Anxiety Disorders

Common Characteristics

Anxiety Disorders categorize a large number of disorders, where the primary feature is abnormal or inappropriate anxiety.  Everybody has experienced anxiety.  Think about the last time a loud noise frightened you, and remember the feelings inside your body.  Chances are you experienced an increased heart rate, tensed muscles, and perhaps an acute sense of alertness as you tried to determine the source of the noise.  These are all symptoms of anxiety.  They are also part of a normal process in our bodies called the 'fight or flight' phenomenon.  This means that your body is preparing itself either to fight and protect itself or to flee from a dangerous situation.

These symptoms become a problem when they occur without any recognizable stimulus or when the stimulus does not warrant such a strong reaction.  In other words, inappropriate anxiety manifests itself when a person's heart races, breathing increases, and muscles tense without sufficient reason.  Once a medical cause is ruled out, an anxiety disorder may be the culprit.