ABSTRACT
An inventory of human emotions would logically begin with anxiety, which can be counted as the primordial mood because this emotion is intrinsic to life itself. Pervasive anxiety, which includes the DSM-5's generalized anxiety disorder and social phobia, is a condition probably best described as chronic anxiety that pervades everything a person feels, thinks and does. When anxiety occurs after the withdrawal of a significant other, the clinician must determine if separation anxiety alone can account for this abnormal mood, or whether more complex psychic pathology is involved. When anxiety is focused on a particular object or situation it is said to become a fear of that object or situation. A panic attack is the body's biological response to a strong anxiety reaction. Just as panic reaction is a significant step up in psychobiological perturbation from pervasive anxiety reaction, post-traumatic stress reaction stands a level higher than panic.
