WHAT IS ANXIETY?

Anxiety and fear are emotional states rooted in human nature that involve the activation of individual resources against an adverse stimulus, and have the purpose of increasing the possibility of successfully coping with the stimulus that induced it.
In particular, anxiety is a state of alertness towards a generic danger , while fear is an emotional state preparatory to responding to a specific danger.

WHAT ARE ANXIETY DISORDERS?

Anxiety disorders are the  most common psychiatric pathology .  In Italy, over 2.5 million adults are affected each year , and over 8.5 million people suffer from an anxiety disorder in their lifetime.

Anxiety, fear and panic are neither synonyms nor different intensities of the same phenomenon: they are qualitatively different elements of the emotional experience.

Anxiety and fear become pathological conditions if they represent an  exaggerated or inappropriate alert response with respect to the stimulus , as for example in the case of  phobias  (for example phobia of grasshoppers, snakes, injections) and of  catastrophic worry , always present in the case of the so-called “generalized anxiety” (for example  fear of novelty , fear of an unfavorable event, even if remote, etc.), or in the absence of stimulus, as in the case of a panic attack.