Anxiety

Anxiety is a generalized mood condition that can often occur without an identifiable triggering stimulus. As such, it is distinguished from fear, which is an emotional response to a perceived threat. Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is related to situations perceived as uncontrollable or unavoidable. An alternative view defines anxiety as "a future-oriented mood state in which one is ready or prepared to attempt to cope with upcoming negative events", suggesting that it is a distinction between future vs. present dangers which divides anxiety and fear. A 2011 review of the literature, fear and anxiety were differentiated by four domains: motivated direction, temporal focus, specificity of threat, and duration of emotional experience. According to these scientists, fear is defined as facilitating escape from threat, present-focused, geared towards a specific threat, and short-lived. Anxiety, on the other hand, is defined as protecting an animal while approaching a potential threat, is future-focused, broadly focused on a diffuse threat, and long-acting.