Anxiety

Anxiety is a feeling of being keyed up and extra alert. Your heart may race or you may get “butterflies” in your stomach. You may feel short of breath or generally jittery. You're likely to have a feeling of impending danger.

These reactions are the way our bodies prepare to cope with stress. All the senses become tuned up and on alert in the presence of a threat. These reactions derive from the primitive “fight or flight” response that enabled early humans to deal quickly with dangerous situations.

Everyone is likely to have that kind of anxiety response in urgent situations, such as a fire or other emergency. But we also get these feelings in the course of our daily routines. Time pressures, traffic tie­ups, social jitters, a new job, or waiting for test results can all produce anxious feelings; and these feelings are normal and healthy.

But anxiety ceases to be positive when it is painful or prolonged, or when the response is out of proportion to the cause. When anxiety interferes with your daily life or when it becomes incapacitating fear, it becomes an illness called an anxiety disorder.

Causes of Anxiety Disorder

The causes of anxiety disorder are not clear. Researchers are currently investigating a number of factors including chemical imbalances, enzyme deficiencies, hormones, the role of emotional traumas, and the interaction between emotions and brain chemistry.

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