Anxiety is an emotion that everyone has or will experience frequently during their lives, but are certain people more predetermined to experience anxiety and disorders associated with it? According to research, anxiety disorders are common, however, of all persons who meet the criteria for anxiety disorder diagnosis, only approximately 25 percent of these people pursue professional psychological treatment (Oltmanns & Emery, 2015, p. 151). Using this information, 75 percent of persons with an anxiety disorder then go undiagnosed and untreated; therefore, since it is difficult to gather accurate data on the severity and frequency of these disorders, current estimates are centered on community surveys (Oltmanns & Emery, 2015, p. 151). Originally published in Kessler et al., “the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) found that 18 percent of adults in the U.S. population have at least one type of anxiety disorder in any given year” (as cited in Oltmanns & Emery, 2015, p. 144). This finding shows the prevalence of anxiety disorders, but what exactly are anxiety disorders? As defined by Oltmanns & Emery (2015), anxiety disorders, which are the most common type of abnormal behavior, have several forms – including extreme worry, panic attacks, phobias, and social anxiety (p. 144). Tolin et al. characterized anxiety disorders further stating that they “lead to significant social and occupational impairment and a reduced quality of life” (as cited in Oltmanns & Emery,
