Fear is a state of apprehension and hyper arousal in response to a known danger and threat. As the experience is unpleasant the individual strives to spend his existing resources on alleviation of the stimulus. Hence fear is the reason a student tries to prepare for his exams or interview, employee tries to meet the demands of his work, a consultant keeps his time schedule for his client. Hence fear is necessary and essential for survival and well being. Anxiety is a condition in which fear occurs for no apparent reason or the reason is not ordinarily fear inducing to most persons. Another important aspect of anxiety is that it impairs the performance of the individual in contrast to fear.

Anxiety is characterized by both physical and psychic symptoms. Physical symptoms include racing of heart, sweating, shortness of breath, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea and headache. Psychic symptoms include a state of tension, apprehension, worry, extreme unpleasant sensation and fear of going mad or fear of imminent danger or death. These symptoms can be episodic or present continuously and it can be in response to an ordinary stimuli or without any cause. A person with anxiety is consumed and preoccupied by worry of future or imminent danger that real life demands takes a second place in his life. Most persons are able to under stand that their fear is unreasonable , excessive and it is the reason for their poor work performance. Sadly they cannot control their fear, hence in the long run they start to fear for their fear.

Anxiety can take many forms, when it is present continuously and for no apparent reason it is known as generalized anxiety disorder. In contrast when fear is sudden, severe, episodic and totally incapacitating to the individual it is known as panic disorder. If fear occurs to an object or situation which is ordinarily non threatening to most individuals and associated with avoidance of the particular situation or object it is known as phobia.

Anxiety can also accompany everyday life stressors, in which the person is preoccupied about the stressful situation coupled with both physical and psychic features of anxiety. Anxiety is also the predominant feature of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in which the anxiety occurs in the face of a extreme stressor such as life threatening violence, rape, natural disasters and massive accidents. Anxiety can also occur in certain drug dependence situations such as alcohol dependence.

Treatment for anxiety disorders depends on the nature and severity of anxiety attacks, precipitating factors, psychological profile of the individual, associated physical diseases, drug use and patient's choice in modality of treatment. Methods of treatment include drugs, psychotherapy or combination of both. In majority of the situations treatment last for 6 months to a year and without any major side effects.

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