Anxiety

What is Anxiety?

Everyone needs to feel anxious at times – it causes a reaction which pumps the hormone stimulant adrenaline into the system. It spurs people to do challenging and uncongenial tasks and prepares them to cope with different situations. What is not desirable is for anxiety to become a problem – for normal temporary feelings of uncertainty, worry or fear to become persistent states of mind. Normal anxiety almost always has a cause of which you are aware – for example; an important interview or a test of some kind might be looming up. But anxiety can become a problem when worry or apprehension is experienced for no apparent reason, or is much worse than the situation warrants. Although anxiety is an emotional state, it can include physical symptoms that “are not all in the mind” – pain, insomnia, muscular tension and dizziness. Often there is nausea and vomiting, diarrhea or frequent urinating. The sufferer may show signs of panic such as sweating, palpitations and abnormally deep breathing, or feel tired, weak and listless. Generally, the symptoms disappear when there is no longer a reason to be anxious. Yet some people suffer from the illness known as chronic anxiety.

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