Anxiety is normal and appropriate in some situations but often people have excessive anxiety in many different situations that can be reduced with a range of strategies and interventions that you can learn from a psychologist. Sometimes (but not always) anxiety occurs when a person anticipates a situation in such a way that they imagine the worst possible outcome occurring. This is called catastrophizing and is often such an automatic response that it has become a chronic pattern that is hard to break without professional help. This sort of anxiety can be managed by using specific methods that generally take a short time to learn with practice and the support and feedback of a psychologist. Once you learn these skills they are like learning a new language and you have them for life. What happens to the anxiety once you learn how to manage it? Generally the more you deal with anxious thoughts using this new skill the less frequently the anxious thoughts occur. So what happens over this process is that use of this new language or skill weakens the automatic pattern of catastrophizing thoughts popping-up.
Anxiety can be found in a variety of forms which all share common features. Treatment for anxiety typically consists of psycho-education about the characteristics and causes of excessive anxiety, and training in evidence-based treatments including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), gradual exposure (to the feared scenario) and the prevention of safety-responses such as avoidance behaviours, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).