Occasional anxiety is an expected part of life. You might feel anxious when faced with a problem at work, before taking a test, or before making an important decision. But anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worry or fear. For a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. The symptoms can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, school work, and relationships.
Mental illness often surfaces during adolescence and early adulthood and can frequently extend throughout adulthood. Without treatment, the consequences of mental illness for individuals and society can be overwhelming. Untreated individuals often fall victim to unnecessary disabilities, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, inappropriate incarceration, comorbid health issues, and suicide. Further, there is a continuing need for supportive services for adolescents diagnosed explicitly with an anxiety disorder, such as panic disorder, or who self-identified as having excessive anxiety and other stress-related symptoms.
Research has shown that cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based treatment interventions may be effective for a broad range of mental health issues in adults. This book aims to explore the role of cognitive-based and mindfulness-based therapeutic stress reduction interventions for anxiety and panic disordered youth in early adolescence with consideration of developmental roles and norms within treatment applications.
