What is Anxiety disorder?
Anxiety disorder refers to a health condition that arises when anxiety is triggered without a clear cause or persists for an extended period, significantly impacting a person's ability to carry out everyday activities. Anxiety is a normal and healthy reaction that is triggered when a person must face some sort of threat or danger.
Anxiety Disorders explained in first person
When anxiety becomes a disorder, it doesn’t allow us to do the things we like to do and it is how long it lasts.
You can recover from this. It’s not a disease. It's a kind of disorder. It’s just fear.
Depending on the main focus of fear and/or worry, different types of anxiety disorders may be identified:
- Separation anxiety disorder. An intense fear of being apart from caregivers, often because of worry of not seeing them again.
- Selective mutism. The inability to speak in specific social settings (such as school), while being able to do so in others (typically at home).
- Specific phobia. An intense fear of a particular object or situation (e.g. injections, flying, heights, insects, etc.).
- Social anxiety disorder (or social phobia). Fear of social situations such as having a conversation, being observed, or performing in front of others.
- Panic disorder. Characterised by a repeated occurrence of panic attacks. These are sudden, intense episodes of anxiety that are often accompanied by physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness or catastrophising thoughts like fear of losing control or dying. Panic disorder is often associated with agoraphobia. Agoraphobia involves a fear of experiencing anxiety symptoms (like a racing heart or excessive sweating) in situations where it might be difficult to escape or get help if needed. This fear may lead people to avoid places like public transport, concerts or restaurants.
- Generalised anxiety disorder. This condition involves constant worry about a wide range of everyday situations, such as work, school, or health (either your own or your loved ones). These worries often lead to disrupted sleep, loss of concentration, or causes the person to feel tense or exhausted.
A person can experience more than one anxiety disorder at the same time, and it’s not uncommon for anxiety to appear alongside other mental issues like depression or substance abuse, such as alcohol misuse.
The mechanisms behind anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders can often be explained by a vicious cycle, a pattern that maintains and intensifies the symptoms over time.
When a person experiences anxiety, they may notice physical symptoms such as heart palpitations or dizziness. This happens because, in response to real or perceived threats, the body reacts as though an alarm has been triggered, similar to a fire alarm. When a potential danger is detected, all attention is focused on the threat, preparing the person to escape or survive.
As part of this response, the person experiences faster breathing (to take in more oxygen), a quicker heartbeat (to pump blood, and therefore more oxygen and glucose into the muscles and brain), tense muscles (to prepare to run or defend), and closed pores (to reduce the risk of injury). At the same time, signals are sent to glands in the body to release hormones to protect tissues and organs from inflammation or damage during this state of alert.
Once the danger passes, the person successfully copes with the situation, or even simply realises there’s no real threat, the brain's alarm system starts to switch off. The nervous system returns to its usual state, and feelings of fear or anxiety begin to reduce. However, sometimes the person may not know exactly what the threat is or where it’s coming from. This can lead them to focus more closely on unpleasant physical symptoms, which can lead to an increase in heart rate and rapid breathing, to the point where it feels hard to breathe.
These intensified sensations may in turn reinforce negative thoughts. For example, if this keeps happening when someone takes the lift, they might start avoiding lifts completely (avoidance) or only use them under certain conditions, such as when it's a new lift or when accompanied by a trusted individual (safety behaviour).
This example shows how avoidance and safety behaviours – the little things people do to feel in control before feared situations – can actually help to maintain the anxiety disorder.
These behaviours prevent the person from discovering that their feared outcome (e.g. “the lift will break down and I won’t be able to breathe”) isn’t likely to happen, and they may mistakenly attribute their safety to these strategies.
Furthermore, repeated avoidance behaviours can affect everyday life and reduce a person’s sense of freedom and independence. This is when anxiety becomes a “disorder”.
When do anxiety disorders begin?
Anxiety disorders can appear early in life. Separation anxiety, specific phobias and selective mutism often appear during the school years. Social anxiety disorder (social phobia) and generalised anxiety disorder usually start during adolescence. Panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia, usually starts in adulthood.
How many people do Anxiety Disorders affect?
Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions. Although figures vary depending on how they are measured, it is generally agreed that 1 in 5 people will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their life. In children and adolescents, the rate is estimated to be around 6 in every 100.
The number of people affected also depends on the specific type of disorder. For instance, specific phobias are the most common form of anxiety disorder.
Traditionally, women have been seen as more likely than men to develop anxiety disorders. However, this varies depending on the type of disorder and the age group. For example, for social anxiety disorder, rates are fairly equal among men and women, while in children and teenagers, gender differences are less pronounced than in adulthood.
In terms of onset, anxiety disorders are among the earliest mental health conditions to appear. The following chart outlines the typical age of onset for different types of anxiety disorders.
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Published: 29 January 2019
Updated: 13 October 2025
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