Australians are being urged to take anxiety seriously after a new survey revealed two in five people believe the condition is not a treatable mental health illness.
BeyondBlue said the survey of 700 people aged 25 to 45 showed 40 per cent of respondents thought anxiety was a personality trait rather than a mental health issue.
The organisation described anxiety as the most common mental health condition in Australia, with about one in four people affected.
Around three million people have experienced an anxiety condition at some point in their lives, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
BeyondBlue chairman and former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett said it had ramped up its anxiety awareness campaign in response to the findings to help people recognise signs and symptoms.
“It’s amazing how many people still think anxiety is part of your personality, when it’s not,” he told ABC News Breakfast.
“It can be treated and it can be cured. The most important thing is to seek help.
“I’m not a mechanic, if my car starts behaving abnormally I don’t try and fix it, that’s if I recognise I’ve got a problem I go and seek help.
“With anxiety, because it grows on you, most people think it’s just part of their makeup and therefore they don’t seek help, where depression is a lot clearer from an early point.”
Mr Kennett said there were six different “categories” of anxiety.
“The better known ones are post-traumatic stress, which a lot of our first responders, our Armed Forces personnel suffer, [as well as] panic attacks, social phobias,” he said.
“The best thing to do is to seek help quickly.”
BeyondBlue’s Get To Know Anxiety campaign features a short film starring Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn.
The organisation said anxiety came in many forms and some of the signs included feeling very worried most of the time, social phobias or ongoing issues like nightmares or flashbacks after a traumatic event.
If you or someone you know needs help you can contact BeyondBlue or visit the website.