Anxiety and panic
Anxiety is a normal response that has become too easily triggered. That is worth knowing early, because it means the problem is not that something is wrong with you — it is that a useful system has learned to fire at the wrong times.
These pages describe the main kinds of anxiety, how to tell which one fits, and what actually helps. If you are not sure where you are, the questions further down will point you to the right page.
Or work through it question by question
Work down the questions until one fits. This is a way of putting a name to what you are experiencing and finding the right page — it is not a diagnosis, and only a doctor can give you one. OCD and PTSD are included here because people looking for help with anxiety often live with them, though clinicians have classed them separately since 2013.
Do you have spontaneous anxiety attacks that occur without warning?
If yes Have you had an attack in the last month, feared you would have another, and had at least three panic symptoms?
No go to question 2
Do you avoid certain situations so you don't trigger an attack?
- Yes Agoraphobia
No go to question 3
Do you mainly avoid situations because you fear embarrassment, or other people's opinion?
- Yes Social phobia
No go to question 4
Do you fear just one thing, or a few things very specifically?
If yes Do you have anxiety only with those things?
No go to question 5
Do you perform rituals such as washing, checking or counting?
If yes Do you also have intrusive thoughts that feel out of your control — harming someone close to you, disasters happening, or contamination?
No go to question 6
Do you worry excessively, without any specific attacks or phobias?
If yes Do you have three or more of: restlessness, fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, physical tension, sleep problems?
No go to question 7
Did the anxiety begin after a traumatic incident?
Fig. 1Which kind of anxiety is it? A decision tree
After the original Hypnosis & Health diagram, 2006 — rebuilt with two clinical corrections.
Read this figure as text
The tree walks seven questions in order. 1. Spontaneous attacks without warning? If yes and you have had an attack in the last month, feared another, and had three or more panic symptoms — panic disorder; if not — limited symptom attacks. 2. Avoiding situations to prevent an attack — agoraphobia. 3. Avoiding them for fear of embarrassment — social phobia. 4. Fearing one or a few specific things, with anxiety only around those — specific phobia; otherwise panic disorder. 5. Performing rituals such as washing, checking or counting — obsessive compulsive disorder, with obsessions and compulsions if intrusive thoughts are present, compulsions alone if not.6. Worrying excessively without specific attacks, with three or more of restlessness, fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, physical tension or sleep problems — generalised anxiety disorder; otherwise limited symptom anxiety. 7. Anxiety beginning after a traumatic incident — post traumatic stress disorder.
This is a way of finding the right page, not a diagnosis.
In this section
- Anxiety explainedThe overview: what anxiety is and how it is treated6 min read
- Panic disorderAttacks that arrive without warning, and what stops them2 min read
- Limited symptom attacksFewer symptoms than a full attack, and still exhausting1 min read
- AgoraphobiaWhen avoiding places becomes the problem2 min read
- Social phobiaFear of embarrassment, and how it loosens2 min read
- Specific phobiaOne fear, very specifically1 min read
- Generalised anxiety disorderConstant worry with nothing specific to pin it to2 min read
- Obsessive compulsive disorderIntrusive thoughts, rituals, and the loop between them2 min read
- Post traumatic stress disorderWhen anxiety starts with one event2 min read
- Relaxation and breathingThe techniques that settle the body first6 min read
- Distraction therapyBreaking the attention loop that feeds an attack2 min read
- Exposure therapyMeeting the fear in measured steps3 min read
- Anxiety: a case studyOne client's course of treatment, start to finish3 min read