Anxiety is a feeling of nervousness, apprehension, fear or worry.
Anxiety disorders are disorders of the nervous system causing
unreasonable worry, which is not based on the fact. Anxiety can occur
with or without cause. This disorder is accompanied by a variety of
physical symptoms related to heart, lung, nervous and gastrointestinal
systems. Along withanxiety disorder, there may be other
underlying medical and physical illnesses including alcohol and
substance abuse, which makes the anxiety symptoms worse. Hence, care
should be taken to identify these illnesses before treating.
Anxiety disorders can be categorized into the following types.1
- Anxiety due to a general medical condition
- Substance-induced anxiety disorder
- Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Adjustment disorder with anxious features
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
