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When the worry won’t switch off

For people in the United States living with anxiety that doesn’t go away, or wondering whether it is an anxiety disorder, and for the people who love them. Who answers, at any hour. What anxiety disorders are, and how to tell stress from anxiety. The types: constant worry, fear of being judged, phobias. Panic attacks, and when they become panic disorder. Seeing a doctor. Treatment that works, and the medicines. Children and teenagers. Finding help, even when the phone call is the hard part. Day to day. What families can do. And the words to say when you call. No quiz and no score. One thing at a time.

This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The facts come from pages read on October 1, 2026: the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (its Anxiety Disorders topic page, reviewed December 2024; its brochures Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder: What You Need to Know, each revised 2025; its fact sheet I’m So Stressed Out!; and the antidepressant, anti-anxiety and safety sections of its Mental Health Medications page, reviewed December 2023); MedlinePlus, from the U.S. National Library of Medicine (Anxiety, last updated October 2023, and Phobias, last updated December 2025); and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (its online support communities page). The Institute’s Help for Mental Illnesses and Tips for Talking With a Health Care Provider pages, Crisis Text Line, FindTreatment.gov and the NAMI HelpLine page were read the same day for our other pages. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America, NAMI and Crisis Text Line are private organisations describing their own services. We did not call or text any line, contact any provider, search any directory or join any group. We did not read the Institute’s pages on phobias, psychotherapies, child and adolescent mental health, statistics or clinical trials, the Food and Drug Administration’s pages on any medicine, any medicine’s label, anything about these medicines in pregnancy, anything on herbs or supplements for anxiety, the research behind any treatment, or what insurance covers; where the page links to one of these, it says we did not read it. Obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder are not covered here. The page has no questionnaire and gives no score, on purpose: a list of symptoms is not a diagnosis. Lines marked “Ours” are our own suggestions. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a treatment provider or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].