ABSTRACT
A person with mental health problems may display some signs or symptoms of a mental illness, for example, anxiety or depression. The anxiety becomes clinical anxiety when it results in behavioral and cognitive changes, and when it occurs even without some eliciting event. An individual who, because of dealing with multiple stressors and even chronic stress, begins to feel that he or she must always be "on guard" is experiencing clinical manifestations of anxiety. Traditional treatment protocols for anxiety, while readily available and generally effective, often are expensive and time consuming, and relatively few individuals who need the help actually get it. Anxiety in pre/post studies of single bouts of exercise is primarily assessed with state anxiety measures, because the goal is to assess the currently experienced level of anxiety. Exercise can be successful in treating clinical manifestations of anxiety, such as panic disorder, phobias, and generalized anxiety disorder, although more research with clinically anxious populations is needed.
