On this page
Dr. Chrysoula I. Liakou MD, PhD
- Treated online: Yes, usually. Anxiety is assessed by video with structured screening questions; an SSRI may be prescribed after a full assessment, and benzodiazepines are never prescribed online.
- What it is: persistent, hard-to-control worry with a body on alert (muscle tension, racing heart, churning stomach, poor sleep); generalised anxiety disorder means worry most days for 6 months or more.
- How common: anxiety disorders affect about 4% of people worldwide at any time, around 300 million people, and women roughly twice as often as men.
- Treatment: cognitive behavioural therapy is first-line; an SSRI takes 4 to 6 weeks to reach its full effect and is continued for several months after you feel well.
- Self-help that works: slow breathing with a longer out-breath, regular brisk exercise, less caffeine and alcohol, consistent sleep and scheduled worry time, practised daily rather than only in a crisis.
- Emergency: a first-ever episode of severe chest pain, breathlessness or a pounding irregular heartbeat needs 112 so a heart problem is ruled out before anyone calls it anxiety; call 112 too if you are having thoughts of harming yourself.
If you are having your first-ever episode of severe chest pain, breathlessness or a pounding, irregular heartbeat, do not assume it is anxiety. Call 112 or get emergency care so a heart problem can be ruled out first; panic can only be diagnosed safely once physical causes are excluded. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, use the crisis information in the red box lower on this page.
Can an online doctor treat anxiety?
Often, yes. A video consultation can often provide enough information to assess an anxiety disorder: the doctor uses structured screening questions, checks for physical causes, refers you for talking therapy and, after a full assessment, can prescribe an SSRI with booked reviews.[1] Benzodiazepines are not prescribed online, and chest pain always needs physical causes excluded first.
Listen: Anxiety Treatment Online
The audio version of this topic from the Mobi Doctor podcast. Open the episode.
How an online consultation helps with anxiety
- A structured assessment, in plain words: The doctor uses the same kind of screening questions used in clinics (how often you feel on edge, whether the worry is controllable, what it stops you doing) and explains what the answers mean for you.
- Therapy without the maze: Cognitive behavioural therapy is a first-line treatment for anxiety disorders.[1] The doctor explains what it involves and can refer you, so you are not left to navigate the system alone.
- Straight answers on medication: What SSRIs can and cannot do, how long they take, what the first two weeks feel like, and why benzodiazepines are not prescribed online.
- Follow-up built in: Scheduled reviews so treatment is adjusted rather than abandoned, especially through the first weeks of an SSRI, when support matters most.
What are the symptoms of an anxiety disorder?
Anxiety disorder symptoms combine a worried mind with a body on alert. Mental signs include persistent worry that is hard to control, dread, irritability and poor concentration. Physical signs include muscle tension, a racing heart, churning stomach, breathlessness, sweating and disturbed sleep. Symptoms most days for months, not occasional nerves, suggest a disorder.[2]
- Persistent worry that is difficult to switch off
- Feeling on edge, restless or keyed up
- Irritability and a short fuse
- Poor concentration; mind going blank
- Muscle tension, aches or trembling
- Racing heart or palpitations
- Breathlessness or chest tightness
- Churning stomach, nausea, needing the toilet often
- Sweating, hot flushes or dizziness
- Broken sleep and daytime exhaustion
When worry becomes a disorder
Generalised anxiety
Everyone worries. Generalised anxiety disorder is different: worry that jumps from topic to topic, is out of proportion, feels uncontrollable, and has been present most days for six months or more, usually with muscle tension, a churning stomach, tiredness and disturbed sleep.[1] Many people have carried it so long they assume it is just their personality. It is not, and it responds to treatment. Anxiety disorders are also among the most common mental health conditions worldwide,[2][4] and they run a long course when ignored. That is worth knowing only because the treatments work at any stage, and earlier is easier.
Panic attacks
A panic attack is a sudden surge of fear that peaks within minutes: hammering heart, breathlessness, dizziness, tingling, a feeling that something catastrophic is happening. Attacks are frightening but not dangerous once cardiac causes have been excluded, and the real damage is usually the avoidance that follows, as life shrinks around the fear of the next one. Between attacks, many people live braced: scanning their heartbeat, carrying water, mapping exits. That anticipatory anxiety is part of the disorder, and it responds to the same treatment.
How do I stop a panic attack?
You ride it out rather than fight it. A panic attack peaks within minutes and always passes. Slow your breathing with a longer out-breath: in for four, out for six. Ground yourself by naming five things you can see and four you can touch. Stay where you are if it is safe; leaving teaches your brain the place was dangerous.
These techniques manage an attack; they do not prevent the next one. If attacks are recurring, treatment for panic disorder, usually cognitive behavioural therapy and sometimes an SSRI, works well,[1] and the avoidance can be unlearned the same way it was learned.
Social anxiety, phobias and health anxiety
Not all anxiety is generalised. Social anxiety centres on being judged (presentations, phone calls, eating in front of others) and is far more than shyness when it dictates your choices.[2] Specific phobias attach the fear to one trigger. Health anxiety keeps you scanning your body and the internet for evidence of illness, with each reassurance wearing off faster than the last. The doctor identifies which pattern is yours, because the therapy is targeted differently for each.
When should I see a doctor about anxiety?
See a doctor when anxiety has been present most days for a few weeks, when it interferes with work, sleep or relationships, when you are avoiding things that matter, or when physical symptoms such as chest tightness, palpitations or stomach problems keep appearing without explanation. You do not need to be in crisis to deserve help.
The earlier pattern-breaking starts, the less there is to unpick: untreated anxiety tends to recruit more triggers over time, not fewer. And if you have already rearranged parts of your life around the anxiety (routes, roles, invitations), that is not proof you are coping; it is the disorder negotiating on your behalf. Asking for an assessment commits you to nothing. It turns a private struggle into a map, and you choose the route from there.
Which anxiety treatment might the doctor recommend?
Treatment follows the pattern and the severity. This is the decision framework the doctors use, aligned with European and UK guidance:[1]
Swipe sideways to compare →
| Presentation | Likely first step | Suitable for online care? | When referral or in-person care is needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Situational stress and worry that settles between triggers | Structured self-help, with a follow-up plan | Usually yes | If it persists, escalates or starts driving avoidance |
| Generalised anxiety: worry most days for six months or more, with tension and broken sleep | CBT referral; an SSRI after full assessment when appropriate | Usually yes | Little response after adequate treatment courses, or complex needs: psychiatry referral |
| Recurring panic attacks with growing avoidance | CBT for panic disorder; sometimes an SSRI | Usually yes, once heart and lung causes are excluded | A first or severe episode of chest pain needs 112 or emergency assessment first |
| Anxiety alongside heavy alcohol or sedative use | Supervised, in-person assessment | No | Withdrawal can be dangerous and needs local, supervised care |
| Anxiety with thoughts of harming yourself | Crisis support today | No: crisis support comes first | Call 112 in an emergency, or find your national crisis helpline at findahelpline.com |
Not sure which row fits your anxiety? A doctor can tell you in one consultation.
See available times →What the doctor checks in an online anxiety consultation
If the idea of the appointment itself makes you anxious, that is normal and the doctors know it. You do not need to prepare a speech; “I have been on edge for months and I am tired of it” is a perfectly good opening. Behind the conversation, the assessment is structured. The doctor will typically check:
- Frequency and control: how often in the past two weeks you have felt nervous, on edge or unable to stop worrying, using the same screening questions used in clinics.
- The pattern: generalised worry, panic attacks, social anxiety, a specific phobia or health anxiety, because the therapy is targeted differently for each.
- Duration and cost: how long this has been running, and what it is stopping you doing at work, at home and in the 3 a.m. inbox-checking hours. Treatment aims at your life, not just your score.
- Physical mimics: an overactive thyroid, heavy caffeine or energy-drink use, decongestants, corticosteroids, some asthma medicines and withdrawal from alcohol or sedatives can all produce anxiety-like symptoms. Where the history points that way, the doctor arranges a blood test locally before settling on a diagnosis.
- Everything you take: prescriptions, supplements and anything bought online; bring the list, it shortens the detective work.
- Sleep and mood: anxiety, insomnia and depression feed each other, and the plan has to account for all three.
- Safety: asked plainly, because it is the most important question in the room.
By the end, the doctor has graded how severe the anxiety is, formed a view on which type it is, and understood what it is costing you. One limit is stated just as plainly: chest pain is never self-diagnosed as anxiety, and a first severe episode needs emergency assessment before anyone is entitled to call it panic.
Treatment options for anxiety
What you can do yourself
Some self-help genuinely helps. During a surge, slow your breathing with a longer out-breath (in for four counts, out for six) for a few minutes; it dampens the physical alarm. Regular brisk exercise has real evidence for reducing anxiety, not just distracting from it. Cut caffeine honestly, including energy drinks. Alcohol calms tonight and rebounds tomorrow, so it makes anxiety worse over time. A daily 15-minute “worry time” with a notepad trains your brain to postpone rumination. And protect your sleep, because anxiety and insomnia feed each other.
Equally honest is what does not help: avoiding feared situations shrinks your life without shrinking the fear, repeated reassurance-seeking and symptom-googling feed the loop, and unregulated herbal calming products vary wildly in quality and evidence, so tell your doctor about anything you are already taking. If self-help alone is carrying you for now, that is a fine place to be; if it stops being enough, that is information, not failure.
Prescription treatment
Talking therapy, usually cognitive behavioural therapy, is a first-line treatment for anxiety disorders, and the doctor can refer you to it.[1][5] A prescription is never issued without a consultation; when medication is the right next step, an SSRI such as sertraline or escitalopram is the usual first choice.[1] Honesty about how that goes: SSRIs take four to six weeks to show their full effect, and in the first one to two weeks some people feel queasy, jittery or sleep worse before things improve. Your doctor will warn you, review you early, and adjust if needed. SSRIs are not addictive, and stopping is planned gradually. Benzodiazepines such as diazepam are a different matter: they are dependence-forming controlled medicines, European and UK guidance advises against them for ongoing anxiety,[1] and they are not prescribed through online consultations. For situational physical symptoms, such as a hammering heart before a presentation, a beta-blocker like propranolol is sometimes considered after assessment; it dampens the pounding, not the worry, and is unsuitable with asthma. Once an SSRI is working, it is usually continued for months rather than weeks to consolidate the improvement, with stopping always tapered. If you are pregnant or planning pregnancy, do not stop medication abruptly; book a review, because treatment decisions in pregnancy balance risks in both directions and deserve a proper conversation.
When anxiety is treated online, and when you need in-person care
Treated online: generalised anxiety, panic disorder once cardiac causes are excluded, social anxiety, health anxiety and specific phobias; SSRI starts with early booked reviews; ongoing medication reviews and planned, gradual stopping; and therapy referrals with a doctor keeping oversight of the whole plan.
In-person care: a first or severe episode of chest pain, breathlessness or an irregular pounding heartbeat goes to 112 or emergency care before any anxiety diagnosis; anxiety tangled with heavy alcohol or sedative use needs supervised, in-person withdrawal care; complex or treatment-resistant anxiety, and anxiety with psychotic symptoms or significant safety concerns, go to psychiatry; and requests for benzodiazepines are declined with an explanation and a safer plan, because controlled medicines are not prescribed online. If you are in crisis, use 112 or findahelpline.com rather than booking anything.
When to get in-person care
Call 112 immediately for chest pain or breathlessness that could be a heart problem: especially a first severe episode, pain spreading to the arm, neck or jaw, or symptoms with fainting or a racing irregular pulse. Anxiety is a diagnosis a doctor can only make once those are ruled out.
If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call 112 in an emergency. You can also find your national crisis helpline at findahelpline.com. You do not have to wait for an appointment.
Managing anxiety at home: what helps and what does not
Self-help for anxiety is real and evidence-backed: slow breathing practised daily rather than only in crisis, regular exercise, less caffeine and alcohol, consistent sleep, and structured self-guided CBT techniques such as scheduled worry time and gradual exposure to avoided situations. For mild anxiety, practised consistently, this genuinely moves the needle.
What home care cannot do: it cannot lift anxiety that has taken over. When worry is present most days for months, interferes with work, sleep or relationships, or brings panic attacks, the evidence-based treatments are talking therapy and sometimes medication, and both start with a proper assessment. Anxiety is one of the most treatable conditions in medicine; white-knuckling it at home is the least effective option on the list.
The strongest at-home treatment is still a doctor. A video consultation brings one to your sofa: an honest assessment, and a prescription to a local pharmacy when treatment is right. You can see a doctor over video, usually within 15 minutes. Book a video consultation: the exact price is shown before you pay.
How Mobi Doctor works
- Book a time that suits you: open daily 7am–11pm CET. You can see a doctor over video, usually within 15 minutes. No subscription, exact price up front.
- Speak to a licensed doctor about anxiety: a private video call: you describe what you feel, the doctor asks what matters, and you agree the right plan together.
- Leave with your plan: everything agreed before you hang up: your plan, and a prescription to use at a pharmacy near you where medication is clinically right for you. If your doctor decides you need to be seen in person, you get a full refund.
No sign-up needed
Not sure it’s anxiety? Tick every symptom you have to see each condition page that mentions it. It finds the right page, not a diagnosis: a doctor gives you that on a video call.
Tap the body — an area or a point — to browse symptoms anywhere
Not sure this is the right page? Look up any symptom in the full symptom checker, or book and describe it to a doctor.
Frequently asked questions about anxiety
What is anxiety, and when is it a disorder?
Anxiety is the normal alarm response to threat: a faster heart, tense muscles and a mind on alert. It becomes an anxiety disorder when the alarm fires most days for weeks or months without real danger, feels uncontrollable, and interferes with sleep, work or relationships. Generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety and phobias are the commonest forms.
What does anxiety feel like?
Anxiety feels like worry you cannot switch off, dread, irritability and poor concentration, with a body that will not settle: a tight chest, racing or pounding heart, churning stomach, breathlessness, sweating, trembling and broken sleep. Many people notice the physical symptoms first and only later recognise the anxiety behind them.
Do I have anxiety, or is it something physical?
Anxiety and physical illness can look alike, which is why the doctor checks both. An overactive thyroid, anaemia, heart rhythm problems, too much caffeine, some medicines and withdrawal from alcohol all mimic anxiety. Symptoms that follow worry, ease when you are distracted and come with persistent worrying thoughts point to anxiety; a first severe episode of chest pain or breathlessness needs emergency assessment before anyone calls it anxiety.
What causes anxiety?
Anxiety usually has several causes at once: a family tendency, stressful or traumatic events, long-term pressure at work or home, poor sleep, caffeine and alcohol, some physical illnesses and a habit of treating uncertainty as danger. The pattern then feeds itself, because avoiding what frightens you brings relief and teaches the brain to keep avoiding.
Can anxiety really cause chest pain and breathlessness?
Yes. Anxiety releases adrenaline, which tightens the chest muscles, speeds the heart and quickens breathing, so the symptoms are real, not imagined. But chest pain should never be self-diagnosed as anxiety: a first or severe episode, pain spreading to the arm, neck or jaw, or symptoms with fainting need emergency assessment to rule out a heart problem first.
How can I reduce anxiety immediately?
To calm anxiety in the moment, slow your breathing with a longer out-breath (in for four counts, out for six) for a few minutes, which dampens the physical alarm; name what you can see and hear to pull attention outward; and move, because a brisk walk burns off adrenaline. These settle a surge of anxiety; they do not replace treatment when anxiety is present most days.
What helps anxiety in the longer term?
Daily habits with real evidence against anxiety: regular brisk exercise, slow breathing practised when calm, less caffeine (including energy drinks) and alcohol, a consistent sleep routine, scheduled worry time and gradual exposure to the situations you avoid. Structured self-guided CBT works for mild anxiety; moderate or severe anxiety usually needs therapy, sometimes with medication.
Can an online doctor prescribe anxiety medication in Europe?
Where clinically appropriate, yes. After a full video assessment of your anxiety, the doctor may prescribe an SSRI such as sertraline or escitalopram and will book reviews to check how you are responding. Benzodiazepines such as diazepam are controlled, dependence-forming medicines and are not prescribed online.
Are SSRIs for anxiety addictive?
No. SSRIs used for anxiety do not cause cravings or the need for ever-higher doses, which is what defines addiction. Stopping should still be planned gradually with your doctor to avoid short-lived withdrawal-type symptoms. That is very different from benzodiazepines, which do cause dependence and are not prescribed online.
How long will I need to take an SSRI for anxiety?
An SSRI for anxiety takes 4 to 6 weeks to reach its full effect and is usually continued for at least 6 months after you feel well, agreed at reviews rather than imposed. Stopping is planned and gradual. Coming off too early is the most common reason anxiety returns.
How long does anxiety last?
A surge of anxiety usually passes within an hour; an anxiety disorder, left untreated, tends to persist for months or years and to spread into avoidance and low mood. With treatment, most people notice improvement within 6 to 8 weeks of starting CBT or medication, and the skills learned keep working after therapy ends.
Is it anxiety or depression?
Anxiety and depression overlap in about half of people who have either. Anxiety is dominated by worry, dread and a body on alert; depression by low mood, loss of interest, low energy and hopelessness. Many people have both, which changes the treatment plan, so the doctor screens for each at the first consultation.
Does anxiety affect pregnancy or older people differently?
Anxiety is common in pregnancy and after birth, and it is treated, with therapy first and medication chosen with pregnancy in mind, rather than waited out. In people over 65, new anxiety more often has a physical trigger or sits alongside depression or memory change, so the doctor looks harder for a medical cause and reviews existing medicines.
Do I have to commit to therapy or medication before booking?
No. The first appointment is an assessment of your anxiety and an honest conversation about your options: therapy, medication, self-help or a combination. Nothing is prescribed or referred without your agreement.
- Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults: management (CG113), NICE, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2011, updated June 2020.
- Anxiety disorders: fact sheet, WHO, World Health Organization, 2023.
- Guidance and resources on anxiety disorders, European Psychiatric Association, accessed August 2026.
- Mental disorders fact sheet, WHO, World Health Organization, 2025.
- Psychological therapies for generalised anxiety disorder, Cochrane, Cochrane Library, 2007.
- Generalised anxiety disorder in adults, NHS, National Health Service (UK), accessed October 2026.
This page is for information only and is not a substitute for a medical consultation. Guideline links are provided for transparency; treatment decisions are made with your doctor.
Related conditions
More about anxiety from the Mobi Doctor blog
Anxiety Chest Pain: Signs, Symptoms & How To Treat
Anxiety can cause chest pain, tightness, pressure, or discomfort because stress activates the body’s “fight-...
Read article → Health and WellbeingStop Holiday Anxiety Making You Feel Sick
Can anxiety make you physically sick during the holidays? Yes. Stress activates “fight or flight,” changing...
Read article → Health and WellbeingMental Breakdown: 7 Signs To Watch Out For
A mental breakdown is a term people use when stress feels overwhelming and daily life becomes hard to manage. Common sig...
Read article →Speak to a doctor about anxiety over video, usually within 15 minutes
Licensed doctors · open daily 7am–11pm CET · exact price before payment
See available times →