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Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease that we will all experience at points in our life. It’s perfectly normal for anxiety to affect us when we have an impending exam, job interview, or money worries. But whereas stress is something that will wax and wane as the problems causing it come and go, anxiety can often persist whether or not the cause is clear. And some of us find it hard to keep these anxious feelings under control.

What causes anxiety?

Often anxiety doesn’t need a reason to rear its ugly head. But equally there might be an easily identifiable cause:

• Anxiety can be triggered by a significant life event like a difficult divorce or a medical diagnosis.

• A traumatic event can cause anxiety, and it is one of the main symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

• Anxiety can be the symptom of a phobia. Someone who suffers from claustrophobia, for example, will feel anxious if they find themselves in a confined space.

• Social anxiety - the fear of social interaction with others - is the most common anxiety disorder. For sufferers, it means being held back from enjoying or getting involved in situations like dinner parties, pub gatherings, or picnics.

Anxiety is actually something we’ve evolved to feel. As hunter gatherers, we relied on an innate alarm system to help protect us from predators and other dangers. At the sign of a threat we would experience a physical “fight or flight” response: a boost of adrenaline would make our brain hyper-alert; our heart rate would increase and we would hyperventilate to boost the amount of oxygen going to our limbs – so we were better equipped to fight or run away. A panic attack is simply this mechanism kicking in.

But, as consultant psychiatrist Dr Andrés Fonseca explains, in the modern world “there’s no tiger in the bush”. The threshold for a perceived threat and the anxiety that follows has got lower, but our response has remained the same. And because we no longer need it (unless we’re going to flee or fight), that bodily response has no release – and it can feel awful.

An exam is a high-pressure scenario – one that could affect your whole future – and understandably anxiety-inducing. But Michael Scullin – Director of the Sleep, Neuroscience and Cognition Lab at Baylor University – has a simple trick for alleviating exam stress.

In a recent study, researchers went into a biology class where the students were about to sit a high-stakes exam. Ten minutes before the exam, half the students were asked to write down all their test anxieties. The results were revealing. The researchers could actually see the student’s writing change: many went from ‘I’m going to fail’ to ‘even if this goes wrong it won’t be the end of the world.’ By the time they entered the exam, those who had written down their anxieties simply weren’t as worried. And they performed, on average, half a letter grade better.

If you are worried about an impending event, write down exactly what is making you anxious. It might help you realise that it’s not so daunting after all.

Californian therapist, Dr Judith Bell, says we should see our brain as a fancy sports car. We don’t get taught how to drive it and it’s easy to fly off the road – so we have to learn how to help it take those curves and stay on track. One method for helping our mind to slow down and travel in a straight line is to focus on the present. Notice how you are breathing, how your body feels, and stop thinking about the past or the future.

Buddhist coach Alan Ashley suggests focusing on your bum on its seat. When you start to worry that it’s all going to go pear-shaped, come back to the strength of your spine supporting your body. Say to yourself, I might not like this very much, but I am still here and it’s bearable.