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What anxiety is

Before the sport, the basics. Anxiety is not rare, it is not weakness, and it does not always announce itself.

We say a person is anxious when they are overcome by feelings of fear, dread and unease. The World Health Organization defines an anxiety disorder as fear and worry that is excessive and persistent enough to interfere with everyday life, usually with physical tension alongside it.

It is far more common than most people assume. In 2021 an estimated 359 million people worldwide, about 4.4% of the population, were living with an anxiety disorder, and only around a quarter of those who needed treatment received it. Symptoms often begin in childhood or adolescence.

It is entirely possible to be anxious without knowing it. Anxiety is not always experienced as fear; often it arrives disguised as irritability, exhaustion or a body that hurts for no clear reason.

Signs worth noticing

  • Getting irritated easily

  • Pain in the body with no obvious cause

  • Feeling tired all the time

  • Being unable to sleep at night

  • Difficulty concentrating

  • Shaking or trembling

  • Sweating

  • Being overcome by panic or fear

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​None of this is a diagnosis, and one bad week is not a disorder. What matters is how long it lasts and how much of your life it takes up.

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