What are anxiety disorders? Anxiety disorders are an expression of the body's response to danger. The response to external and internal, not always conscious stimuli is expressed by symptoms of discomfort, anxiety, feelings of fear, apprehension and fear. These can dominate awareness and manifest themselves in behaviour and vegetative-somatic symptoms. Going beyond normal reactions, they can seriously interfere with the patient's wellbeing and social behaviour, causing distress and misunderstanding of the environment.