Anxiety or extreme worry is a normal feeling which we can all experience at times.  It can feel difficult and tends to set off the body’s natural “fight or flight” reaction when it happens.   This then causes us to suffer with apprehension and an element of dread about what we may currently be experiencing or what we may experience in the future.  As with stress, a healthy level of anxiety can help a person to stay motivated and focussed but at times it can start to take over our lives in a negative way, often resulting in an anxiety disorder. Unchecked and untreated anxiety can lead to Panic Disorders, Social Phobias, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Simple Phobias (such as medical phobias or air travel), Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and panic attacks. Anxiety so frequently co-occurs with depression that the two are thought to be twin faces of one issue.

 

If you think you may be suffering with anxiety, ask yourself questions such as:

Are you worried, tense and irritable or often on edge?

Is your extreme worrying affecting your work or relationships?

Do you suffer with irrational fears or constantly expect something bad to happen?

Do you suffer from panic attacks, chest pains and other physical symptoms?

 

It helps to find out the causes of the anxiety with a therapist to calm these impulses and therefore enable you to get more out of life and manage your anxiety.