User:Freedomfromfear

freedomfromfear.org

Anxiety and Depressive disorders are the most common of all mental illnesses. Anxiety disorders alone affect more than 19 million American's each year. Both anxiety and depressive illnesses are severe, chronic and extremely impairing to the individuals who are affected by them. Furthermore, they can have a devastating effect on the family members of those suffering from anxiety and depression.

Freedom From Fear is a national not-for-profit mental health advocacy association founded in 1984 by Mary Guardino. Ms. Guardino founded FFF as an outgrowth of her own personal experiences of suffering with anxiety and depressive illnesses for more than 25 years. The mission of FFF is to impact, in a positive way, the lives of all those affected by anxiety, depressive and related disorders through advocacy, education, research and community support.

From FFF’s humble beginnings, the support and committed efforts from so many friends, colleagues and those seeking help; have guided and mentored the organization's destiny. Research, national education outreach programs, public television ventures, training programs for health care professionals, government lobbying efforts and the list can go on and on.

These are only a small sampling of Freedom From Fears’s effort in the past 25 years of mental illness advocacy. The National Anxiety Disorders Screening Project, founded in 1994, has reached hundreds of millions of individuals with the message of hope that treatment works and lives can be saved.

freedomfromfear.org is visited each year by tens of thousands of people seeking information about mental health concerns. There are several grant programs established by the organization that provide funding for psychiatric research as well as grants to support public education outreach programs.