Most generally, a vague, unpleasant emotional state
with qualities of apprehension, dread, distress, and uneasiness. Frequently
known as panic, anxiety is often distinguished from fear in that an anxiety
state is often objectless, whereas fear assumes a specific feared object, person
or event. In existential theory, anxiety is characterized as the emotional
accompaniment of the immediate awareness of the meaninglessness, incompleteness,
and chaotic
nature of the
world in which we live.