The Physical Symptoms of Anxiety and Stress
The Physical Symptoms of Anxiety and Stress
Many people worry whether the symptoms they are experiencing really are to do with anxiety or if they’re to do with something more serious. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference even. And of course, this only adds to the worry and stress over your health problems.
In this article I’m going to run through the most common symptoms associated with anxiety so that you can see how they relate to your situation and also to let you know that you’re most definitely not alone in experiencing any or all of these symptoms.
The Symptoms
These are some of the symptoms that are most commonly associated with anxiety:
o Difficulty breathing
o Sweating
o Tightness around the head
o Difficulty swallowing
o Racing heart and palpitations
o Blurred vision
o Pins and needles
o Headache
o Nausea and vomiting
o Stomach and intestinal upset
They are probably the ones that first come to mind when the word ‘anxiety’ is mentioned but there are other symptoms as well.
These include:
o Trouble concentrating
o Trouble relaxing
o Loss of interest in anything
o Being unable to sleep or constantly feeling tired
o Not being able to feel emotion about anything
o Lack of interest in anything
o Constantly worrying
o Constantly feeling anxious
o Feeling irritable
People often worry about these symptoms and sometimes mistake them for signs of an actual physical illness. If you’ve ever wondered why you get these symptoms the answer is that they are caused by your brain, which sends lots of messages down nerves to various parts of your body when you are anxious.
Then of course there’s the full blown panic attack.
The symptoms for this may include:
Struggling with your breathing
Rapid heart beat, pounding heart or palpitations
Sweating
Shaking
Nausea, bloating, indigestion or abdominal discomfort
Dizziness or unsteadiness
Feeling light-headed
Feeling unreal or dreamy
Numbness or tingling sensations in face or body
Inappropriate/Disturbed thoughts
One of the most common symptoms during a panic attack is for you to struggle with your breathing and you may find yourself gasping air into your lungs. Unfortunately, the very act of breathing too quickly lowers the amount of carbon dioxide in your lungs and by a complicated series of processes this causes more of the physical signs of anxiety. So you should always be aware that you can actually bring on the symptoms of anxiety yourself by slightly over breathing for a long time.
There are many different things that you can try to reduce your anxiety and you need to find what works best for you. Everyone’s individual. This might take some time but it’ll be a journey that will be well worth taking.
Be patient, and don’t give up. It can be a long journey sometimes but well worth it in the end. Good luck!
