Anxiety is an emotion where people feel uncomfortable and nervous about something or when being around someone. Not to be confused with nervousness, anxiety is better defined as an irrational or overreactive fear to a perceived threat, which can cause mild to severe detriment to one's behavior and affect their quality of life. Phobias along with post-traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsiveness, and panic disorders typically stem from this emotion.
Empath: The Luckiest Smurf stories[]
In the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series, the Smurfs deal with various forms of anxiety in their lives. With Empath during his first visit to the Smurf Village while he was still in Psychelia, Empath dealt with the anxiety of being around Smurfs in a state of "half-dress" since Psychelian culture considers nudity in any form a taboo. Over time, though, he learned to overcome that anxiety, although his fear of being seen without a shirt resurfaced in the wake of the revelation that he was Papa Smurf's only begotten son and was sent to Psychelia by Papa Smurf himself.
The Fearless Smurfs[]
Persephone Collins suffers from social anxiety, and one of the main factors is avoiding any more heart attacks that are triggered when she has a full-blown panic attack. Her anxiety began after she humiliated herself in the Christmas play, throwing up in the manger after getting sick. Her anxiety only grew from the destruction of the two Smurf villages that she had witnessed, causing her to be anxious around humans as well.