Anxiety

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is an emotion we all experience and in fact, is helpful in our performance. Anxiety becomes problematic when it is too intense, occur too often or interferes with our daily functioning.

Anxiety symptoms

Common anxiety disorders include generalised anxiety disorder where individuals worry about a range of things on an almost daily basis for more than 6 months. Social anxiety (also known as social phobia) involves intense fear of being negatively judged by other people. Individuals with social anxiety disorder worry they might embarrass themselves in some way in front of others so they often avoid social activities. An anxiety attack (also known as a panic attack) is a sudden ‘lightning bolt’ of anxiety that often occurs without a trigger. Symptoms can include intense worry, racing heart, shortness of breath, feeling dizzy and trembling. They usually peak within 30 minutes but the after effects can last hours.