Anxiety is a sense of foreboding, dread, worry or fear about something — often something in the future. It is frequently accompanied by a desire to avoid whatever it is that is making one anxious.
Common symptoms of anxiety include:
- Nervousness, restlessness or being tense
- Feelings of danger, panic or dread
- Rapid breathing or hyperventilation
- Increased or heavy sweating
- Trembling or muscle twitching
- Weakness or lethargy
- Difficulty focusing or thinking clearly about anything other than the thing you’re worried about
- Insomnia
- Obsessions about certain ideas, a sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Anxiety surrounding a particular life event or experience that has occurred in the past, a sign of post-traumatic stress disorder
- Irritability
- Worry about social interactions and how one is perceived by others.
Therapy can help to uncover the underlying causes of your worries and fears, help you learn how to relax, look at situations in new, less frightening ways, and develop better coping mechanisms and problem-solving skills.