What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a normal, healthy emotion in response to stress, that keeps us alert and provides a quick boost of energy, needed to deal with the situation at hand. It is problematic when it turns into persistent & intense fear, worry & apprehension.  

Anxiety is defined as an “emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.”1 Anxiety is a normal emotion in response to stress. It is experienced by almost everyone when faced with certain situations in life, such as problems in the family or at work, or having to make an important decision.  

Whenever anxiety is sporadic, it can be a useful response to challenges, as it keeps us alert and provides a quick boost of energy, necessary to deal with the situation at hand. As long as the frequency and intensity of the emotion are not excessive, anxiety is a healthy response, and it should not be shunned.  

Anxiety is a problem when it becomes regular, persistent, and intense fear, worry, and apprehension about everyday life. In such cases, anxiety episodes are no longer temporary, they interfere with everyday activities, and can drastically affect the quality of life. Extreme anxiety can easily trigger a disproportionate reaction to situations, people, or news, turn into uncontrollable episodes of panic, and develop into a medical condition known as anxiety disorder. This can be quite distressing, and people with severe conditions usually require medical help. 

It is important to understand that anxiety is part of our evolutionary legacy, and it was necessary for the survival of our distant ancestors. Anxiety is very closely associated with one of the basic emotions—fear, along with an entire range of co-occurring emotions such as nervousness, apprehension, concern, wariness, edginess, dread, fright, terror, phobia, and panic. All these emotions, clustered around the central emotion of fear, ensure effective response to potential threats and danger. In response to alarming triggers, the amygdala activates the fight-or-flight response:  

“With fear blood goes to the large skeletal muscles, such as in the legs, making it easier to flee—and making the face blanch as blood is shunted away from it (creating the feeling that the blood "runs cold"). At the same time, the body freezes, if only for a moment, perhaps allowing time to gauge whether hiding might be a better reaction. Circuits in the brain's emotional centers trigger a flood of hormones that put the body on general alert, making it edgy and ready for action, and attention fixates on the threat at hand, the better to evaluate what response to make.”2 

Thinking about a problem is not at all a negative thing, since it can lead to useful insights and creative solutions. When people worry, they map out all possible outcomes and have a mental reversal of these scenarios. This enables them to plan out their course of action, strategize, and be better prepared to deal with the situation once it materializes. For many people, however, anxiety becomes problematic because they start regularly obsessing about all things that could go wrong, and anticipating a problem behind any situation—even when the odds of such occurrences are minimal. Chronically anxious people always imagine and fear the worst possible scenario (calamities, catastrophes, and irreversible damage). It is easy to understand why such a mental state can easily deplete one's energy and make the person feel edgy. This fixation on the problem forces them to ignore everything else that is going on around them. In such a state of being, one’s entire focus is anticipating the future, which often looks grim, problematic, and distressing. This becomes a vicious circle that is difficult to get out of, since the disturbing and worrying thoughts become intrusive, occupying one’s attention at all times. Such chronic anxiety or anxiety disorder is associated with muscle tension and a great deal of avoidance behavior (staying away from people and situations that could trigger anxiety symptoms). This leads to cortical rigidity, which means that the emotional brain loses its ability to respond adequately to new and different situations.  

Since anxiety is closely related to the basic emotion of fear, the symptoms of these two emotions are similar. Anxiety can be cognitive (repetitive, persistent, worrisome thoughts and anticipations) and somatic (physiological symptoms). Common anxiety symptoms include: increased heart rate or heart palpitations, altered breathing pattern (either rapid breathing or shortness of breath), nervousness, restlessness, tension, dizziness, sweating, trembling, dry mouth, muscle tension, difficulty focusing on anything else except the problem which causes anxiety, insomnia, nausea and other gastrointestinal problems, uncontrollable thoughts and flashbacks, avoidance behavior.  

There is a wide range of anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobias (fear of heights, flying, blood, etc.), social anxiety disorder (or social phobia), agoraphobia, separation anxiety disorder, compulsive behavior, etc.  

Psychologists and neuroscientists advise that self-awareness is critical in preventing the development of chronic anxiety and dealing with it. One approach is to self-observation of any anxiety cues so that the anxiety episode can be recognized at its onset. These cues can be cognitive (the occurrence of troublesome thought patterns) or physiological (monitoring physical symptoms of anxiety in one’s body). As soon as any such signs are observed, the individual can apply a relaxation, breathing, or mindfulness meditation method, to stay in control of the situation. These techniques need to be then coupled with active challenging of those worrisome thoughts. The person should question their worldview and assumptions, trying to rationally analyze the situation at hand and the likelihood of a negative outcome. When regularly and systematically performed, this step can be an eye-opener to many.