Understanding Anxiety

You will learn what anxiety is, the causes of it, and how to manage it. This course is suitable for everyone.

Introduction

A certain level of anxiety is normal. It helps us to avoid dangerous situations and makes us alert and motivated to deal with problems. The cold sweat reaction that we get when anxious is part of our instinctive ‘fight or flight’ response to danger that kept our ancestors safe. Anxiety becomes a mental health disorder when it occurs regularly and at any time and produces prolonged symptoms of stress that affect a person's quality of life.

If a person responds with anxiety to events, or threats do not pose a realistic danger the condition can enter a cycle where everything becomes a potential crisis. In these situations, the person becomes incapable of carrying on a normal daily life. 

Anxiety is: ‘the feeling of fear that we experience when faced with a threatening or difficult situation.'