An Overview of Anxiety

Experiencing feelings of anxiety is the way the body reacts to stress and traumatic events. It can manifest itself in physical, psychological, behavioral and emotional ways in which you feel worried, anxious or apprehensive.

It is a mood that is triggered by a stimulus and although you may feel fearful, it is not the same as being afraid of a threat of some sort. The stimulus that can trigger feelings of anxiety can be real or imagined. It is a normal reaction that helps you deal with the stressors of everyday life.

Everyone experiences anxiety in a different way. Some of the common symptoms include:

· palpitations of the heart

· feelings of nausea

· pain in the chest

· shortness of breath

· pain in the stomach

· headache

In general, the symptoms can vary to feelings of butterflies in the stomach to panic attacks where you feel as if you are having a heart attack. The feelings of anxiety affect blood pressure and heart rate, increasing the blood flow to all organs of the body.

Your face may become flushed and you start to sweat. At the same time, in some people these symptoms may exhibit themselves as pale skin and dilation of the pupils.

There are many different forms of anxiety associated with the different triggers. Many students suffer from test anxiety when faced with writing an exam. In such people, completing a worksheet with the same questions as those on the test does not cause any problem.

When you tell them they are going to be graded on the work, however, they become very anxious, often to the point of forgetting everything they have learned and becoming physically ill.

The triggers for this feeling could be fear of not getting a good grade, fear of parents\' or teacher\'s reactions, pressures associated with having a time limit on completing the test or a feeling of loss of control.

Separation anxiety is very common in children when they are away from their parents for the first time. This is just as problematic for parents as it is for the children. The children cry and do not want their parents to leave and the parents then spend their time worrying about how the children are coping when they do leave.

Young children also develop anxiety when around strangers, which is very common. However, when this feeling persists into adulthood, it can develop into a social phobia hampering a person\'s ability to interact with others.

Anxiety is often referred to as stress and both are caused by a chemical reaction within the body. Stress is the way in which the body responds to an actual or perceived threat and anxiety is the worry that comes with this threatening feeling.

The only difference between them is that stress is more long lasting and can last for weeks or years, whereas anxious feelings are generally short lived. Your body is unable to distinguish between a real and a perceived threat and therefore the mind acts in a similar manner to both.

In order to reduce the symptoms of anxiety, you do have to recognize what triggers them. If you try to delve into the situation to explain the reason for your feelings of worry, then the body will start to relax. This is very difficult to do in many situations. For some people who have debilitating anxiety attacks, they may need to visit a doctor to receive medication to help them with the problem.

The symptoms can vary to feelings of butterflies in the stomach to panic attacks where you feel as if you are having a heart attack. The feelings of anxiety affect blood pressure and heart rate, increasing the blood flow to all organs of the body.