Anxiety symptoms can range from the inconvenient to the frightening and terrifying. But, however severe they are, they can be changed. Since 1993 I have helped hundreds of anxiety sufferers transform their lives.

These are some of the most usual symptoms of anxiety

Physical

Restless, can't sit still, arms & legs moving, fidgeting

Fast breathing, can't take in enough breath, dry mouth, sweating

Tightness across chest, awareness of heart beating, pounding heart, racing pulse, tingling in fingers & toes, pins & needles

Stomach pain, butterflies, diarrhoea, irritable bowel syndrome, increased need to urinate, nausea, retching, throwing up

Mind freezing, clamming up, feeling of unreality, disconnected from the world

All these symptoms can be of varying degree ranging from the mildly noticeable to the downright terrfying.

Behavioural

Biting fingernails, pulling hair, twirling hair, tugging ears, stroking face, tapping fingers or feet, swinging legs, clearing throat,

Coughing, putting fingers/pencils in mouth, sucking thumb, chewing objects, grinding teeth both when awake or asleep,

Scratching where you don't itch, rubbing hands together, body rocking, twisting neck

No-one has yet been found who doesn't have a couple of these habits, for example it's reckoned that 70% of people play with

their hair. Most of us will have 7 or so of these habits although not all together and they will come and go over time, but they

can become excessive, fixed and interfere with life

Emotional

Withdrawing from the world, avoiding places, people, situations and objects where we feel anxious

Increasing feeling the anxiety is getting worse, affects more things and that our lives are becoming more and more restricted

Flashbacks or fearful images

Fearful thoughts "I'm going mad", "it's only me that feels likes this", "I'm seriously ill"

Excessive use of coping strategies such as smoking, drinking, eating, drugs

Developing obsessive thoughts and compulsive habits or rituals

You are not mad and you are not alone. At some time in their lives 1 in 4 adults will suffer from serious anxiety and

everyone has anxiety about something that stops them doing or enjoying things fully in their lives. But because no-one talks

about it, we never realise just how common it is and how much it affects people or how quickly it can be resolved.