When you feel anxious, you tend to question every mood.
Maybe something bad will happen. Maybe you'll miss something important.
Your muscles tighten up like some catastrophe is about to happen. You have no energy to do things, but seemingly boundless energy to feel panic, dread, negative anticipation about the future, and the sense that your world as you previously knew it has changed.
With anxiety disorders, you're dealing with more than the stresses and strains of everyday life. You are dealing with intense bodily discomofort in the form of muscle tension, uncomfortable body temperature, intestinal and gastric distress, rapid or laboured breathing, dryness of mouth, and hyperactivity of your body.
And all of these difficult symptoms may or may not relate to anything "real" going on in the here and now of your life. But the anxiety is very real and very painful, and it can last for a long time.
There are a range of anxiety disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), some of which are described in the panels, below.