What is anxiety?

I’ve come to realise that many people, especially teenagers, don’t understand what anxiety is or how it’s caused. I also used to suffer from the same thing and found out that a lot of people face the same thing. One day from school, I went straight to my dad and explained to him how I feel sometimes. He then told me that it was most probably anxiety and explained it to me a little more. Anxiety is a feeling related to fear. Fear is an emotional response to a threat from outside the body, such as fire, snakes, water etc. However, all threats do not come from outside, some come from within one’s body and that is anxiety.Some people become anxious when the prospect of giving a speech in public arises. There is no physical threat by this but some people may sometimes find themselves temporarily speechless or even frozen solid. This reaction creates that inner concern called anxiety. It’s safe to say that fear and anxiety are similar. However, when you are afraid you know what exactly it is frightening you, but when you’re anxious, you may not recognize the cause. The cause may come from something inside you, something that is troubling you but that you can’t quite put a finger on. For instance you may feel you are failing at school. You may be afraid that something you did has been found out or you may feel anxious if you do not clearly know what to do in a certain situation. Concerns of this kind may make you tense and disturbed - they keep you from concentrating on your work. You may fail to sleep soundly and also prohibit you from socializing with anyone. Anxiety proves to be troublesome and may even force you to run away from your problems instead of trying to face them head on as opposed to solving them. This will frustrate but you need to know that these feelings are normal and you can’t just run away from them. You need to calm down, concentrate and find suitable solutions with the help of real friends and family.