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Anxiety

Anxiety is a natural response to threats that cause you to feel worried, nervous, concerned, or uneasy.

When anxiety becomes difficult to control and affects your everyday life, then you may have an anxiety disorder.

The negative cycle of anxiety — East London NHS Foundation Trust

People with anxiety can go on to develop depression if the anxiety is not treated in a timely manner. 

Physical symptoms

  • Faster, irregular or more noticeable heartbeat
  • Feeling light-headed and dizzy
  • Headaches
  • Chest pains
  • Loss of appetite
  • Indigestion, stomach cramps, bloating and feeling sick (nausea)
  • Constipation or diarrhoea
  • Sweating
  • Breathlessness
  • Feeling hot
  • Shaking

Mental symptoms

  • Feeling tense or nervous
  • Being unable to relax
  • Worrying
  • Feeling tearful
  • Not being able to sleep
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Fear of the worst happening

Changes in behaviour

  • Not being able to enjoy your leisure time
  • Not trying new things
  • Avoiding places and situations that create anxiety
  • Checking things
  • Asking for reassurance

What causes anxiety?

We have evolved to feel anxious when we’re in danger so that our ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ response will be triggered to protect us. This response involves the release of hormones which make you feel more alert and increase your heart rate so blood can quickly get where it’s needed most (to enable you to run away or fight).

If you have an anxiety disorder, this response is being triggered at times when there is no real threat, and the feelings it brings are very strong or last for a long time.

It’s not fully understood what causes anxiety disorders, though it’s believed that a mixture of things can trigger them, including:

  • An event that caused a lot of stress
  • Genetics
  • Learnt behaviour
  • An imbalance of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) in the brain

These are the anxiety disorders that we can help with:

  • Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – feeling very anxious and worrying about lots of different things.
  • Social anxiety disorder (also known as social phobia) – a fear of social situations.
  • Health anxiety – constant worry about having or developing a serious, undiagnosed medical illness.
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – having recurring and unwanted thoughts (obsessions) leading to repetitive behaviours (compulsions).
  • Panic disorder – having feelings of anxiety, stress and panic regularly and at any time, often for no apparent reason. 
  • Phobias – being afraid of a specific thing, like blood, needles or heights.
  • Agoraphobia – a fear of being in situations, such as on a bus or in a crowd, where an easy escape might not be available.
  • Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) – having negative views of your body image and worrying a lot about flaws in appearance.
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – a condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying, dangerous, or life-threatening event.