Understanding Anxiety Disorders: How Can I Tell Which One I Have? First of all, everyone has anxiety.  Anxiety can be quite normal in certain instances. It keeps us busy doing things that keep us safe and out of harm's way. For example, having some anxiety because you discovered the battery in your smoke detector is dead will hopefully bother you enough to motivate you to purchase a new battery soon which might save your life.      But sometimes anxiety becomes a problem, not a help. We call this an anxiety disorder. There are just a few anxiety disorders. Here is a really brief explanation of the anxiety disorders for laypersons. If you read one of these explanations and it sounds strongly like what you have, you may do well to see your doctor.   Generalized Anxiety Disorder - anxiety baseline is elevated all the time - excessive worry - can cause bothersome physical - symptoms such as tension, nausea, fatigue, headaches, etc.   Simple ... [More]

Agoraphobia is one of the most common and most debilitating types of anxiety disorders. It often involves the fear of being in situations in which embarrassing—if not incapacitating—where feelings of panic might suddenly strike, out of the blue, and without escape. [More]

To add to the confusion, symptoms of depression are very
common in reaction to stressful life events such as death of a
loved one, accidents, loss of job, loss of relationship, and
other blows to our sense of control. Even positive changes, such
as a move for a job promotion, can result in symptoms of
depression. [More]

Dealing with all the negative thoughts and emotions that come with anxiety. I believe I am lazy. I am constantly putting things off and I can't seem to get things done that need to be done. [More]