Anxiety, phobias and obsession

We all experience mild forms of anxiety, phobia and obsessions, but it's when they become extreme that mental health is threatened. ivillage has linked with the mental health charity SANE to bring you the facts

Everyone knows the feeling of anxiety - the fear that some significant event in the future may go wrong. It is probably part of our biological inheritance, a way of preparing for a stressful situation. People become anxious when they face upsetting things like illness, unemployment, surgery or divorce. This is all completely normal but, for some people in certain circumstances, anxiety can become so extreme it is disabling.

Anxiety disorders are mental illnesses in which severe and recurrent anxiety is a main feature: it can be so serious that you find anxiety and fear take over your life.

Anxiety disorders are different from psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar depression because, however severe the symptoms may be, you rarely lose touch with reality. These disorders also have a self-perpetuating quality because the physical symptoms of anxiety (such as dizziness or palpitations) can themselves be so alarming that they make you even more anxious.

Generalised anxiety disorder
GAD is similar to the normal anxiety we all suffer but much more intense, long lasting and without an obvious cause. Signs of an anxiety disorder include: strained face and furrowed brows, tense posture, restlessness, pale skin and sweaty hands and feet.

Some people suffer a whole range of physical symptoms simply because their fear causes them to take rapid, shallow breaths, called over-breathing, which results in dizziness, noises in the ears, headache, faintness, numbness and tingling in the hands and face. Over-breathing can set off panic attacks. Some people seem to be of a more anxious disposition than others. They are more nervous about new situations, more concerned about travelling, new jobs, children, more apprehensive about illness. Anxiety seems to be built into their personality. These people are certainly not ill, but there is some evidence that they are more likely to develop GAD.