After completing this article, readers should be able to:
Anxiety is a physiologic response necessary for all human beings to survive. It helps protect individuals in dangerous situations and prepares them for challenges. Fears are the emotional response to a given stimuli or situation that is identified as threatening or scary. Fears are a normal part of development throughout childhood and adolescence, and they change throughout the life course (Table 1). Worries are the cognitive or thinking manifestations of fear and anxiety.
Anxiety disorders are diagnosed when fears, worries, or anxiety occur outside the range of normal developmental responses or are extreme and cause significant distress or impairment in functioning (school, home, social settings). In anxiety disorders, the fear response is no longer adaptive and is either out of proportion to a stressor or occurs when there is no threat. Due to the physiologic mechanisms activated with the...
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