Anxiety

Anxiety is often described as a feeling of fear or unease - and it's something everyone experiences at times. Feeling anxious is a perfectly natural reaction to some situations.

Anxiety can help us to focus or take extra care when needed, but if it gets too much or goes on for a while, it can affect our daily lives.

Luckily, there are ways to deal with anxiety that really work, and spotting the signs of anxiety is the first step.

Find out about common symptoms of anxiety, possible reasons for it and what to do when you're anxious.

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is usually a natural response to pressure, feeling afraid or threatened, which can show up in how we feel physically, mentally, and in how we behave.

It's common to describe anxiety as a feeling of dread, fear, or unease, which can range from mild to severe.

Anxiety can become a problem if we start worrying a lot about small stuff or relatively harmless situations.

It's usually when our anxiety feels really intense or overwhelming that it starts to interfere with our daily lives or affect our relationships.

Sign up for anxiety-easing emails

Join the NHS's email programme to get expert advice and practical tips to help you deal with anxiety. It will also show you how to make these new steps part of your daily routine.

Signs or symptoms of anxiety

Anxiety can affect our mind, body, and behaviour. For instance, we might feel tearful, get stress headaches, or start avoiding things or people that trigger anxiety.

Common symptoms of anxiety include:

feeling tired, restless or irritable
feeling shaky or trembly, dizzy or sweating more
being unable to concentrate or make decisions
trouble sleeping
worrying about the past or future, or thinking something bad will happen
headaches, tummy aches or muscle pain
dry mouth
pins and needles
noticing your heartbeat gets stronger, faster or irregular, or you get short of breath when you start feeling anxious

If you cannot tell if shortness of breath is from anxiety or if you are worried about any other symptoms, see a GP.

Get help with anxiety and panic attacks

What causes anxiety?

Anxiety is caused by many different situations and life experiences.

How anxiety affects us is very personal to us, and if you asked 100 people what it means to them, you'd probably get 100 different answers.

Sometimes there are no obvious triggers for it, and it's difficult to know what causes anxiety, which can be upsetting or stressful in itself.

Everyone's anxiety levels are different. Some people find more stressful situations and experience more challenges in life than others, and they get more anxious as a result.

However, possible causes of anxiety include:

our upbringing
our environment
things that happen to us
our temperament

Find out more about life's challenges that might cause anxiety and how to deal with them.

Dealing with life's challenges

Tips on managing anxiety

Try building these self-care tips into your daily routine, as doing them regularly can make a big difference.

Shift your focus

Some people find mindfulness and meditation (including breathing exercises and relaxation) help to calm anxiety and reduce tension by focusing awareness on the present moment. Try these NHS-recommended relaxation exercises

Try self-help techniques

Short videos and practical guides to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can help you deal with worries, anxiety, and unhelpful thoughts by working through problems in new ways and helping you build resilience. Try the self-help CBT techniques

Understand your anxiety

Keeping a diary of what you are doing and how you feel at different times may help you understand why you're anxious and identify ways to manage or get rid of anxiety.

Make time for worries

If anxiety or worry is taking over your day, try setting a daily "worry time" to go through your concerns. Doing this at a set time every day can help you focus on other things. Check out the video on tackling your worries

Face your fears gradually

Avoiding situations or relying on habits we think will keep us safe might actually make our anxiety worse. Slowly facing up to a situation might help, and eventually it will feel OK.

Look at the bigger picture

If we're feeling anxious about something, we might get stuck on the details and stop seeing things clearly. Thinking about your problem or situation from someone else's perspective can make it easier to come up with a plan for tackling it. What advice would you give to a friend?