What is an anxiety disorder?

There are many variations of these patterns, and these are generally diagnosed as some kind of ‘anxiety disorder’.  Doctors use definitions for different kinds of anxiety disorders, such as generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and so on.  Personally I do not like the term ‘anxiety disorder’ since it implies the person has worried themselves sick, and that the disorder is entirely mental in origin, ignoring physical factors.  While this may be the case for some, there are other causes and for those people the diagnosis of ‘anxiety disorder’ is confusing and makes no sense to them.  I prefer Claire Weekes’s term ‘sensitised nervous system’, or even ‘sympathetic dominance’, a term that is sometimes used to describe the imbalance of the autonomic nervous system.  I believe that so-called ‘anxiety disorders’ are nervous system disorders rather than psychological or psychiatric disorders.  Of course, there is usually a psychological component, which can work to lock us into a self-perpetuating anxiety cycle.  I believe that when addressing these disorders, it is important to include both mental and physical approaches.  We need to find ways to break the anxiety cycle, and to restore the right autonomic balance.