Signs of Severe Anxiety

Anxiety is a mental condition that often occurs when a person is experiencing worry or is under stress. In its normal stage, it can be beneficial since it alerts to possible danger or potentially harmful situations. In its severe form, it can be debilitating, interfering with normal life functions and causing one to avoid possibly beneficial situations due to extreme fear. Severe anxiety sufferers often experience panic attacks in which physical symptoms of illness can result.

Losing Touch with Reality

• When anxiety leads to a panic attack, the individual can feel like he is "outside of himself." He many feel a sense of losing control of both mind and body, as if he is going crazy. There may also be an accompanying feeling of unreality, as if he is somehow becoming detached from his body.

Feeling Overwhelmed

• Another sign of severe anxiety is the sense of feeling overwhelmed or being trapped with nowhere to escape. This can often occur in large crowds or from being in a room full of people with no door or other exit in sight. For others, there can be a fear that a tragedy is about to occur such as when being a passenger on an airplane and believing it is about to crash.

Breathing Difficulties

• During an anxiety attack, physical symptoms can also manifest. For example, the individual may have difficulty breathing normally to the point where hyperventilation, or abnormal rapid breathing, will occur. The person may also feel that he is choking or has lost the ability to breathe at all.

Heart Issues

• The person's heart may begin to beat rapidly to the point where he thinks he is having a heart attack. This may be accompanied by chest pains and a feeling that he is about to lose consciousness.

Other Signs

• Additional signs of an anxiety attack can include chills, hot flashes, trembling, nausea and stomach cramps. In some the symptoms will disappear when the perceived threat has passed, while in others they could linger a while longer.