The situation of anxiety matters. If you’re feeling anxious in response to an obvious, genuinely alarming trigger – a big interview, speaking in public, going skydiving – that’s unlikely to be a sign of a disorder. It’s when your anxiety doesn’t seem to be in reaction to anything, or isn’t proportional to the size of the trigger, that it becomes a problem.

It’s also important to keep an eye on the intensity of your anxiety. Sweaty palms and a little worrying is fine, but when the symptoms of anxiety are overwhelming you, that can be a sign of a disorder – even if this is in response to a naturally anxiety-inducing situation.

“When we think about what is healthy and what is not, we use the concept of our ability to function,” notes Dr Tina Mistry. “That is different for everyone so it is very subjective.

“The way we define a ‘disorder’ is recurrent and persistent symptoms that impact the daily functioning of a person’s life. So what that might look like is a person reporting five or more of the following symptoms that are stopping the person from living their normal day-to-day life:

Feeling nervous, restless or tense
Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
Having an increased heart rate
Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
Sweating
Trembling
Feeling weak or tired
Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry.”

If anxiety is disrupting your life or holding you back, it’s well worth talking to a medical professional about treatment, whether that’s therapy or medication. That’s the case even if anxiety only pops up in certain situations or isn’t happening all the time. A little bit of anxiety about an interview isn’t a big deal, but if you’re so panicked by it that you end up cancelling, tanking the interview or feel unwell for the entire day despite the chat taking only 10 minutes, that’s not something you should just have to put up with.

When does ‘normal’ anxiety become an anxiety disorder?