Michael John Theron

Understanding Anxiety

Anxiety can involve worry, fear, apprehension, physical tension, heightened alertness, or a sense that something may go wrong. It can arise in response to particular situations or become more generalised across different areas of life.

People experience anxiety in different ways. For some, it may centre on work, study, relationships, health, social situations, performance, or uncertainty. Others may experience panic attacks, particular fears or phobias, or a more persistent background sense of worry or unease.

Anxiety can also become self-reinforcing. Avoiding situations, repeatedly seeking reassurance, over-preparing, checking, or trying to eliminate uncertainty may offer short-term relief while sometimes making anxiety harder to manage over time.

The goal is therefore not necessarily to eliminate anxiety altogether. Anxiety can sometimes serve an important signalling function, drawing attention to genuine uncertainty, conflict, pressure, risk, unmet needs, or circumstances that may require practical attention or change. At other times, anxiety may become disproportionate to the situation, persist after a threat has passed, or begin to reinforce patterns of avoidance and restriction.

Therapy can help distinguish between these different possibilities: understanding what anxiety may be communicating, identifying practical concerns that can be addressed, and developing a more flexible relationship with difficult thoughts, feelings, sensations, and situations where anxiety itself has become limiting.

Common Signs & Experiences

Anxiety may affect thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behaviour. Experiences vary, but may include:

• persistent or difficult-to-control worry;

• feeling tense, restless, on edge, or unable to switch off;

• anticipating negative outcomes or repeatedly thinking through possible problems;

• difficulty concentrating or making decisions;

• increased irritability or feeling easily overwhelmed;

• difficulty sleeping or settling physically and mentally;

• physical symptoms such as a racing heart, trembling, sweating, nausea, dizziness, or muscle tension;

• avoiding situations, activities, conversations, or decisions that trigger anxiety;

• repeatedly seeking reassurance, checking, or over-preparing;

• panic, intense fear, or a sense of losing control.

Anxiety can occur on its own or alongside concerns such as depression, chronic stress, burnout, trauma-related difficulties, physical health conditions, addiction, or neurodivergence.

When Support May Help

Psychological support may be useful when anxiety feels persistent, increasingly difficult to manage, or begins to interfere with everyday functioning, relationships, sleep, work, study, decision-making, or activities that matter to you.

Support may also be helpful when anxiety is leading to increasing avoidance, when considerable time and energy are being spent trying to prevent feared outcomes, or when familiar coping strategies no longer seem effective.

You do not need to wait until anxiety becomes severe or reaches a crisis point. Therapy may also be useful when you simply recognise that worry, fear, or avoidance is taking up more space in your life than you would like.

How Therapy May Help

Therapy for anxiety is adapted to the individual, their circumstances, and the particular patterns involved.

Depending on your needs, therapy may help you to:

• understand triggers, patterns, and situations associated with anxiety;

• recognise how thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behaviours interact;

• identify patterns of avoidance, reassurance-seeking, checking, or over-control where relevant;

• develop more effective strategies for managing worry, distress, and physiological arousal;

• gradually approach situations that anxiety may have made increasingly difficult or restrictive;

• develop greater flexibility in responding to uncertainty and difficult internal experiences;

• address related concerns such as low mood, chronic stress, sleep disruption, or relationship difficulties;

• reconnect with activities, relationships, responsibilities, and goals that anxiety may have begun to limit.

Therapy can also help distinguish between situations where anxiety itself may be driving restriction and situations where a person is responding to genuine pressures, uncertainty, or difficult circumstances that may require practical problem-solving or change.

The aim is not to remove every experience of worry or fear. Rather, psychological support can help anxiety become more understandable, manageable, and proportionate, while allowing greater freedom to engage with everyday life.

Related MJT Services & Resources

Support for anxiety may form part of MJT’s Core Services, depending on the individual’s needs and circumstances.

Explore Core Services

Relevant Expanded Services may include assessment, psycho-education, professional wellness, and other services where anxiety intersects with broader clinical or practical needs.

Explore Expanded Services