There are a number of forms of anxiety, including worry,
obsessions and compulsions, post traumatic stress, phobias,
and panic disorders.  Anxiety is one of the most torturous
experiences of humankind.  Anxiety is basically the
experience of fear, as one would have if a mountain lion
jumped out of the woods in pursuit, but without the
mountain lion. 

Everyone experiences anxiety, but people
who live with it day in and day out have to work much
harder than everyone else to live life.  People who live
with anxiety may have trouble sleeping, may feel irritable
and lash out at family and friends, may be preoccupied
with intrusive thoughts or images of a past or future horror.
People with phobias may work hard to set up their lives
so that whatever scares them can be avoided.  People
who have panic attacks may fear having a panic attack so
much that they limit their lives to minimize the likelihood.
Panic attacks involve not only the sensation of panic, but
heart palpitations, trouble breathing, sweating, feeling hot,
and clammy and exhaustion afterward.  Anxiety and
depression break up an enormous number of relationships,
because the symptoms are not just hard for the person who
experiences them, but for those around them.

Most people with anxiety find at least some relief when they
learn techniques they can use with themselves, such as
relaxation breathing and imaging, reducing or eliminating
stimulants from their diet, regular aerobic exercise, meditation,
regular healthy meals, strength training, learning to reduce
anxiety as it is building, rather than waiting until it is very
strong, and so forth.

Most anxious people also benefit from psychotherapy, because
when people avoid feeling or expressing feelings, there is a
transformation of those feelings in the body and one of the
possible outcomes is anxiety (or depression, or physical
pain/illness).  When the feelings are encouraged in therapy,
the anxiety is transformed back into the feelings, and released.

Part of therapy may involve changing anxious patterns of
thoughts.  Anxious people generate more anxiety by thinking
about all the terrible things that could happen.  This kind of
thinking would make anyone anxious, and anxious people are
masters at it.

Sometimes medication is needed, at least temporarily, or
intermittenly to treat anxiety, while other methods are being
integrated.  A few people have chemical imbalances that
require life-long management with any or all these treatments.
There is lots of help for anxiety; the unfortunate part is that
anxious people have to fight the fear of seeking help in order
to get it.