What Is the Definition of Anxiety?

Anxiety is a sensation of intense nervousness or worry that most people experience on occasion. In moderate amounts, anxiety helps motivate us to succeed or follow through on our responsibilities. No one wants to fail and a certain amount of worry about potential consequences helps push us along. However, sometimes our level of concern about a particular situation is irrational or not proportional to the actual threat. In these cases, anxiety may actually prevent action and lead to failure.

Anxiety Basics

• If we went about life without any worry, we would not care about the results of our actions, how others viewed us or what impact we had on society. Stress and anxiety serve as mechanisms that allow us to perceive risks and adjust our behavior accordingly. Yet when fear exceeds a certain threshold, it no longer has a functional benefit to everyday life.

  Excess anxiety over a situation may cause you to dwell upon potential problems so much that the fear paralyzes you. For instance, anxiety about cars reminds us to look both ways before crossing the street. However, excess anxiety about cars may prevent you from ever crossing the street. Even though the street may have no cars on it, anxiety about crossing the street may cause you to imagine a car pulling out of nowhere or perhaps twisting your ankle while crossing the street.

Benefits

• Anxiety has its basis in biological responses to external stimuli. Just as our nerves warn us not to put our hands into a fire, anxiety protects us from everyday dangers. Rather than have to experience painful consequences, anxiety allows us to act methodically to reduce adverse effects. Thus, we don't have to literally stick our fingers onto a stove to know the heat will burn us. Our anxiety over the negative sensation of burning causes us to keep our hands away. Anxiety extends to less primal threats such as job security, home safety and financial planning. Low levels of anxiety help us to stay focused and determined.

Effects

• Excessive anxiety may prevent necessary action. Furthermore, as you dwell on a single source of anxiety, other areas of your life may lose importance. Intense anxiety may cause you to stay awake at nights, miss deadlines or forget to perform certain tasks. When you have anxious thoughts about something, the stress takes importance over all else. Anxiety may prevent you from enjoying pleasurable activities or it may pervade your thoughts so much that you have trouble completing immediate tasks.

Anxiety Disorders

• When anxiety begins to interfere with the other aspects of your life, you may have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Each anxiety disorder has its own set of particulars but in general, the result is always that anxiety about a particular thought or aspect of life begins to control your ability to function properly. Often anxiety disorders occur simultaneously with other mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

Treatment

• Anxiety treatment depends on what type of anxiety disorder you suffer from. A disorder such as obsessive compulsive disorder benefits from cognitive behavioral therapy. During CBT, a therapist may give you a set of coping strategies that will help you alter or directly confront your anxious behavior. Some anxiety disorders benefit from medication such as anti-anxiety pills like Valium or Ativan that numb the brain's ability to process acute stress. Many anti-depressants such as Zoloft and Prozac--a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors--increase the level of brain chemicals like serotonin that help elevate mood and decrease anxious responses.

  If your anxiety has begun to interfere with your life, visit a therapist for advice on how to control the anxiety. Between therapy that tackles the root of your anxiety to medicinal treatment, psychiatrists and psychologists have a diverse set of tactics to help you conquer the nuances of your anxiety disorder.