Unfortunately, many live day-to-day in a near state of panic, dreading almost everything about their life, waking up every morning with the sense that something terrible is about to happen, or that everything they have to do or want to do will go badly.

The constant feeling of dread is a symptom of an anxiety disorder and can often go unrecognised.

This lack of awareness of a problem can happen because these feelings have either slowly become more frequent and intense or they have always been present so they seem normal.

What people don’t see in these individuals is that they are constantly worried about, well, everything.

Dealing with anxiety can be a constant fight to get past a suffocating feeling of dread. You may worry about things that haven’t happened, aren’t likely to happen, or are flat out impossible. Living in fear even though there’s nothing to be afraid of is the norm. I recently worked with a lady who now lives on her own. Daytime events and life was fine, however she had an uncontrollable worry of feeling safe since losing her husband and had had developed an urge of checking all locks were secure and taps were turned off. Checking everything again and again until she was able to stay in bed and sleep.

These feelings of worry and dread can also have dire consequences on your physical health and relationships. Physical responses in the form of panic attacks, high blood pressure, and nausea or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), are all common. And unfortunately this can begin a cycle of worsening problems with the physical symptoms that result from the anxiety causing additional anxiety over health concerns, and even worry about death.