Anxiety: a cancer of the mind | Aneysha Bhat | TEDxUIUC

The stereotypes about anxiety have led to its definition being synonymous with fragility, weakness and failure. Mental health is a misunderstood field, and the common misconceptions about it result in the development of stigma.
In this talk, Aneysha Bhat explores the prevalence of anxiety and how we can stand together to alleviate it.

Aneysha Bhat is a bioengineering student and co-innovator of TenseSense. She and her team of four bioengineers are developing a way to raise awareness about mental health and advance personalized medicine.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

I'd like to begin by asking you
to close your eyes.

Imagine that you've just
come home from work.

You want to relax.

You sit down on the couch
and just breathe.

You look to the side,
and you realize that it's raining.

And then you look again to the window
and see that the window's open.

You think - at first everything is calm.

But then, everything goes haywire.

"What if my floors get damaged?"

"What if the rain damage
affects my entire apartment?"

"What if there's a flood?"

"What if I have to move?"

"What if ... "

Your thoughts are blinding.

Your mind is racing.

Your heart is beating
right out of your chest.

Your thoughts are just everywhere.

And then, you lose it all.

Now, I have something to tell you.

Anxiety sucks.

But do you know what
the worst part about it is?

It's not the dizziness or the palpitations
or the excessive overthinking.

No. It's the stereotype that goes with it.

Mental illness has a stigma
associated with it.

Think about it.

We're fixated on this idea

that mental illness is associated
with incompetence, fragility, failure.

When a friend or a loved one
is having a moment of vulnerability,

we say that it's a "mental breakdown."

When they're having issues
or when they're having struggles,

we call that "crazy."

And it's true.

Why? Because mental health has a stigma.

We consider mental illnesses
to be burdens,

traits of people
that make them undesirable,

less important, less valuable.

And this is a huge problem.

If we continue to treat
mental health like this,

we'll never be able
to understand our loved ones.

We'll never be able to understand
those who need our help.

And so when you leave this talk today,
I want you to realize one thing.

You have the ability
to save and impact a life

by the way you treat others.

Now, I believe that it's time to change
the way we think about mental health.

We have ways to identify glucose levels
and pregnancy hormones.

But what about anxiety?

Why don't we have a way
to detect elevated stress levels?

Everybody gets anxious, right?

We get anxious

because we don't know what will happen.

We're afraid.

We're scared.

Fear is normal.

In fact, it's evolutionary.

But when we worry excessively,

when we get so scared,

we develop anxiety.

But, okay, everybody gets anxious.

Instead of creating a stereotype about it,

instead of making a stigma,

what if we tried to make a change?

There are 40 million Americans
who live with anxiety currently.

That's one-eighth of the population
who feels alone, misunderstood,

unsure about who to talk to,
how to get help.

Do you know what's worse?

35 to 50 percent
of those cases go undiagnosed.

That's up to 20 million people
who don't get the care that they need.

Now, this is a huge problem.

So if we think about
biomedical advancements,

what's the first thing
that comes to our mind?

Cancer.

If cancer goes undiagnosed
or even untreated,

the problems build up on themselves,

leading to a cascade of cellular trauma
that results in fatality.

Anxiety is a cancer of the mind.

It's something
that eats at the conscience.

It's something that weakens the heart
and destroys the self,

something that leaves you
feeling empty, feeling alone,

like there's no one to help you,

like there's no one to understand you.

And it's about time we fight this problem.

It's about time we find a way
to detect anxiety.

So research has shown
that there are specific biomarkers -

or proteins, enzymes and hormones -

that float freely in bodily fluids
like blood, urine and saliva.

So, basically,

what we can do is we can measure
these concentrations of the biomarkers

and, theoretically, that would allow us
to detect anxiety levels.

And we can aid in the prognosis,

or the clinical identification of anxiety.

So what do I do?

I work with a team of bioengineers here,

and we have developed and innovated a way
to identify anxiety levels using this:

this is TenseSense.

This is a biomedical device

through which we can detect
elevated stress levels.

This device can tell you
if you have anxiety levels,

if you have elevated stress levels,

and it can help diagnose anxiety
and provide further recommended care,

further treatments for patients
across the nation.

So why did we create this device?

All right. So we're
going to take a quick poll.

Audience participation. All right?

Raise your hand

if you're a working individual
or if you are a student.

All right.

Of what I can see, that's like everyone.

All right. Okay.

So now raise your hand
if you've ever been stressed.

That's like two hands from me

and both legs.

Look around you.

We have different ages,
different ethnicities,

different backgrounds, different genders.

But something unites us all.

We all get stressed.

We all get anxious.

But in different ways.

Dealing with anxiety is no easy feat.

And anxiety affects us all
but in different ways.

What works for you may not work for me.

And it's for this reason
that it's so important

to find a way to detect
your stress levels,

find a way to help you, the patient,

and tell doctors what will work for you

given your daily routines,
your genetic history.

We want to serve you, the patient.

Look around you.

We are surrounded
by some of the brightest minds.

I may know the next
Nobel Prize-winning physicist,

the next revolutionary engineers,

the doctor who will cure cancer.

In an academic environment like this one,

we're surrounded by inspiration
and excellence everywhere we go.

But unfortunately, this comes at a price.

There are over 17 million
people in this country

attending a higher-education institution

like this one.

And across the board,

the most commonly diagnosed
mental illness?

Anxiety.

Now, as a student, I get stressed.

We all get stressed.

Amid the deadlines, projects, exams,
homework assignments, conferences,

we all get stressed, we all get anxious.

Now, the more we get anxious,
the more we get stressed,

the greater toll it takes on our body.

Research has shown that anxiety actually
changes the way our brain functions;

it changes the brain itself.

Anxiety results in changes
in the gray and white matter of our brain,

changes in the functionality
of the amygdala,

the center of the brain responsible for
emotional cognition and decision-making,

two very important things.

Now, your brain is your brain.

Your heart is your heart.

And that's why it's so important
for the identification of stress levels

to be entirely your own.

Now, the problem with the state of the art
is that no current technique exists.

There's no way

to real-time detect anxiety levels,

no way to tell what your stress levels are
at the point of care.

And that, too, quantitatively.

So, okay.

Why is it a problem?

So right now,

in the mental health care industry,

we spent over 148 billion dollars.

And approximately one-third
of that total, $42 billion,

is spent on anxiety cases alone.

Anxiety patients,
according to [anxietycentre.com],

are three to five times more likely
to visit the doctor

and six times more likely
to be hospitalized

for an anxiety-related condition.

Okay, so right now, sure,

we can diagnose anxiety.

But how do we do that?

Diagnosis of anxiety happens in two ways.

One, through the DSM.

The DSM is a diagnostic manual

that attempts to narrowly categorize
diverse experiences of patients.

The second way is through
the Penn State Worry Questionnaire,

a list of 16 questions
filled with big statements like,

"My worries overwhelm me,"

and - I personally like this one -

"I tend not to worry about things."

Now, I'm a bioengineer,

and so as an engineer,
I have two problems with this.

One, that it's heavily biased.

And two, it's ancient.

We're in an age
of technological advancement,

especially in biomedicine.

And all we have to diagnose

one of the most prevalent
mental health conditions

is a book

and a high school-level questionnaire.

That's problem number one.

Problem number two is the cost.

Initial psychiatric evaluations
can cost up to $300 for a patient.

And during this psychiatric evaluation,
a blood test can be ordered.

But a blood test can cost up to $1,500
for an uninsured patient,

and it takes up to a week
to process results.

That's one week's time where the clinician
can provide no insight, no help

and no understanding to the patient
about what to do or how to help.

This is expensive, inefficient
and unacceptable.

So, okay, let's say that we already have
a patient diagnosed with anxiety,

as is the case with 6.8 million Americans.

So, too often we have cases
in mental health

where we have misdiagnoses
or we have ineffective dosages.

At best, this is irrelevant.

But at worst, this is deadly.

Wouldn't you want to know

if there was a way
to test your diagnostics,

identify your stress levels,

in less than five minutes

at less than five percent of the cost?

Wouldn't you want to know
if the medication you've been prescribed

will work on your body?

So with the implementation
of such a device, we can.

From a saliva sample,
we can analyze biomarkers in the saliva

and we can find concentrations
related to elevated stress levels.

Basically, what we can do

is we can determine
elevated stress levels

relative to baseline -

if it's higher or lower
relative to normal.

And we can recommend further care,

helping physicians nationwide,

helping patients nationwide.

This way we can not only qualitatively
but also quantitatively

tell you what your stress levels are,

monitor changes over time

and provide you with the medical attention
and the personalized care that you need.

Now, this is something
that's never been done before,

especially in the field of mental health.

Personalized medicine is so important.

It's what will allow us
to make medicines for you,

care for you, the patient,

and provide all of our resources,
all of our help, for you.

Mental health is an enigma.

Countless diagnoses
have been made qualitatively

with no quantitative results
to back them up.

For the first time, we're introducing
not only a way to quantify stress levels

but also a way to do it in real time

so that we can know within five minutes
what your elevated stress levels are

and how we can help you immediately.

We are bringing personalized medicine

to the uncharted territory
of mental health.

Now, the movement
towards personalized medicine

is one that's funded
by both the FDA and the NIH,

the National Institutes of Health.

Our device right now,
within the next year,

seeks to conduct clinical trials
as well as gain FDA approval.

With personalized care in mental health,

we'll be able to increase
our preventative care,

we'll be able to help patients nationwide,

we'll be able to give people
the help that they need.

Personalized medicine has the ability
to improve lives everywhere.

And mental health awareness
is really important.

If we stand up for mental health,
we're standing up for each other.

We're standing up for a better society,

a stronger society,

a more progressive society.

We're standing up against a stigma,
a problem, a stereotype.

We're standing up for each other.

And we're standing up together
to fight anxiety.

It's time to find a way out.

It's time to show people that together
we can stand up and fight anxiety

and we can stand up
and fight for mental health.

Now, before I finish, I'd like
to take a moment to thank my team,

without whom I wouldn't be here.

Ayako Ohoka, Margaret Barbero
and Karthik Balakrishnan.

And I'd also like to thank our advisors,

Professor Dipanjan Pan
as well as Drs. Mishra and Khan.

Last but not least,
I'd like to thank my parents,

who are sitting over here.

Without their help
and without their support,

I wouldn't be here today.

So thank you.

(Applause)