Anxiety

What is it?

For most people, anxiety is familiar and predictable. We feel it when we’re preparing for an important test or worrying about an unpaid bill. Clinical anxiety, however, is something different: it’s persistent, excessive, and debilitating.

3 Reasons it Matters

1. Anxiety can be normal, and even healthy, but only when it’s experienced in brief and temporary doses. It may be the feeling that nudges you out of bed in the morning or pushes you to meet an important deadline. Healthy anxiety is situational and motivating, not overwhelming and disruptive.
2. Clinical anxiety is a mental health disorder. It occurs when normal anxiety is heightened to levels that keep you from being present and engaging with the people you love.
3. Anxiety disorders are stealthy and easy to miss. Like an open app running in the background of your phone, anxiety may be sapping your strength without you even noticing.