August 3, 1982

WASHINGTON SEVERE anxiety disorders that disrupt the lives of millions of adult Americans are attracting increased attention from Federal health officials. Some victims of these disorders suffer from irrational fears of a variety of objects and situations, such as insects, mice, or riding on elevators. Others experience sudden panic attacks marked by intense fear and feelings of impending doom - or a more persistent anxious mood that may last for months. And still others suffer stress following a psychologically traumatic event, such as rape, military combat, or disastrous accidents.

A story of crimes, intrigues and murders inside ''the Bonanno family'' began to unfold yesterday as an undercover agent testified in public, for the first time, about his infiltration of organized crime. For five years, the agent worked in the underworld in the guise of a gangster using the name Donnie Brasco, but he appeared on the witness stand in a major Manhattan trial as Special Agent Joseph D. Pistone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A Federal prosecutor, Barbara S. Jones, asked Mr. Pistone what undercover assignment the F.B.I. gave him in 1976. ''To identify and infiltrate 'fences' associated with organized crime in New York City,'' the agent replied. ''I was a burglar, a jewel thief,'' he continued, explaining the role he played when he first met Bonanno family members in front of a social club on Madison Street in lower Manhattan.

Interest rates declined yesterday, cheering a depressed stock market and pushing the Dow Jones industrial average up by 13.51 points, matching its best gain in more than four months. The nation's banks cut the prime interest rate a half-point, to 15 percent, the lowest level in more than two years.

International President Reagan pressed Israel and the other combatants to halt the fighting in Lebanon as a prerequisite for the success of the American negotiating mission. The President, the White House announced, told the Israeli Foreign Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, in a somber 20-minute meeting that it is crucial to end th ''constantly escalating violence'' and to provide food and medical supplies to west Beirut. (Page A1, Column 6.) Israel moved tank reinforcements into all crossing points between east and west Beirut while inching its armor closer to the Palestinian camps on the city's outskirts. (A6:1-3.)

Michael and Darlene Hillman represent the sort of all-American success story that, in recent years, became commonplace in this misty land of Cajuns, alligators, oil and gas. In just three years, the former Louisiana State University football star, now 35 years old, and his wife built a petroleum-related boat business consisting of 24 barges, 16 tugs, 10 crew boats and a utility boat. Six months ago, they often had to rent even more boats to handle their surging business. No longer. Instead of the four or five jobs a day that the Hillmans' Bengal Marine Inc. had been handling for the oil industry, they are now hustling to land three or four a week. Drilling has slipped precipitously, the cash flow of independent wildcatters has dropped like a sinker and service companies like Bengal are having more and more trouble paying bills.