ABSTRACT
Anxiety and stress are very individual responses, linked to how that person experiences, feels and responds to that situation. Anxiety or panic attacks are incidents of extreme or intense panic or fear. Generalised Anxiety Disorder is where the symptoms of anxiety are present all the time and are not linked to any specific situation. Panic disorder is where repeated panic attacks occur without any predictability and have little or no apparent triggers. The attacks are severe and have psychological and physical symptoms. Phobias are where the fear of a situation or event is exaggerated and can be illogical. Many people have minor obsessional behaviours but obsessive-compulsive disorder is a rare disorder. Separation anxieties are normal in young children, where it peaks between 9 and 18 months. Children with pathological demand avoidance use this behaviour as a defence strategy in response to the anxieties they feel concerning the demands that they fear will be placed upon them.
