Anxiety by definition affects everybody—even the happy and perfectly content person. Therefore, you cannot assume because you are having a bad day or are unusually anxious on a given night that you are developing an anxiety attack, nor that you have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety is an emotion. An anxiety attack might also be called a panic attack, and that is where you experience a sudden flush of negative emotions, perhaps losing an amount of control. However, that in itself does not mean you are developing an anxiety disorder.

Panic attacks as well as normal levels of anxiety can happen because of stressful activity. Therefore, if you are experiencing panic or anxiety and also happen to be undergoing a lot of stress, then your prescription might be fairly obvious: eliminate the source of frustration in your life, calm yourself and find ways to relax your nerves in the event of a panic attack.

However, there are levels above normal anxiety attacks that may merit professional assistance. For one thing, if you constantly are enduring through traumatic stress in your life because of a living situation, then it’s possible you could develop some type of anxiety disorder. It is also possible that if one of your parents had an anxiety order that it could be inherited. The important factor is the level of anxiety you are experiencing and how often you are experiencing the attacks.

Sufferers of anxiety attacks report extreme levels, to the point of physical illness and mental panic. There is a strong feeling of no escape, of helplessness and of fear. Many people who suffer from panic disorder actually think they are having a heart attack or are in the process of dying when they experience a panic attack. Sufferers of general anxiety disorder become not only irritable and anxious over stressful situations, but even over very minor ones. People suffering from phobias or obsessive compulsive disorder could have an irrational fear of some object or situation that is mostly harmless.

Therefore if any of those emotional symptoms sound familiar then it is worth paying a visit to the family physician to see if you are suffering from anxiety disorder. If you ever reach the point of extreme levels where you feel that you can’t function normally or are becoming gravely afraid of something insignificant, then it’s very possible that you are developing a disorder.

A doctor will evaluate your symptoms and recommend a possible solution, be it a consultation with a psychiatrist or psychologist. Don’t assume that you have to start taking medication, as many cases can be treated using psychotherapy. However, in a fast paced world many patients actually prefer medication as a quick fix. However, be aware there may still be psychotherapy involved in the treatment and a lot of common antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills have side effects.

The simple answer is, if you are worried about the level of anxiety you feel, and if you can think of several occasions where you felt extremely anxious, then you may have a disorder and it is worth looking into. Treatment is available and the sooner you take steps to improve, the better the therapeutic process works.