Social anxiety disorder, testing taking anxiety, performance anxiety, etc. What is it really? Is anxiety nothing more than a well crafted medical euphamism for puss-itis? Vote today and tell us what you think?

Some people have BAD attacks of "anxiety" but ya, the term is being over used and made a lesser meaning by all the things that get covered by it.

Unless you have had a real anxiety attack you can not even begin to image what it can do to you.

You have a hard time breathing, you have a hard time thinking, you have a desire to flee that is almost and can be overwhelming, or it can root you to the spot your in. It can cause you to panic and do irrational things. It can cause you physical pain. Those are just the easy parts.

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The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. Indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

-Bertrand Russell

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable

-Laurence J. Peters

I never said that you had no right to have an opinion. I just said that it was, in fact, worth nothing.

-Maineman ( on 12 June 2007)

True, RGS. I once went though a period where I had panic attacks, totally suck! It was a pretty stressful time and I was eventually able to talk myself out of it. Still, I have to vote for option number three.

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I'm hoping my inclusion of a "moderate" third choice will be met with approval.

Methinks some suffer from decision making anxiety.

You know, Mani, this poll is pretty funny coming from you.

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I aim to please.

There's a difference between anxiety and anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorder can be a crippling thing, and lead to all sorts of really bad choices. People who feel horrible all the time don't register positive reinforcement the way normal people do, which means there's no reward for good choices. They're prone to develop alcoholism and drug addiction because that's the only way they ever feel good at all.

But "anxiety" by itself is a different thing. So the poll isn't specific enough.

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Poor Spot! He was tired of being thought of as stupid. "I'm gonna join Mensa," he said to myself, "and then I'll be legally permitted to wear the society's insignia--a tattoo of a little map pin pushed into my flesh--and then everyone'll know that I'm not dumb at all!"
Spot Joins Mensa
by James "Kibo" Parry

Anxiety can range from everything to worrying that you aren't prepared for a test or your butt looks fat to incapacitating and terrifying anxiety attacks that convince the victim that s/he is in mortal danger of dying. The former is no big deal, is occasionally incurred by everybody and leaves no lasting harm. The latter is a genuine medical condition that, while generally not dangerous, is no laughing matter. Certain phobias can be emotionally (and socially/practically) damaging; certain obsessive/compulsive behavior resulting from anxiety can be life threatening.

I don't think wuss-itis really factors into any of these.

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Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."
-- Thomas Sowell

" I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it."
-- Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1776

Are you trying to make him anxious?

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IMO, the highlighted examples are cases of extreme wuss-itis.

Ever watched Beetlejuice?

"I'm feeling a little...anxious..." euphanism for horny in that show.

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Poor Spot! He was tired of being thought of as stupid. "I'm gonna join Mensa," he said to myself, "and then I'll be legally permitted to wear the society's insignia--a tattoo of a little map pin pushed into my flesh--and then everyone'll know that I'm not dumb at all!"
Spot Joins Mensa
by James "Kibo" Parry

You go, girl!

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Anxiety will kill you. Other than that I guess it's ok.

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"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

Anxiety is a disease usually associated with seratonen uptake disorders.

Not a clue what those other "anxieites" are all about.

No way. Those who care whether they are prepared are not in the least wusses. Their fear may be unfounded, but it is based on positive values. A big butt is waaaaaaaaaay down there on the scale of serious problems, but wanting to present a good appearance is also not the least bit wussy.

Being a wuss is not speaking to somebody because they might not respond or not expressing a necessary opinion because somebody might not like it or being too shy to offer assistance to somebody who needs it.

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Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."
-- Thomas Sowell

" I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it."
-- Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1776