If you say that you have never experienced anxiety, you are fooling yourself since anxiety affects everyone. It is a natural reaction to unpleasant situations that create danger, uncertainty, trouble or the feeling of being unprepared. So when exactly does “normal” anxiety become a disorder?
Basically, when anxiety starts to interfere with the flow of your everyday life, then it has become a disorder. It is normal to experience worry from time to time or to worry about events that occur, such as an exam or presentation. However, when that worry takes over your life and causes you to not complete the exam or not show up to your presentation prepared because you were too worried about it to pull it together, you may have an anxiety disorder. We can all tell a story about one of our most embarrassing moments in life and hopefully look back it and laugh. No doubt while that “moment” was taking place, however, you probably felt some type of anxiety. But, it you find yourself avoiding social situations because you are too fearful of how people will look at you or how you might humiliate yourself, then your anxiety may be more serious.
Phobias may also elicit feelings of anxiety as well. For example, the fear of heights, spiders or snakes might cause you to feel uneasy. When that fear escalates itself into an irrational fear and causes you to avoid doing things or experiencing life, then your anxiety can be considered out of the normal range. This is especially true if you find your lifestyle being altered greatly or if you avoid a place or situation that, in reality, poses little or no threat to your well being or safety.
It is natural to want to keep ourselves safe and healthy. When our health and safety are put in a compromising situation, it is natural to feel anxious. However, when we lose control of our daily lives because we are preoccupied and obsessed with our safety, it may be correct to term our feelings as a “disorder”. For example, it is normal to be anxious or worried that you might have left the stove or an iron on before leaving for work that morning. However, if your day is altered in an extreme manner, perhaps returning home several times to check and see if the iron or stove is indeed turned off, or if you just cannot function because you are so worried about the iron or the stove, then yu might want to consider speaking with a medical professional about your anxiety.
