Everybody feels some form of anxiety or fear at various different stages of their lives. This only becomes a problem is that anxiety interferes with your day to day activities and performance levels. It is most important to be aware of levels of anxiety and the effect that it has on your ability to go about your daily life as normal. Anxiety, if not dealt with can lead problems like drug and alcohol abuse.

Anxiety can affect both your mental and physical health.

Some ways that anxiety might affect the way you think (mental health) include:

• Irritability
• A constant feeling that something bad is about to happen.
• Uncomfortable with change of routine.
• A need for constant reassurance.
• Being pessimistic and easily able to identify what may go wrong in any given situation.

Some ways anxiety might affect the way you behave (physical health) include:

• Dry mouth and/or difficulty swallowing
• Night terrors
• Difficulty concentrating
• Difficulty getting to and staying asleep
• Muscle tension and headaches
• Rapid heart rate and breathing
• Loss of libido
• Sudden resurface of another health problem or illness