How do generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and phobias differ?
Answer: Anxious feelings and behaviors are classified as an anxiety disorder only when they form a pattern of distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. People with generalized anxiety disorder feel persistently and uncontrollably tense and apprehensive, for no apparent reason. In the more extreme panic disorder, anxiety escalates into periodic episodes of intense dread. Those with a phobia may be irrationally afraid of a specific object, activity, or situation. Two other disorders (OCD and PTSD) involve anxiety but are classified separately from the anxiety disorders.
