Tranquilizers

While anxiety is usually an accompanying state of mind of most psychiatric disorders, it is also a special disorder of its own. Anxiety disorder or reaction is characterized by a chronic state of anxiety that does not have an immediate or visible basis. That is, the individual feels alarmed or uneasy but cannot point to any outside or realistic basis for the fear. There is a general state of unease that may become expressed by acute attacks of anxiety or panic, called panic disorder.

The emotional stress of anxiety may be triggered by impulses and mental images that in turn lead to a number of complex physiological responses. The autonomic nervous system may react to signals from the emotional side of the mind which call forth defense reactions of either fight or flight. An excess of adrenalin may be released which cannot be adequately discharged, thus leading to the symptoms of anxiety.

The psychology of anxiety often entails the repression of certain drives and needs. Sexual feelings, aggression at work, in school, in the family, and dependency on a spouse or other social relationship that is being threatened, or that the anxious person feels apprehensive toward are all examples of the circumstances that can unleash a chronic state of anxiety. The loss of a job or the sudden onslaught of an illness may, likewise, be responsible for anxiety states as the individual attempts to cope with these new conditions.