Anxiety is a prevalent mental health condition characterized by feelings of worry, nervousness, or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one's daily activities, affecting approximately 284 million people worldwide and representing one of the most common mental health challenges of our time. Unlike ordinary stress or worry that most people experience occasionally, clinical anxiety persists over time, often intensifying rather than resolving, and can significantly impair functioning across multiple domains of life including work, relationships, and physical health. The experience of anxiety varies considerably between individuals—some may feel a constant low-level hum of worry that never quite subsides, while others experience intense episodes of acute anxiety that arrive suddenly and feel overwhelming, and still others cycle between periods of relative calm and periods of heightened distress.

Common symptoms of anxiety include restlessness and an inability to sit still or relax, increased heart rate and palpitations that may feel like the heart is racing or pounding, rapid breathing or shortness of breath that can sometimes escalate to hyperventilation, excessive sweating even in comfortable temperatures, trembling or shaking that may be visible or felt internally, and profound fatigue that seems disproportionate to actual physical exertion. The physical symptoms of anxiety are not imaginary or exaggerated—they represent real physiological changes as the body's stress r...