Chronic Anxiety A Serious Condition

Anxiety is a broad description, used often, and as such has
become a bit of a watered down term. Anxiety is actually a
classified psychological disorder, but it's often used
interchangeably with nervousness and fear and upset, among
other descriptions of common emotional states. Reducing
anxiety to a generic form, however, may diminish the
reality that anxiety can be a quite serious condition.

There's nothing inherently wrong with an anxious condition.
In fact, all people at some point or other feel anxiety,
and the anxiety a person feels can have beneficial effects.
An anxious condition focuses one's mental and physical
state in preparation for some form of coping. In the most
dramatic possible scenario, enhanced mental and physical
focus from anxiety would enable someone to try and escape
physical danger. Anxiety then can be an asset.

Where anxiety becomes problematic is when it becomes
chronic, or the anxious response is an overreaction to the
circumstances. The chronically anxious condition can be
characterized as a person being almost incessantly on edge,
expecting the worst and constantly prepared for flight. The
damage this sort of chronic state can cause can be quite
extreme. A perpetually anxious person is placing incredible
physical strain on his or her body, keeping their body
constantly vigilant, and ready for a sudden burst. The body
greatly fatigues under these sorts of physical demands, and
begins to break down. As blood pressure rises under an
anxious state, chronic anxiety can also lead to the
problems elevated blood pressure causes: stroke, coronary
problems, compromised kidney function, and other physical
problems besides.

An anxious overresponse can be disabling as well. The
person who feels anxiety when there's no real threat at
hand is overreacting to life's circumstances. People who
tend to react in this way are prone to withdrawing as a way
of averting their upset, or self-medicating themselves
through alcohol and drugs, or both. Withdrawal often, if
not always, leads to mood problems such as depression, and
even anger and hostility. The use of alcohol and drugs in a
coping pattern is, obviously, an open door to addiction.

Chronic anxiety is a serious state, and can lead to further
emotional and physical disorder. Any chronic dysfunction is
unlikely to just go away on its own: the fact that a
dysfunction is chronic indicates the problem has become set
in place. Some form of treatment then for chronic anxiety
is always called for. The good news is that there are
effective methods for anxiety treatment, and once a person
has gone through treatment for an anxious condition their
outlook can change almost entirely.

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Zinn Jeremiah is an online author. To get help with
anxiety, visit
http://www.hubonline.biz/feel-better-today.htm or
http://www.hubonline.biz/confident-interactions.htm .