Anxiety: Understanding what is happening
Anxiety is part of being human. Most of us will experience it at some point in life—when facing an important change, following a loss, within a relationship, or when life feels uncertain. At the same time, anxiety can become so intense or recurring that it restricts everyday life and makes it difficult to live the life we want.
This page provides an overview of what anxiety is, what it can feel like, why it arises, and the different forms it may take. You can also read about when it may be helpful to seek support and which forms of treatment are available. For many people, the path toward change begins with greater understanding—not only of the symptoms, but also of what anxiety may be telling us about what we are going through.
In five sections, I explore what anxiety is and how it can feel, why it arises, the different forms it can take, and when it begins to limit our lives. We also look at how anxiety can affect our connection with our emotions and with ourselves – and how greater understanding can open up more freedom in how we feel, choose, and live.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a natural response that helps alert us to threats, uncertainty, or situations that feel important. It is part of our emotional lives and serves an important function: preparing us to protect ourselves or deal with challenges. In many situations, anxiety is therefore not a sign that something is wrong, but a sign that the body and brain are trying to help us adapt.
Unlike fear, which usually has a clear and immediate object—such as a car coming toward you—anxiety often concerns something that has not yet happened or is more difficult to put into words. It may be connected to the future, to uncertainty, or to an inner sense that something is wrong without there always being a clear explanation.
Anxiety can manifest in many different ways. Some people notice it primarily in their bodies: their hearts beat faster, their breathing changes, their muscles tense, or their stomachs react. Others notice it mainly in their thoughts, through worry, catastrophic thinking, or a sense of being unable to relax. The body, thoughts, and emotions are often affected at the same time.
Most people experience anxiety at some point in their lives. It is common to feel worried or tense before an exam, an important meeting, an operation, a loss, or a major change. Anxiety becomes a problem when it is so intense, prolonged, or recurring that it restricts everyday life or leads us to avoid situations that are actually important to us.
Anxiety affects our well-being, how we see the world, and how we see ourselves
It is also important to remember that anxiety itself is not dangerous, even though it can feel overwhelming. The body’s alarm system is designed to become activated when we perceive a threat and usually settles when the situation changes. For many people, it is therefore reassuring to understand that intense physical reactions are part of a natural biological system, even if that system is sometimes activated more often or more strongly than the situation requires.
The work of therapy is therefore rarely limited to reducing anxiety. It also involves understanding why it arises, what evokes it, and how we can develop a different way of relating to it. When anxiety no longer has to govern our choices, it often becomes easier to live in accordance with what matters to us.
A reflection
When people describe anxiety, they often talk about everything taking place in their minds: worry, catastrophic thoughts, constant vigilance, or a sense that something is wrong. It is easy to assume that this also means they are closely connected to their emotional lives. For many people, however, almost the opposite is true.
When the brain’s alarm system is activated, attention is directed toward detecting and managing threats. This makes it more difficult to notice other emotions that may also be present—perhaps sadness, anger, joy, longing, or disappointment. Anxiety occupies so much space that it overshadows other parts of the emotional experience.
In therapy, it therefore sometimes becomes clear that the work is not only about reducing anxiety. It is also about gradually reconnecting with the emotional life that anxiety has come to dominate. Only then does it become easier to understand what the anxiety may actually be trying to protect us from or draw our attention to.
– Maria Sandgren
Further reading
This text draws on my clinical experience as a psychologist, together with research on emotions, relationships, well-being, and psychological difficulties. Below is a selection of books and scientific articles for those who would like to explore the subject further.
The books listed below are in Swedish. They reflect the literature on anxiety with which I am most familiar. The research sources are primarily in English, supplemented here by health information from the Swedish healthcare service 1177. The books provide an accessible introduction to anxiety and describe different ways of understanding and treating worry, anxiety, and phobias. They are intended for readers who want a deeper understanding of what happens in the body and mind—and how anxiety can change over time.
The research articles and other sources examine different aspects of anxiety, from how it manifests in everyday life to its connections with self-criticism, worry, and quality of life. Together, they provide a broad picture of how anxiety can be understood and why greater understanding is often a first step toward change.
If your anxiety is recurring or restricting your life, it may be helpful to seek support from a licensed psychologist.
Books (in Swedish)
Släpp ångesten, fånga livet: Övervinn oro och ängslan med metakognitiv terapi – Pia Callesen, Helena Stedman och Eva Lindeberg
Fri från oro, ångest och fobier – Maria Farm Larsson och Håkan Wisung
Forskning
Information about different forms of anxiety and how anxiety can manifest in everyday life.
A study on how anxiety and self-criticism can reinforce each other.
A study on how worry and generalized anxiety disorder can be understood from several different research models.
A study on how anxiety disorders can affect quality of life and everyday functioning.
Symptoms of anxiety
Anxiety can be experienced very differently from person to person. For some, it is felt mainly in the body; for others, it appears more clearly in their thoughts or behavior. Several different symptoms often interact.
Physical symptoms
When the body perceives a threat, the autonomic nervous system is activated to prepare us to act.
This may lead to symptoms such as:
heart palpitations
rapid or shallow breathing
pressure or tightness in the chest
muscle tension
dizziness or unsteadiness
sweating or chills
dry mouth
digestive problems or nausea
trembling or shaking
These reactions can feel unpleasant, but they are not dangerous in themselves. They are part of the body’s natural alarm response.
Worry, thoughts, and attention
Anxiety also affects how we think and what we notice. Many people describe their thoughts as difficult to control or find themselves becoming caught up in possible risks and future scenarios. It may be difficult to concentrate or make decisions when attention is constantly searching for what might go wrong.
Anxiety in the body
Anxiety is often accompanied by a powerful sense of unease, inner tension, or restlessness. Some people describe a vague sense of danger or a feeling that something terrible is about to happen, even when they cannot put into words what it might be.
Avoidance behaviors
To reduce discomfort, people commonly begin to avoid situations that evoke anxiety. They may decline social invitations, postpone important tasks, or repeatedly seek reassurance from others. In the short term, avoidance can feel helpful. In the longer term, however, it may make anxiety more persistent because the person never has an opportunity to discover that the situation can, in fact, be managed.
Anxiety can therefore affect the body, thoughts, emotions, and the choices we make in everyday life. The way it manifests varies between people and may also change over time.
A reflection
It is easy to think that anxiety is primarily about heart palpitations, worry, or tense muscles. But what often affects life most is not the symptoms themselves, but the way they begin to govern our choices. We decline, postpone, hold ourselves back, or adapt to avoid discomfort. Gradually, life becomes smaller—not because we want it to, but because anxiety has begun to make the decisions.
It is important, however, to distinguish between avoidance strategies that have harmful consequences and choices to avoid something that have beneficial or protective effects.
– Maria Sandgren
Further reading
This text draws on my clinical experience as a psychologist, together with research on emotions, relationships, well-being, and psychological difficulties. Below is a selection of books and scientific articles for those who would like to explore the subject further.
The books listed below are in Swedish. They reflect the literature on anxiety with which I am most familiar. The research sources are primarily in English, supplemented here by health information from the Swedish healthcare service 1177. The books and articles describe what anxiety is, how it may affect everyday life, and which treatments have been shown to be effective.
If your anxiety is recurring or restricting your life, it may be helpful to seek support from a licensed psychologist.
Books (in Swedish)
Släpp ångesten, fånga livet: Övervinn oro och ängslan med metakognitiv terapi – Pia Callesen, Helena Stedman och Eva Lindeberg
Fri från oro, ångest och fobier – Maria Farm Larsson och Håkan Wisung
What research shows
Information about different types of anxiety problems.
A study on avoidance behaviours and how they can maintain anxiety and restrict everyday life.
Information about anxiety, with a particular focus on physical symptoms and how to manage them.
Information about sleep difficulties and how they can be managed.
A study on anxiety and sleep difficulties, examining how anxiety and sleep problems can affect each other.
Why do we experience anxiety?
There is rarely a single explanation for why a person develops anxiety. For most people, several factors interact over time. Genetics, life events, stress, relationships, and earlier experiences can all contribute to making the body’s alarm system more sensitive and more easily activated.
Sometimes anxiety arises in connection with a clearly identifiable event, such as a separation, illness, conflict, or major life change. For others, it develops more gradually without a single triggering cause. This can make it difficult to understand why the anxiety is there.
The ways in which we have learned to manage emotions and stress also influence how we respond. If we have needed to remain vigilant for a long time, carried considerable responsibility, or found it difficult to express our emotions, the body may continue to remain on high alert even when the danger is no longer present.
Stress can affect anxiety symptoms
Stress is another important factor. When the body remains under heavy strain for an extended period, recovery becomes more difficult. The alarm system may then become activated increasingly quickly, and situations that previously felt manageable may begin to evoke intense worry or anxiety.
At the same time, it is important to remember that anxiety does not always tell us how dangerous a situation actually is. It tells us primarily that the body’s alarm system has been activated. Sometimes this happens for a real and immediate reason, but at other times the system responds more strongly than the situation requires.
Understanding why you experience anxiety is therefore not about finding one single cause. It often involves gradually discovering which situations evoke anxiety, how your body responds, and which experiences or circumstances may have made your alarm system more sensitive. It also involves reconnecting with your emotional life and experiencing greater calm and vitality. For many people, this understanding becomes an important part of the path toward change.
A reflection
We often ask why we have anxiety as though the answer should be a single cause. In therapy, however, it rarely proves to be that simple. Two people may experience the same life event and respond in entirely different ways. What matters is not only what we have been through, but also how we experienced it, what we had to carry alone, and which ways of managing difficult emotions we developed.
Understanding our own anxiety is therefore less about finding the correct answer and more about becoming curious about our own lives.
Many people are surprised to discover that the way out of anxiety does not always involve trying to think differently or control their symptoms. In therapy, many instead find that their anxiety decreases as they gradually reconnect with emotions that have been present all along—perhaps sadness, anger, joy, tenderness, or longing.
When attention is no longer dominated by threat and vigilance, many people describe feeling more grounded and more like themselves. Decisions often become easier, relationships may be seen more clearly, and it becomes easier to recognize what truly matters. The emotions themselves are not the goal. What matters is the deeper connection with ourselves that they can make possible.
– Maria Sandgren
Further reading
This text draws on my clinical experience as a psychologist, together with research on emotions, relationships, well-being, and psychological difficulties. Below is a selection of books and scientific articles for those who would like to explore the subject further.
The books listed below are in Swedish. They reflect the literature on anxiety with which I am most familiar; the research sources included here are primarily in English. The books and articles describe what anxiety is, how it may affect everyday life, and which treatments have been shown to be effective.
The research explores how prolonged stress, adversity during childhood, loneliness, trauma, and difficult life events may increase the risk of anxiety. It also examines the connection between a predisposition to respond with anxiety and the development of anxiety disorders, as well as how affect-focused psychotherapy may reduce symptoms.
If your anxiety is recurring or restricting your life, it may be helpful to seek support from a licensed psychologist.
Books (in Swedish)
Släpp ångesten, fånga livet: Övervinn oro och ängslan med metakognitiv terapi – Pia Callesen, Helena Stedman och Eva Lindeberg
Fri från oro, ångest och fobier – Maria Farm Larsson och Håkan Wisung
What research shows
A study on chronic stress and how it can contribute to the development of anxiety from a biological perspective.
A study on childhood adversity and how such experiences can increase the risk of anxiety later in life.
A study on stressful life events and how loneliness, trauma, and other difficult life experiences can increase the risk of anxiety.
A study on intense anxiety and how a tendency to respond with high levels of anxiety is associated with the development of anxiety disorders.
A study on affect-focused psychotherapy and how this form of therapy can reduce symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.
Different types of anxiety
Anxiety can take different forms. Some people experience constant worry that is difficult to switch off, while others have sudden panic attacks or avoid particular situations. What these experiences have in common is that anxiety affects how we think, feel, and act, although it may look very different from person to person.
Some of the most common forms of anxiety are described below.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by persistent worry about many different areas of life, such as work, health, family, or finances. It is often difficult to relax, and thoughts easily become focused on what might go wrong.
Panic disorder
Panic disorder involves recurring panic attacks in which intense anxiety arises quickly. Heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, and a sense of losing control are common symptoms. Many people also begin to worry about having another panic attack.
Social anxiety
With social anxiety, situations in which a person may be observed or judged evoke intense worry. This may include speaking in front of others, participating in meetings, or meeting new people. The fear of being judged negatively often leads people to avoid these situations.
Specific phobias
A specific phobia involves an intense fear of a particular object or situation, such as heights, spiders, blood, or flying. The person is often aware that the fear is greater than the actual danger, but still finds the reaction difficult to control.
Performance anxiety
Performance anxiety arises when the pressure to succeed or perform well becomes overwhelming. It may occur at work, in education, in sports, or in creative settings. For some people, it leads to excessive effort; for others, it leads to procrastination or the avoidance of tasks.
Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety involves an intense fear of losing or being separated from someone important. Although it is often associated with children, it can also occur in adults and affect close relationships in different ways.
There are also other forms of anxiety-related difficulties, including health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Regardless of how anxiety manifests, there are good opportunities to understand it more fully and receive help when it restricts a person’s life.
Other anxiety disorders
There are also other mental health conditions in which anxiety is a prominent feature, such as health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Regardless of how anxiety manifests itself, it is possible to gain a better understanding of it and to seek help when it begins to restrict your life.
A reflection
Diagnoses can be helpful. They give us language for what we are experiencing and may guide the choice of treatment. They can also help us describe how anxiety manifests and identify the situations in which it becomes particularly intense.
A diagnosis does not, however, tell the whole story. Two people with the same diagnosis may have entirely different life histories, relationships, and ways of managing their emotions. What evokes anxiety in one person may not evoke it in another.
A diagnosis is therefore only one part of the starting point for therapy. Therapy begins with the person. Only when we become curious about how anxiety appears in that particular person’s life can we understand what keeps it going, what it may be trying to protect, and what might contribute to change.
– Maria Sandgren
Further reading
This text draws on my clinical experience as a psychologist, together with research on emotions, relationships, well-being, and psychological difficulties. At the end, you will find a selection of books and scientific articles for those who would like to explore the subject further.
The different anxiety disorders share certain features but differ in the situations that trigger anxiety and in how the difficulties manifest themselves. If you recognize yourself in the descriptions above, it may be helpful to seek a professional assessment, as gaining the right understanding is often a first step towards receiving appropriate treatment.
If your anxiety is recurring or restricting your life, it may be valuable to seek help from a licensed psychologist.
Books (in Swedish)
Släpp ångesten, fånga livet: Övervinn oro och ängslan med metakognitiv terapi – Pia Callesen, Helena Stedman och Eva Lindeberg
Fri från oro, ångest och fobier – Maria Farm Larsson och Håkan Wisung
When does anxiety become a problem?
Experiencing anxiety is part of life. Before an important presentation, an operation, a conflict, or a major change, it is natural for the body to react. Anxiety draws our attention to what feels significant and can help us prepare.
Anxiety becomes a problem, however, when it begins to restrict our lives. This may involve avoiding people or situations, constantly worrying about what might happen, or spending so much energy managing anxiety that it becomes difficult to be present in everyday life.
Self-criticism can be an aspect of anxiety
Many people with long-term anxiety also experience intense self-criticism. It takes the form of an inner voice that questions what they think, do, or feel. They begin to doubt their decisions, judge their mistakes more harshly than others would, and place demands on themselves that are difficult to meet.
Sometimes self-criticism becomes so dominant that it moves into the foreground, making the underlying anxiety more difficult to recognize. Attention is directed toward one’s own shortcomings rather than toward the worry or uncertainty beneath the surface. Because the inner voice often sounds convincing, it is easy to believe that it is telling the truth about who we are rather than expressing a particular way of relating to ourselves.
Consequences of self-criticism
Self-criticism then becomes more than an unpleasant thought. It affects how we see ourselves and may cause us to hesitate, hold ourselves back, or avoid things that genuinely matter to us. In this way, both anxiety and self-criticism may gradually restrict our lives.
For some people, this is noticeable as life becoming smaller. They decline things they would really like to do, postpone important decisions, or avoid relationships, education, or work because they fear that the anxiety will become too intense. For others, the anxiety is less visible from the outside. They continue to perform and take responsibility while living with constant inner tension that consumes a great deal of energy.
The intensity of anxiety is not always what matters most. Two people may experience similar symptoms but be affected by them in entirely different ways. What is often most important is how much anxiety governs the choices we make and how it affects our quality of life.
If anxiety has been present for a long time, frequently recurs, or makes it difficult to live the life you want, it may be helpful to seek professional support. Effective treatments are available, and for many people therapy leads not only to reduced anxiety, but also to a life with greater freedom and meaning.
A reflection
When people seek therapy, it is often because they long to live their lives more fully. They want to be present with their partners and children and engage with their interests, experience joy in their work, dare to enter a relationship, or make decisions without constantly being held back by worry and anxiety.
For many people, this change does not occur through fighting anxiety, but through gradually understanding it and reconnecting with their emotional lives and with themselves. At the same time, it often becomes easier to recognize the self-critical inner voice that has long commented on and questioned every step. When that voice is no longer accepted as the truth, it also loses some of its influence.
When anxiety and self-criticism no longer occupy all our attention, it becomes easier to recognize what matters, make decisions, and move toward the life we want to live.
– Maria Sandgren
Further reading
This text draws on my clinical experience as a psychologist, together with research on emotions, relationships, well-being, and psychological difficulties. Below is a selection of books and scientific articles for those who would like to explore the subject further.
The books listed below are in Swedish. They reflect the literature on anxiety with which I am most familiar; the research sources included here are primarily in English. The books and articles describe what anxiety is, how it may affect everyday life, and which treatments have been shown to be effective.
The research examines the importance of self-criticism in social anxiety, the prevalence of social anxiety disorder, the relationship between a predisposition to respond with anxiety and anxiety disorders, and how affect-focused psychotherapy may reduce symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.
If your anxiety is recurring or restricting your life, it may be helpful to seek support from a licensed psychologist.
Books (in Swedish)
Släpp ångesten, fånga livet: Övervinn oro och ängslan med metakognitiv terapi – Pia Callesen, Helena Stedman och Eva Lindeberg
Fri från oro, ångest och fobier – Maria Farm Larsson och Håkan Wisung
What research shows
A study on self-criticism and how a self-critical attitude can contribute to social anxiety.
A study on social anxiety. Social anxiety is one of the most common anxiety disorders.
A study on anxiety responses and how a tendency to respond with anxiety is associated with the development of anxiety disorders.
A study on affect-focused psychotherapy and how this form of therapy can reduce symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.
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If something in this text resonates with your own situation and you would like to make a change in your life, you are welcome to book a first session.
