What is Anxiety

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What is Anxiety?

what is anxiety What is anxiety and how can you achieve anxiety relief? Do you often feel nervous or stressed before confronting a challenging situation - such as a test, a job interview, a first date, or the big game?

A feeling of anxiety is reasonable given the situation, and it is necessary to focus and perform at our best. However too much anxiety can result in an anxiety disorder. Here we discuss what is anxiety, when anxiety becomes an anxiety disorder and what you can do to achieve anxiety relief.

What is anxiety?

Anxiety can be defined as an apprehension or fear that is accompanied by an activation of the autonomic nervous system, such as increased heart rate (Spielberger, 1975).

Feelings of anxiety can be a result of job loss, serious illness, an accident or other life issues. Given the situation, these anxious feelings are appropriate for a certain period of time.

Some symptoms of anxiety

There are a number of physical and emotional/psychological symptoms of anxiety.

Physical symptoms

Muscle tension

Inability to relax

Shortness of breath

Palpitations

Upset stomach

Psychological symptoms

Poor concentration

Poor memory

Fear or confusion

Constant worry

Negative thinking

When does anxiety become an anxiety disorder?

While anxiety has a preparatory purpose in response to danger, when the fear it is persistent and unreasonable and the symptoms (or avoidance of them) interfere with your work, social life or daily functioning it can become an anxiety disorder.

For example, while you may have a fear of snakes avoiding the zoo is unlikely to impact on your life too much. However, if you replace the word "snake" with "airplane" and your relatives are scattered all over the world, then a fear of flying may become a significant issue that impacts on your daily living.

Panic disorders

Panic disorder is characterized by unexpected panic or anxiety attacks. A pounding heart, sweatiness and feeling impending danger or doom are some of the symptoms that characterize this condition. Typically, a fear of the unexplained physical symptoms can also be a symptom of panic disorder. Read More

Phobias

A phobia is a persistent fear that is excessive in response to a particular object or situation. It is generally avoided or endured with great distress.

For example, a person with a fear of heights may find their heart pounding when 5 floors up in an office building and immediately seek to escape the situation or avoid it in the first place. Similarly, people who fear crowds may seek to avoid crowds and feel dizzy when caught in a busy shopping center.

Here we discuss the 10 most common phobias and what you can do about it.

Generalized anxiety disorder

There is a difference between normal worrying and worrying associated with generalized anxiety disorder. A person with GAD worries more often and the worry is much more disruptive to their life and overall well being. While people with GAD may not avoid work or social situations, they do go about their day with an excessive worry and anxiety, with little to provoke such excessive tension. Read More

Post traumatic stress disorder

A person can develop post traumatic stress disorder following a terrifying ordeal which has occurred or they have been witness to, and felt intense fear, helplessness or horror. Symptoms may involve flashbacks, avoidance of close emotional contact, and feelings of being constantly threatened. Read More

Social anxiety disorder (social phobia)

Social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder involves a persistent and overwhelming fear of being watched or judged in social or performance situation and that their anxiety response may cause embarrassment. This leads to an avoidance of the situation, and this avoidance or fear can interfere with work, school or other daily activities. Read More

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

People with obsessive compulsive disorder have persistent and obtrusive thoughts (obsessions) and to they use rituals (compulsions) to control these anxiety-provoking thoughts. A person with obsessive compulsive disorder may be continually worried that they have not locked the door or that they have germs on their hands.

As a result they may compulsively check that they have locked their door or washed their hands to relieve them of these anxiety-provoking thoughts. These obsessions and rituals can end up having an impact on the overall quality of their life. Read More

Treatment Options

Anxiety disorders are treated by a number of techniques that include but are not limited to cognitive behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, interpersonal therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy among others. Similarly, anxiety disorders can be effectively treated with anti-anxiety medications.

In addition, there are a number of self-help strategies that can be used for the different anxiety disorders.

The choice depends on the type of anxiety disorder and the severity of the symptoms. This site is for information purposes only and we recommend that you see your medical professional for further information.

In this article we have discussed what is anxiety and the different anxiety disorders that may arise. In addition to discussion what is anxiety a number of options have been provided for anxiety relief.

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