Anxiety is a common feeling. It's your brain's way of coping with stress and warning you about impending danger. Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time. When faced with a problem at work, before taking a test, or before making a major decision, you may be concerned. Anxiety is normal on occasion. However, anxiety disorders are distinct. They're a collection of mental illnesses that cause uncontrollable anxiety and fear. Excessive anxiety may cause you to avoid work, school, family gatherings, and other social situations that may exacerbate or trigger your symptoms. Many people with anxiety disorders can manage their feelings with treatment.
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Great breakdown of the distinction between the non-pathological and pathological displays of anxiety.
We can think of it in terms of stimulus and the absence of stimulus. Usually there is some stimulus (threat, condition) that provokes an attack of anxiety and prepares the body physiologically to deal with the potential threat. For instance, preparation of the muscles for flight, increased blood flow.
But pathological anxiety produces these nervous system changes in the absence of any provoking stimuli. Thus, living with long-term anxiety can suffer any number of both physical and mental ramifications from the onslaught of physiological changes which occur with the chronic form of anxiety.