Description

Anxiety is a feeling of dread, fear, or apprehension, often with no clear justification. Anxiety is distinguished from fear because the latter arises in response to a clear and actual danger, such as one affecting a person's physical safety. Anxiety, by contrast, arises in response to apparently innocuous situation or is the product of subjective, internal emotional conflicts the causes of which may not be apparent to the person himself. Some anxiety inevitably arises in the course of daily life and is considered normal. But persistent, intense, chronic, or recurring anxiety not justified in response to real life stresses is usually regarded as a sign of an emotional disorder. When such an anxiety is unreasonably evoked by a specific situation or object, it is a phobia. A diffuse or persistent anxiety associated with no particular cause or mental concern is called general or free floating anxiety. Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud viewed anxiety as the symptomatic expression of the inner emotional conflict caused when a person suppresses experiences, feeling, or impulses that are too threatening or disturbing to live with.