If you feel anxious now and then, that's perfectly normal. In fact, worrying can spur you to take positive action that may benefit your health, such as getting screening tests or doing regular exercise. But excessive worrying can have the opposite effect.
"Small amounts of anxiety and stress can push people to be more productive. The problem happens when anxiety becomes so overwhelming that you're unable to function normally," says Dr. Christopher Celano, a psychiatrist at the Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. That level of worry and stress may represent an anxiety disorder, a group of conditions that affect some 40 million adults in this country.
One common form, generalized anxiety disorder, is characterized by at least six months of excessive worrying or feeling anxious about several unrelated events or activities almost every day (see "Do you have generalized anxiety disorder?"). About 5% of adults in the general population meet the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder. But the incidence is higher among people diagnosed with coronary artery disease (11%) or with heart failure (13%).
Less common but perhaps even more distressing is panic disorder, which is marked by bouts of intense anxiety, known as panic attacks. They may even cause chest pain or palpitations that are so severe you think you're having a heart attack (see "When anxiety symptoms masquerade as a heart attack").
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