Thought-wise, anxiety is characterized by negative thought chains. In the case of generalised anxiety, these may be thoughts such as: something terrible will happen, I will not be able to perform my normal life tasks, I will fail at work, I will fall ill with a serious illness, and many others. In the case of agoraphobia, accelerated thoughts like: I'm going to get sick in the department store, I'm going to faint and no one will help me. In the case of social phobia, the typical catastrophic scenarios involve the assumption that the attention of others will be critically focused on the anxious individual, who will then inevitably embarrass himself in front of others, look strange, blush, sweat or shake hands.

The basic emotion of anxiety is fear and apprehension, which may be accompanied by shame or feelings of sadness and hopelessness.

Every emotion manifests itself physiologically. If we are angry with someone, for example, we feel it very clearly physically. Anxiety is generally characterised by psychosomatic complaints such as palpitations, sweating, tightness in the throat, dry mouth, fainting, headaches.

In a state of anxiety, our behaviour ceases to be free and often becomes gradually and unconsciously pre-programmed. The most common type of anxious behaviour is avoidant behaviour. We avoid a stressful situation or object by excusing ourselves from a planned event, finding another mode of transportation, or asking a relative to handle something for us. Collateral behaviour is also very common. Typical examples are repeated health checks, repeatedly checking the condition of belongings, or repeatedly calling loved ones to see if they are okay. Anxious people may also develop dependent behaviour where they are only able to carry out certain routine activities (shopping, travelling) in the presence of a loved one.