Every person feels anxious from time to time; it is a natural part of life. The feeling of anxiety is an expected and necessary response to a stressful or threatening situation, which optimises our readiness and ability to adapt and respond to these situations. This feeling is typically known as the “fight or flight” response. This response causes many physiological changes to our body, such as releasing adrenaline and increased heart rate, which then gives us the best chance of coping with difficult circumstances – fight or flight.

While all of us are familiar with the feeling of being nervous, fearful, worried or concerned, for some of us, this feeling can become overwhelming and debilitating. Instead of providing us with the best chance of coping with difficult circumstances, anxiety can become an obstacle to enjoying life. When changes to the body are inappropriate for the stressor or occur in the absence of the stressor, this form of anxiety can become harmful to our health and well-being.

Anxiety can manifest in many different ways:

• Generalised Anxiety Disorder: intense and persistent general worry, which interferes with normal life.
• Panic Disorder: recurrent unexpected panic attacks which involve sudden periods of intense fear.
• Social Anxiety Disorder: excessive fear of social situations that involve interaction with other people, including extreme worry about the negative judgements from others.
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: inability to control intrusive and unwanted thoughts that lead to anxiety which are temporarily alleviated by engaging in rituals or routine behaviours.
• Agoraphobia: intense fear of open spaces that are perceived to be unsafe, or the fear to leave known environments considered to be safe.
• Specific Phobias: disproportionally excessive fear of specific objects such as spiders, needles, or dentists.

Anxiety disorders differ significantly; therefore anxiety treatment should be tailored to the person’s specific symptoms and concerns. As anxiety is a normal and healthy emotion that everyone feels, the aim of psychological therapy is to help clients understand what drives their anxiety, experience anxiety in appropriate circumstances, identify when the anxiety response is irrational and when it is not, and provide clients with the ways and means to be able to manage their anxiety effectively.