Anxiety disorders are very common in the community.
Anxiety disorders tend to be chronic and may become quite disabling. Fortunately, they are among the most successfully treated emotional disorders in medical practice. Panic attacks can occur out of the blue for no apparent reason and usually last for just a few minutes. They are described as a sudden onset of intense apprehension, fearfulness or terror, often with feelings of impending doom. A common effect of recurring panic attacks is that the person begins to avoid the situations they associate with past attacks.