Anxiety: an alarm that stays on

Is anxiety a defect to get rid of? Think again: almost always it's an alarm that protects you.

It's your threat alarm: it readies the body to act. Like a smoke detector, it sometimes trips on burnt toast.

It becomes a disorder only past a threshold: when it's out of proportion, won't switch off, and gets in the way.

The key: avoiding what makes you anxious calms you now, but it rewards avoiding. So the anxiety is confirmed and grows.

So this is for understanding, not self-treatment. If it crossed the threshold, asking for help is the step, not facing it alone.

A normal, useful alarm; a threshold turns it into a disorder; avoidance feeds it. And if it stays, seek help.