What are anxiety disorders?

Anxiety disorders involve more than everyday stress or occasional worry. They often include patterns such as:

• Excessive worry, fear, panic, or dread

• Feeling on edge, tense, restless, or unable to relax

• Racing thoughts or difficulty shutting the mind off

• Physical symptoms such as a racing heart, tight chest, nausea, dizziness, sweating, shaking, or shortness of breath

• Avoiding situations, places, people, conversations, decisions, or responsibilities

• Seeking reassurance or over-preparing to feel safe

• Difficulty tolerating uncertainty

• Feeling stuck in “what if” thinking

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Although anxiety disorders can look different from person to person, they often share one common feature: anxiety begins to influence choices, limit freedom, and make life feel smaller.

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Common anxiety disorders

• ​Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or GAD

GAD involves ongoing and difficult-to-control worry about many areas of life, such as health, family, work, school, finances, relationships, responsibilities, or the future. People with GAD may feel mentally exhausted from constant “what if” thinking, planning, problem-solving, or preparing for the worst. Often we hear clients say, “I worry all the time”. 

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• Panic Disorder

Panic Disorder involves recurrent panic attacks and ongoing fear of having another one. Panic attacks can come on suddenly and may last from 5 to 20 minutes- it is sudden, intense, and short in duration. Often people describe may feelings and sensations such as racing heart, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness, shaking, nausea, numbness, or a intense fear of losing control, fainting, dying, or going crazy.  We often hear client say: “I think I'm having a heart attack”, “I feel like I'm going crazy”, “Im going to die”. )

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Panic attacks can feel terrifying, but they are not dangerous and not life threatening. 

 

• Anxiety attack is not a panic attack. Panic attacks and anxiety attacks are both intense emotional and physical experiences often associated with anxiety disorders, but they differ in their causes, symptoms, and duration. Here's a breakdown of the key differences:​

  • Panic Attack:

    • A sudden, intense episode of fear or discomfort that peaks within minutes.

    • Often occurs without a specific trigger; it can seemingly come "out of the blue."

    • May be part of panic disorder or occur with other conditions like phobias.

  • Anxiety Attack:

    • An episode of heightened anxiety often triggered by a specific stressor or situation (e.g., work pressure, relationship problems).

    • Develops gradually in response to worry or fear about a perceived threat.

    • Can last for hours, days, or longer, depending on the situation.

    • Less intense physical symptoms than with panic:

      • Muscle tension, fatigue, or restlessness.

      • Increased heart rate (but not as severe as a panic attack).

      • Trouble concentrating or irritability.

    • Psychological symptoms:

      • Persistent worry or dread about a future event.

      • Feeling overwhelmed or out of control.

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Basically, Panic attacks are sudden, intense, and more physically overwhelming, often occurring without an apparent cause. While, Anxiety attacks are tied to specific stressors and build gradually, focusing on prolonged worry or dread.
 

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• Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder involves intense fear of being judged, embarrassed, rejected, criticized, or negatively evaluated by others. It can affect conversations, meetings, school, work, dating, eating in public, making phone calls, speaking up, or being seen doing something imperfectly.​

Social anxiety is not simply being shy. It can create significant distress and lead people to avoid important relationships, opportunities, or parts of their life.

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• Specific Phobias

Specific Phobias are irrational fears of specific objects or situations.

• fear of confined spaces, flying., darkness, driving vehicles, elevators;

• fear of animals (spiders, snakes, dogs, birds, etc);

• heights;

• natural environments (heights, water, thunder and lighting, bridges, ocean/deep water);

• Medical-Related Phobias (fear of needles or injections, blood, fear of dentists or dental procedures,

• fear of hospitals;

• phobia related to fears of vomiting, death or dying, or even clowns.
   

People who experience intense phobias will often avoid people, places, things, or even try to avoid their own behaviors and physical reactions like nausea or rapid heartbeat to try and prevent anxiety. 

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• Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia involves fear or avoidance of situations where escape may feel difficult, help may not feel available, or panic-like symptoms may feel especially frightening. This may include public transportation, crowds, lineups, open spaces, enclosed spaces, being far from home, or being out alone.

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• Separation Anxiety Disorder

Separation Anxiety Disorder involves excessive fear or distress about being away from important attachment figures or home. Although it is often associated with children, it can also affect teens and adults.

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• Selective Mutism

Selective Mutism involves consistent difficulty speaking in certain social situations, even when a person is able to speak comfortably in other settings. It is often connected to anxiety and can affect school, social situations, and daily functioning.

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Why does anxiety keep going?

Anxiety often continues because of a cycle.

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A person experiences a feared situation, body sensation, thought, memory, or uncertainty. Their nervous system reacts, and anxiety rises. To feel safer, they may avoid the situation, leave, seek reassurance, over-prepare, distract, check, or rely on safety behaviours. These responses may bring short-term relief, but over time the brain learns that the situation was dangerous and that avoidance was necessary.

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The result is a loop that can become stronger over time:

• Trigger → Anxiety → Avoidance or safety behaviour → Temporary relief → Stronger anxiety next time​

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Therapy helps people gently interrupt this cycle, build confidence, and teach the brain that anxiety can be tolerated without needing to escape, avoid, or control everything.

 

Signs it may be time to reach out for support

It may be helpful to seek support if anxiety is:

• Taking up a lot of time or mental energy

• Interfering with work, school, relationships, parenting, sleep, or daily responsibilities

• Causing panic attacks or fear of panic attacks

• Leading to avoidance of people, places, tasks, or opportunities

• Making it hard to make decisions or trust yourself

• Creating frequent reassurance-seeking or over-preparing

• Causing physical symptoms that feel overwhelming

• Making life feel restricted, exhausting, or smaller than you want it to be

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You do not need to wait until anxiety becomes unmanageable to get help. Therapy can support you in understanding what is happening and building tools to respond differently.

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Treatment can help

Treatment depends on the person, the type of anxiety, and the patterns maintaining it. Support may include:

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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT

CBT is one of the most common evidence-informed treatments for anxiety. It helps people understand the connection between thoughts, emotions, body sensations, behaviours, and avoidance. CBT can support more flexible thinking, practical coping, and gradual behaviour change.

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Exposure-based therapy

Exposure therapy helps people gradually face feared situations, sensations, or uncertainties in a safe and supported way. The goal is not to force someone into overwhelming situations, but to help the brain learn that anxiety can rise and fall without avoidance or safety behaviours.

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Acceptance and values-based work

Anxiety often pulls people away from what matters. Acceptance and values-based approaches can help clients relate differently to anxious thoughts and feelings, while taking steps toward relationships, goals, responsibilities, and experiences that are meaningful.

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Nervous system and coping skills

Therapy may also include grounding skills, breathing strategies, emotion regulation tools, mindfulness, self-compassion, and practical routines to support sleep, stress, and daily functioning.

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Medication support

Some people also benefit from medication as part of their treatment plan. This can be discussed with a physician, psychiatrist, or qualified prescribing professional.

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What therapy may focus on​

Therapy may help you:

• Understand your anxiety cycle

• Identify triggers, fears, avoidance patterns, and safety behaviours

• Build skills for managing worry, panic, uncertainty, and physical symptoms

• Reduce avoidance and regain confidence

• Strengthen tolerance for discomfort and uncertainty

• Respond to anxious thoughts with less fear and less urgency

• Practice gradual exposure to situations that anxiety has made difficult

• Improve self-trust and decision-making

• Reconnect with values, relationships, and daily life

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The goal is not to eliminate anxiety completely.

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Anxiety is part of being human.

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