Anxiety can be very destructive and debilitating. It can all but paralyze you with vomiting, uncontrollable bowel movements, stomach pain, etc. When it's serious enough to be a medical condition, it's nothing like the comparatively minute amount of anxiety that we feel, say, before public speaking. Some people afflicted with general anxiety disorder cannot travel at all.

I'd think the deceased didn't suffer from anything that bad, but I just don't know from the brief news article I read. If she did, getting as far as she did would be quite amazing.

I guess I'm also trying to make a public service announcement -- some real illnesses like anxiety disorder are often misunderstood, and they are not a reflection of character. People afflicted with them cannot just "toughen up" and "get over it."