Cognitive Behaviour Therapist

Health care professionals divide anxiety into three main types: general anxiety, phobias and panic disorder. If there's a particularly difficult situation at work or at home, the stress that this creates can spill over into other areas of life - and create anxiety.

Similarly, a person who's experienced a very frightening and traumatic situation may also carry the fear over to their everyday life. This is known as post-traumatic stress disorder.
In general, anxiety's emotional turmoil appears to have a life of its own. Some psychiatrists sometimes call this 'free-floating anxiety'.

Unlike phobia and panic, with general anxiety it's not always clear to the anxious person exactly what it is they feel so anxious about. They're just aware of feeling anxious all the time.
When there's no identifiable cause, the person often becomes anxious about feeling anxious all the time, and the problem starts to feed off itself.

People with generalised anxiety may find that they:
• easily lose their patience
• have difficulty concentrating
• think constantly about the worst outcome
• have difficulty sleeping
• become depressed and/or
• become preoccupied with, or obsess ional about, one subject

These mental symptoms lead to, and are supported by, physical symptoms. These can include:
• excessive thirst
• stomach upsets
• passing wind
• loose bowel movements
• frequent urinating
• failure to respond to sexual stimulation
• periods of intense pounding heart
• periods of feeling winded
• muscle aches
• headaches
• pins and needles
• tremors
• painful or no periods

The relationship of physical and mental symptoms can create a vicious cycle that can be triggered by a symptom at any point.

In panic, the cycle develops quickly to a crisis. With generalised anxiety, people often manage to keep things under control and the cycle continues. The effort of keeping things under control is itself very stressful - and so fuels the problem.

This is how some people come to feel anxious about their anxiety, making the problem even more intense.