We all worry and panic from time to time. It's perfectly normal to lose sleep, feel troubled or sense some feeling of dread when dealing with life's problems and difficulties. Anxiety is a very normal human response, a very basic impulse to survive threat or danger. But, if anxiety takes over your life in such a way that you increasingly lose sleep, worry and fret even for no particular reason, become reclusive and secretive, then those extreme thoughts, feelings and behavior are no longer normal and so the condition becomes a disorder.
Anxiety disorders are mental health conditions. The disorder is differentiated from normal anxiety when there are irrational, sometimes unprovoked feelings of fearfulness, uneasiness, nervousness, sadness or worry. Anxiety that is persistent and too intense can cause a person to feel tormented, unfocused, stressed, bad-tempered, over-sensitive, always suspicious and wary, thus disrupting his ability to perform normal everyday activities.
Anxiety disorders are grouped according to their symptoms: generalized anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), phobias, social phobia, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
If you sense you worry too much or are too fearful that you no longer enjoy doing the things you normally do, pay attention to your feelings and thoughts. Medication and therapy combined with proper nutrition, exercise and sleep will help calm down your anxiety disorders.
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