ANXIETY DISORDERS (2)

ANXIETY is the central bond in the chain that links Fears and Phobias.

Anxiety is the emotion which you feel when your body is preparing itself to respond to some form of perceived threat. Threat may come in many forms. If the source of anxiety is within you and your thought processes then these are Fears.   If the ‘threat’ comes from a specific external object or a specific situation then these are Phobias .

Whatever prompts the emotion, the body’s response to these perceived threats uses more or less the same mechanism, differing only in its degree of intensity and the timescale in which it’s produced.

Anxiety disorders are conditions where your feelings of anxiety are so severe or happen so often that they interfere with your everyday life.

The body’s response uses elements of the ‘flight or fight response’ rooted in evolution and the primitive need to survive life-threatening dangers in the environment.

In response to messages from your brain, internal chemicals, adrenaline and cortisol, are produced in a gland atop your kidneys, the Adrenal glands. They are swept into the bloodstream and then around the whole body. As they reach each organ, such as your heart or brain or muscle, then special receptors in those organs cause particular physical effects.  Details of how the  body responds to perceived threat is in the Neuro-biology of Anxiety section.

It is these physical effects we recognise, as well as the psychological. The experience of those physical effects gives rise to that feeling  which for most of us is very unpleasant.

If experienced with an instant onset then we call this ACUTE ANXIETY and it may be extreme enough to be experienced as a Panic Attack. If experienced as very, intense fear for up to 30 minutes, often without a specific reason, then it is known as Acute Anxiety  or ‘Panic Disorder’ (Panic Attacks).