A patient reports feeling on edge much of the time. Before revealing the answer, decide how you would explore this.

Ask directly about the subjective quality of the feeling — apprehension, dread, or unease — and whether it is free-floating, not attached to any particular object, or focused on a specific, identifiable worry, since this shapes the rest of the assessment. Systematically enquire about accompanying physical symptoms: a racing heart, sweating, tremor, dry mouth, muscle tension, and gastrointestinal discomfort, since these autonomic features are a core part of the presentation. Establish the time course and whether the feeling is out of proportion to any real threat or persists well beyond whatever provoked it, and specifically ask whether it occurs as a sustained background state or as discrete, sharply peaking episodes, which would instead suggest panic attacks.