Introduction 11
functionally helpful purposes, such as helping you build
mastery (for example, when you rehearse an upcoming
speech over and over until it’s nearly perfect), helping you
develop social connections with others, and helping you
avoid harm. Yet in modern society, anxiety is the most
common class of mental health disorders and has significant
implications for public health. Currently, approximately one
in five adults in the US suffers from a diagnosable anxiety
disorder. Americans collectively spend slightly more than
$40 billion a year on health care and related costs (medica-
tions, hospital/primary care visits, therapy, self- help, and so
on), which is around one- third of the total cost of all mental
health care services in the country. People with anxiety dis-
orders are three to five times as likely to use health care ser-
vices as those with no anxiety disorders. Moreover, many
are at risk for developing a second anxiety disorder or even a
mood disorder, such as depression.
Despite the high rates of anxiety disorders and their
staggering economic burden, only about 35 percent of
people with a diagnosable anxiety condition are receiving
some type of professional mental health treatment. This
means that almost two- thirds of Americans who have an
anxiety disorder aren’t receiving treatment for a host of dis-
tressing symptoms that affect their ability to function at
home, at work or school, or in social settings. This should
serve as a motivation for psychologists and other mental
health care professionals to develop innovative ways of
decreasing the burden of anxiety disorders. One way is to
help people— including those who are in need of treatment
for problematic anxiety, those who are already in treatment
for problematic anxiety, and those who want to mitigate
their risk of developing problematic anxiety— reduce their