Great news, my fellow hand-wringing, self-flagellating, twitchy-eyed neurotics: our anxiety about life, death, and everything in between is actually going to help kill us! Oh, the irony. Even negligible levels of psychological distress, significantly lower than amounts that would encourage a formal diagnosis of anxiety or depression, have now been officially linked to an early death. Not a particular syndrome, or anything — just your regular, run-of-the-mill early death, meaning that if you’re a worrier and you happen to sustain an injury or develop basically any illness, your risk of mortality far exceeds that of calmer, better-adjusted people suffering from the same conditions. And the best part? Tom Russ, a clinical research fellow at Scotland’s University of Edinburgh and the author of the study, has no idea if treating symptoms of anxiety and depression can reduce this risk. Read: worry on, worriers, you’re going to die anyway. [Gawker via ABC News]
