What is anxiety?

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is the feeling we get when our body responds to a frightening or threatening experience. It has been called the fight or flight response. It is simply your body preparing for action either to fight danger or run away from it as fast as possible. The purpose of the physical symptoms of anxiety therefore is to prepare your body to cope with threat. To understand what is happening in your body, imagine that you are about to be attacked. As soon as you are aware of the threat your muscles tense ready for action.

Your heart beats faster to carry blood to your muscles and brain, where it is most needed. You breathe faster to provide oxygen which is needed for energy. You sweat to stop you body overheating. Your mouth becomes dry and your tummy may have butterflies. When you realise that the “attacker” is in fact a friend, the feelings die away, but you may feel shaky and weak
after the experience.

The fight or flight response is a really basic system that probably goes back to the days of cave men, and is present in animals who depend on it for their survival. Fortunately, nowadays we are not often in such life or death situations, but unfortunately many of the stresses we do face can’t be fought or run away from, so the symptoms don’t help. In fact they often make us feel worse, especially if we don’t understand them.