Anxiety

Anxiety is generally recognized as a chronic condition akin to fear, present in most neuroses; and exhibited in response to certain conditions, in particular to uncertainty. Any of the normal disruptions of life may require facing unfamiliar situations or sudden change; and all may be sources of anxiety. The term [station fear]

, originally describing the anxiety experienced when starting or completing a journey or of missing the means of transport, has come to mean all anxiety faced at a time of transition.

It has been postulated that all needs are responses to anxiety and all efforts are towards reduction in such anxiety; but subsequent study has shown that curiosity and exploration are more hindered by anxiety than engendered by it.

Freud distinguished [objective anxiety]

, or fear, as the response to some external danger, and [neurotic anxiety]

as the response to an internal impulse. Although different conditions produce anxiety in different people, a single individual's anxious response to a given situation is predictable unless de-conditioning or counter-conditioning has taken place. Anxiety is characterized by muscular tension (giving rise to impaired coordination in movement), diminished mental concentration, reduced efficiency at work and impaired social and sexual behaviour.