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Imagine having so much stress that your heart races and palms sweat when you confront an everyday challenge, such as a work deadline.

What about feeling worthless to the point that getting out of bed is difficult or impossible?

For millions of Americans, such feelings aren't necessarily fleeting moments to brush off or minor instances during a bad day, said Donald Robinaugh, a Northeastern University assistant professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.

Robinaugh and other experts say they could be symptoms of debilitating mental health conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder and clinical depression. Other symptoms could include a panicked fight-or-flight response or irrational anger over small things that could last all day, they said.

Then what is the ailment? Maybe it's depression or anxiety with a slew of other conditions that could be missed by the original diagnosis, Robinaugh said.

A new study Robinaugh co-wrote postulates that longstanding standardized labels—such as identifying an ailment with a broad label such as depression—aren't the best ways to arrive at a lasting treatment. The symptoms may serve as more effective tools.

"I believe that there is a better way to do this," he said. "It's a bottom-up approach."

His new research paper, " Anxiety and depression subtype and their psychotherapy response: A network analysis of 33,675 patients," was published in August in the peer-reviewed international medical journal Psychological Medicine .

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