A recent study conducted by U of T Mississauga Professor Ulrich Schimmack concludes that depression has a significant impact on a person’s satisfaction with life, but surprisingly and contrary to popular belief, anxiety does not. Borrowing results from various surveys conducted on undergraduate students across North America including from U of T, Schimmack assessed the complex relationship between life satisfaction, depression and anxiety.
Following the publication of his article in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Schimmack suggested that, “all that matters is how depressed you are, and after that, anxiety doesn’t seem to influence your level of life satisfaction.”
However, Dr. Neil Rector, head of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and associate professor of psychiatry at U of T, suggests the results need to be interpreted carefully, because the study examined the impact of non-clinical anxiety problems. “It may well be that non-clinical levels of anxiety do not adversely impact on your subjective well-being-that is good news. However, a long-standing and vast research of literature has been amassed with thousands of participants that directly examines the impact of anxiety disorders on a person’s quality of life, and the results are unequivocal: the experience of anxiety disorders leads to significant decrements in subjective well-being, impairment in social and occupational functioning, poor physical and emotional health, and disability.”
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), it is estimated that one in ten people suffers from anxiety, making it the number one mental health problem in Canada. Common symptoms of anxiety include confusion, anxiety attacks, phobias, inability to concentrate, chest pains, and breathing difficulties-all of which are often mistaken for serious aliments such as a heart attack or asthma attack. Sadly, many people that experience anxiety often conceal and try to manage the symptoms by themselves because of the social stigma associated with anxiety disorders. However, as indicated by the CMHA, prolonging medical treatment can lead to other serious aliments including depression, eating disorders and substance abuse.
According to Rector, “Research has demonstrated that patients with anxiety disorders have significant difficulties maintaining stable employment, or are often underemployed or unemployed. Up to 25 per cent require some form of disability compensation.” Considering these adverse affects, Schimmack’s conclusion that depression is the sole influence on one’s quality of life, even when anxiety exists, is easily challenged. As both Rector and the CMHA agree, anxiety disorders are illnesses, and illnesses have an impact on your satisfaction with life.
