More than one in five living with high levels of anxiety

Dr Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, responds to the Office for National Statistics’ Personal Well-being in the UK, 2012/13 report:

"It is encouraging to see people reporting higher levels of wellbeing, however we cannot gloss over the fact that over one in five people in the UK continue to live with very high levels of anxiety.

Symptoms of anxiety can amount to mental illness or predispose towards it and may lead to more serious problems such as depression, phobias, and obsessive compulsive disorder if they are not tackled early on.

It is vital that this data is used to inform national and local policies relating to public mental health and the importance of early intervention is prioritised to support people to live mentally healthy lives.”