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Normal anxiety can be healthy, but severe anxiety can rule your life if not properly treated. This is a feeling of worry and tension in reaction to a perceived threat. It is health because it is what keeps us from running out into traffic or driving dangerously in a rainstorm. But an anxiety disorder exists when someone is so consumed with fear and worry that his normal every day activities are disturbed. If you have some or many of the following physical symptoms, it is most likely that you are experiencing severe anxiety or panic attacks.

-A sensation of adrenaline going through your entire body

-Sweating

-Shortness of breath

-Stomach problems

-Racing or pounding heartbeat or palpitations
-Chest pain

-Dizziness or vertigo

-Headache

-Lightheadedness

-Nausea / stomach pains

-Hyperventilation

-Choking or smothering sensations

-Hot or cold flashes

-Tingling or numbness in the hands, face, feet or mouth

-Feelings of “crawly,” “itchy,” or “tingly” skin sensations.

-Burning sensations

-Trembling or shaking

-Feeling of claustrophobia

-Feeling like the body is shutting down/dying

-Tremors in the legs/shaking legs/thighs

-Tingling spine

-Feeling like one is experiencing a heart attack
-Exhaustion

-Muscle spasms

-Feeling of physical weakness or limpness of the body

-Grinding teeth or tensing other muscles repeatedly or for prolonged periods of time
-Temporary blindness

-Sizzling/ringing in ears/head

So all of the above is the bad news. Here’s the good news:

Anxiety, no matter how bad and how terrifying, has never killed anyone, and it never will kill anyone.

It’s just another one of those unpleasant severe anxiety symptoms. But it can’t harm you, and that’s something you should remind yourself anytime you experience it.

It would be a great idea for you to come up with one or two little mantras that you can say to yourself, either in your head or out loud, at times when this fear of death strikes you.

Others ignore their severe anxiety symptoms until it becomes a really big problem. Because anxiety disorders are so prevalent most people don’t take notice. Most of us see stress as part of life even though it is one of the biggest causes of health problems. Excessive anxiety and stress can lead to depressive, anxiety and sleep disorders.

Breathing into a paper bag during a panic attack, or when you’re hyperventilating, helps to fight off these symptoms by correcting the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide. By breathing in your own carbon dioxide from inside the paper bag you remove the excess oxygen from your body.

Work on negative thinking and try to think more positive thoughts. If you put yourself down a lot; feel angry much of the time and usually never have a single positive thought in your head, you most likely won’t be able to manage stress very well. Don’t take yourself so seriously and laugh more. Laughter may release stress and make you feel better. Do things you enjoy more to make yourself relax.

Psychotherapy is very useful to cure anxiety and panic attacks which involves talking to a psychiatrist or trained mental health professional. Patients are trained to change the way they think and react to possible triggers of anxiety. Relaxation techniques, stress management and exposure to feared situations are some of the effective exercises in dealing with GAD.