Severe anxiety is a condition where the sufferer continually experiences severe, uncontrollable worrying over things that most people would take in their stride.
 All of us experience anxiety off and on, it's normal, but in someone with severe anxiety their anxieties are way excessive to the situation, and very often irrational.
Sufferers of severe anxiety worry about the usual things like their job, money, finances, relationships, health, school, etc.
, but their levels of anxiety are far higher than the situation would otherwise merit.
 Over time, it starts to affect their job, relationships, health, and, they find it difficult to function normally.
  Some of the symptoms of severe anxiety are sleeping problems, restlessness, poor concentration, fatigue, tension in muscles, irritability, dizziness, lightheadedness, aching muscles, constipation, diarrhea, inability to relax, nausea, palpitations, sweating and stomach upsets.
Mainstream medical treatment normally consists of drug-based medicines.
The most popular today seem to be anti-depressants and minor tranquilizers (anti-anxiety).
These work by either, managing mood swings (anti-depressants), or, calming and reducing tension (minor tranquilizers).
Then there are beta-blockers which are prescribed for the physical symptoms of anxiety only.
But there's a belief that these only treat the symptoms of anxiety, and not the underlying cause.
They have many unpleasant side effects too.
For these reasons more and more people are turning to more natural treatments.
Other treatments available, which don't use drugs, are things like; talking therapies (psychotherapy, counselling, hypnotherapy, group therapy, etc.
), acupuncture, meditation, self-hypnosis, yoga, and other self-help therapies.
 These can be effective, and good for helping you manage your disorder, but, once again, it's very hard to get to the root cause of anxiety.
The cause of severe anxiety is very difficult to pinpoint.
No one really knows for sure, but there are several theories as to why some people suffer from the disorder and others don't; for example, personality traits, family genetics, learned behaviour, childhood experiences, and brain chemistry problems.
  But, people with severe anxiety are more susceptible to panic attacks.
And their symptoms are so terrifying for the sufferer -- many mistake the symptoms for a heart attack or stroke -- that they are are always anxious to avoid another attack.
In a person with severe anxiety, this only adds to the totality of excessive worrying and fear.
So that this fear of another attack may actually cause a panic attack.
And then the fear of another intensifies, and so the vicious cycle goes on.