Due to its highly subjective nature, it is difficult to define anxiety; therefore terminology for describing anxiety and anxiety-related symptoms can be inconsistent. Anxiety may be referred to as apprehension, tension, nervousness, fear, stress, worry, general misgiving, and a plethora of other terms denoting an unpleasant feeling or state.
Anxiety exists in many different states, and therefore can at times be beneficial, or even normal. Anxiety may be considered normal when transient, or possessing adaptive properties, when signaling danger for example. Anxiety is a normal response to stressful situations and may be beneficial by providing motivation towards constructive, problem-solving, coping activities. Anxiety-related feelings may occur when a person perceives a threat to their economic, social, physical, or emotional well-being. Anxiety may occur in regards to everyday events associated with work, social activities and home. Other anxious feelings may occur in response to recent unemployment, divorce, acute illness and death.
Due to the high manifestation of physical symptoms in response to anxiety, especially panic attacks, individuals with anxiety disorders often consult a variety of medical specialists prior to a mental health specialist. In some instances, even after extensive and possibly invasive medical evaluations, which uncover no underlying somatic conditions, individuals still require reassurance that they indeed are not suffering from heart attacks, strokes, or other fatal medical conditions.
The treatment of anxiety disorders and symptoms through the use of pharmaceuticals is extremely difficult and may even be counterintuitive as in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other reactive conditions. Furthermore, the potential for food and drug interaction, great amount of side-effects and addictiveness of many anxiolytics complicate pharmacological interventions.
Behavioral treatments such as neurofeedback training and progressive relaxation training target and reinforce the brain's own self-regulatory mechanism. Neurofeedback training promotes stabilization of the Central Nervous System, regardless of whether adjustment towards compensation of under arousal or over arousal is required, by directly addressing neurophysiological balance. Similar principles can be applied to the treatment of panic attacks, considered to be paroxysmal brain activity, in which inappropriate arousal states are subjectively perceived as a panic reaction.
Through the neurofeedback training, stabilization of the brain against departure from a homeostatic state of activation can easily be achieved in approximately twenty to forty sessions, depending on the severity of anxiety experienced. In addition to reduced anxiety levels and dissipation of panic attacks, patients also report the acquisition of additional benefits from neurofeedback training, such as stabilization and improvement in sleep patterns, emotional stability and endurance, general somatic stabilization, and an increased sense of control and existential comfort.