Narrative Clinical Review. This page provides the verified citation, abstract, and full-text PDF for the journal article.
Clinical boundary: This review cannot diagnose an anxiety disorder or determine treatment for an individual. Assessment should consider realistic danger, medical and substance contributors, comorbidity, impairment, and risk.
Publication Details
- Author: Christian Jonathan Haverkampf
- Journal: The Journal of Psychiatry Psychotherapy and Communication
- Publication date: 2022-12-31
- Volume, issue, pages: 11(4), 91–100
- Article type: Narrative Clinical Review
Recommended citation: Haverkampf, C. J. (2022). What Is Anxiety? A Clinical and Communication-Oriented Review. The Journal of Psychiatry Psychotherapy and Communication, 11(4), 91–100.
Abstract
Anxiety is an adaptive response to possible threat, but it becomes clinically important when it is persistent, disproportionate, inflexible, distressing, or impairing. This narrative clinical review integrates diagnostic guidance, cognitive-behavioral evidence, affective neuroscience, and a communication-oriented formulation. Anxiety is best understood as a coordinated multilevel process involving anticipation, attention, interpretation, bodily arousal, action tendencies, avoidance, and interpersonal signaling rather than as a single feeling or brain circuit. Assessment should distinguish ordinary alarm from an anxiety disorder and examine time course, triggers, function, medical and substance contributors, comorbidity, realistic danger, and the consequences of coping responses. Avoidance, checking, and reassurance often bring short-term relief while restricting corrective learning and valued activity. Treatment should follow the diagnosis, evidence, risk, and patient preference. Psychoeducation, exposure-based cognitive-behavioral methods, selected medication, and attention to sleep, substances, relationships, and social conditions may all have a role. A communication-focused perspective can supplement established care by clarifying which internal or interpersonal signals are difficult to recognize, express, test, or revise. Clinicians should communicate diagnostic uncertainty plainly and formulate care collaboratively. The therapeutic aim is not to eliminate all alarm, but to help the patient respond more flexibly, protect against genuine danger, and return to meaningful action.
Keywords
anxiety; fear; threat; uncertainty; avoidance; communication; psychotherapy; assessment
Full Text
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This journal article is educational and research-oriented. It is not a personal diagnosis, treatment plan, medication instruction, crisis service, or substitute for assessment by a suitably qualified clinician who knows the person’s circumstances.
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Website copy first made available on 26 August 2026. The journal citation retains the article’s issue date.