Anxiety means difficulty shutting off your brain when you are worrying about something. It can come in the form of thoughts (i.e. worrying about something in your life), physical symptoms (i.e. feeling uncomfortable or being distracted by your body), or both. It is often “free-floating” in the sense that it feels like your brain is looking for something to worry about. It is tenacious in that your mind keeps returning to your worries despite your best efforts to stop them.
When anxiety interferes with your ability to function (for example, by disrupting your sleep, energy, or concentration) it can be classified as an anxiety disorder according to the DSM-V or the ICD-10 (the manuals psychologists and psychiatrists use to classify psychological issues).
The most common anxiety disorders are: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Social Anxiety Disorder (including Performance Anxiety). The techniques found on this website work well for all of these anxiety disorders. A detailed description of each can be found below.