (PD) – affects about 6 million Americans and like GAD, is found in twice as many women as in men.
• Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) – affects about 15 million Americans and occurs equally in men and women.
• Specific Phobias – affects about 19 million Americans, twice as common in women than in men and typically starts in childhood.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – affects about 2.2 million people and is as common in men as in women.
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – affects about 7.7 million people and as much as we hear about it affecting our military troops, it still occurs twice as often in women as in men.

There are other forms of anxiety disorders and many are related to other disorders including bipolar disorder, eating disorders, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), sleep disorders, adult attention deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), chronic pain, fibromyalgia and stress.

I have headaches associated from with auto accident some years ago, I have irritable bowel syndrome, sleep disorders and chronic pain. Makes we anxious about why I don’t have some form of anxiety disorder, but I don’t.

Depending on the type of anxiety disorder, treatments include therapy, medication, alternative treatments and even transcranial magnetic stimulation.

With anxiety disorders being so common, perhaps there is a simple solution that may work for some people, according to a recent report:

“Investigators at Kagoshima University in Japan studied the effect of linalool, a sweet-smelling alcohol that is present in essential oils of lavender and other scented plants, in mice.”

“They showed that exposure to linalool vapor affects the brain through smell and not by being absorbed into the bloodstream via the lungs.”

“Another key finding was that unlike anxiolytic, or anti-anxiety, drugs (such as benzodiazepines), linalool works without impairing movement.”

“The researchers suggest that their study paves the way for further investigations into how to use linalool’s calming properties in humans, citing a need for ‘safer alternatives’ to benzodiazepines and other anti-anxiety medications.”

“One application that they foresee is to help people about to undergo surgery to relax before receiving general anesthesia.”

If you or someone in your family suffers from some form of anxiety, perhaps you should try some lavender and see if it helps to calm and ease the anxiety. If it works, it could save you a fortune in medical expenses.