Anxiety is one of the most common emotional states. For example, if you are about to take an exam, you will be nervous and worried if you feel that you have not revised well. At this point, it’s common to catch up on revision for the exam and actively do what you can to reduce your anxiety. This anxiety is a protective response, also known as physiological anxiety. When the severity of the anxiety is clearly inconsistent with the objective event or situation, or when it lasts too long, it becomes pathological anxiety, called anxiety symptoms, and is diagnosed as an anxiety disorder (also called anxiety disorder) if the relevant diagnostic criteria are met. There are many types of anxiety disorders, and according to the clinical manifestations of patients, anxiety is often classified as: (1) Generalized anxiety: In the absence of obvious triggers, patients often appear to be excessively worried and nervous and afraid, but the nervousness and fear often have no clear object or content. In addition, patients are often accompanied by physical symptoms such as dizziness, chest tightness, panic, shortness of breath, dry mouth, frequent urination, urgent urination, sweating, tremor, etc. This anxiety usually lasts for several months. (2) Acute anxiety attack (also known as panic attack): In a normal daily life environment, when there is no fearful situation, the patient suddenly develops extreme fearful tension, accompanied by a sense of near death or loss of control, along with obvious symptoms of the vegetative nervous system, such as chest tightness, panic, dyspnea, sweating, and general shaking, which usually lasts from a few minutes to several hours. The seizure starts suddenly, reaches its peak rapidly, and the consciousness is clear during the seizure. Note! The appearance of this type of anxiety is episodic and unpredictable. Because the clinical presentation of an acute anxiety attack is so similar to that of a coronary attack, patients often call the “120” emergency number to see a cardiology emergency room. Although patients seem to have severe symptoms, most of the relevant test results are normal, so the diagnosis is often unclear, making the misdiagnosis rate of acute anxiety attacks high, which not only delays treatment but also causes a waste of medical resources. (3) phobias (including social terror, place terror, and specific terror): the core manifestation of phobias is the same as acute anxiety attacks, both of which are panic attacks. The difference is that the anxiety attacks of phobias are caused by certain specific places or situations, and patients do not cause anxiety when they are not in these specific places or situations. For example, fear of social situations or interpersonal interactions, or fear of specific environments: airplanes, plazas, crowded places. The onset of anxiety in phobias is often predictable, and patients tend to adopt avoidance behaviors to avoid anxiety attacks. One patient is afraid of riding the subway or bus. As long as she takes the above-mentioned means of transportation, she has anxiety attacks and is extremely distressed. To avoid anxiety attacks, she takes a cab to and from work, because she is fine when she takes a cab. There is another classification that you can understand: the American diagnostic criteria for mental disorders, anxiety disorders include: generalized anxiety, acute anxiety attacks, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Because these disorders have one thing in common, and that is the prominence of anxiety symptoms.