WHEN I used to be requested to put in writing this text, my coronary heart began beating sooner, my palms began shaking and my ideas went into overdrive arising with what felt like lots of of objectively smart the reason why I couldn’t do it. I may let you know that as chief subeditor at New Scientist I don’t typically get an opportunity to put in writing. However the fact is I hardly ever write as a result of I’m very anxious about it. What if the individuals I contact don’t reply? What if I write one thing silly? What if I’m silly? What if, what if, what if.

Clearly, I selected to put in writing this text, partly as a result of I’m cussed and hate that these anxious emotions maintain me again from doing issues I’d take pleasure in, and partly as a result of I discover that doing the issues that make me anxious helps me overcome that feeling (see “5 scientific methods to assist scale back emotions of hysteria”). However my essential motivation was to reply questions which have been bothering me for years: what precisely is anxiousness and what’s occurring in my physique and mind to trigger this sense?

Answering that first query is tough, partly as a result of there is no such thing as a one technique to really feel anxious. “I’d say there’s as many forms of anxiousness as there are individuals on the earth,” says Oliver Robinson, head of the Nervousness Lab at College Faculty London.

We do know everybody experiences anxiousness – it helps prime us to be prepared in probably dangerous conditions. Think about strolling house alone in the dead of night, the place that feeling…