Introduction

‘Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear’

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910).

Some people in the helping professions call anxiety a ‘mild’ or a ‘minor’ disorder. However, for those people who have experienced the suffering caused by anxiety, this probably feels far from accurate!

We’re all familiar with anxiety - it can help us 'focus' and provide us with the 'get up and go' to get things done. It’s normal to feel anxious sometimes, for example, before an interview for a new job or an exam. 'Normal anxiety' only becomes a problem when it becomes so intense that it stops us from coping with day-to-day things.

It’s impossible to get rid of anxiety completely - we’re always going to come across things that make us a little anxious from time to time. What’s important is that we learn to manage our anxiety so that it doesn't take over our lives and make them miserable. To do this, we need an understanding of what anxiety is - how it affects us - and how we can better manage our anxiety.