The anxiety in a certain sense is very similar to the fear, and in fact, shares a series of common characteristics with other emotions, like for example the annoyance. The emotions arise at a certain time, are a reaction before a specific situation, last in the time and they are accompanied by physiological answers. The then anxiety is an emotional reaction that arises before the alarm situations, or ambiguous situations, or of uncertain result, it prepares and us to act before them. To this we felt it reaction generally like a disagreeable experience with which we put ourselves alerts against the possibility of a negative result for our interests. When we anticipated that something can be negative or to leave badly, we began to worry and to put to us nervous. Simultaneously we are activating a series of personal and physiological resources prepare that us to confront this situation.
Nevertheless, sometimes, false alarms arise. We activated without knowing the cause very well. Sometimes the anxiety arises simply because it worries to us that others realize our state of nervousness, or because the things worry to us that we thought or we felt when we are nervous (normally, the possibility of losing the control), or because we give too much importance him to some physiological answers (tachycardia, increase in the respiratory frequency, perspiration) that shoot the anxiety. When we are nervous we have more negative thoughts, than although they are a manifestation of anxiety, they generate more anxiety as well. For that reason one says that the anxiety is of circular character: when we reviewed our preoccupations, we activated more; if it worries to us to have anxiety, this will increase.
The associative learning (to associate stimuli with a situation) plays a very important role in the anxiety pictures. We can see us faced a situation that is not dangerous nor threatening, nevertheless, generates anxiety to us. We can even remember as in the past we could face it without fear or not even we even paid attention to him. In this case it is probable that we pruned to remember that a first moment had to exist at which the anxiety appeared in happiness situation and thence that situation was associated to negative states (anxiety). The fear to the anxiety reaction takes to some people to avoid the situations before which this reaction has arisen before, which avoids that the anxiety arises, nevertheless, this avoidance causes that it increases to the fear and the insecurity towards the same, so that when we did not prune to avoid them, stronger reactions of anxiety will arise. Thus they are gotten to develop the phobias. If we want to reduce the anxiety before certain situation, it is necessary to expose itself little by little to her (subsequent approaches), controlling every time a little plus the advance although the nervousness he is present and encouraging us by each small success.