Anxiety is like a relentless roommate who's always poking their nose into your business, whispering in your ear about the worst possible outcomes. Millions of people experience symptoms of anxiety every day. It is hard to ignore, and it can make everyday tasks feel like a mountain to climb.
Let’s explore the anxiety symptoms, helping you understand what it looks like and how it can affect you.
What Are The 3 Main Symptoms of Anxiety?
Physical Symptoms of Anxiety
1. Heart pounding
This is a type of sensation in which the heart is racing, fluttering, or skipping a beat. Such a type of sensation can be often bothersome and people who suffer from symptoms of anxiety experience it.
2. Flushing
Flushing or dry flushing is a type of condition that causes involuntary reddening of the face, which is mainly caused by an increase in the vasodilator chemicals in the affected person’s bloodstream. It is one of the many anxiety symptoms in women.
3. Shortness of breath
Since anxiety leads to changes in the heart rate of the affected person, it can lead to shortness of breath. As a result, there are multiple breathing techniques, medications, and mindfulness practices that can help.
4. Dizziness
The sensation of dizziness that accompanies anxiety has often been described as a sense of lightheadedness or wooziness. It should be known that dizziness is often accompanied by acute and chronic high anxiety symptoms.
5. Sweating
Sweating commonly takes place especially when the human body is responding to stress or fear. Such is the reason why you might notice increased sweating as one of the many physical symptoms of anxiety.
6. Headache
Tension headache is said to be a common anxiety symptoms checklist. It can occur at any age but is most common in teens or adults who are suffering from anxiety. Headache makes the scalp and neck muscles contract.
7. Dry mouth
One of the many symptoms of anxiety includes a dry mouth. It is mainly caused due to breathing through the mouth or can happen due to the intake of anxiety-relieving medications. A dry mouth is often accompanied by sweating and a rapid pulse.
8. Stomach pains
When a person is stressed due to anxiety, the body releases several neurotransmitters and hormones into the bloodstream. Such symptoms of anxiety disorder can easily impact human gut mobility negatively, leading to stomach pains.
9. Nausea
During anxiety disorder and attacks, a person might feel that the heart rate speeding up and the breathing rate increasing as well. Both of the aforementioned factors lead to the feeling of nausea.
10. Diarrhea
Based on the research carried out by ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of America), when a person feels anxious, the body releases chemicals and hormones to deal with the same. Such chemicals or hormones enter the digestive tract and thus lead to diarrhea.
11. Muscle
aches/pains
Muscle aches and pains are caused due to tension created by anxiety. This is because severe anxiety symptoms cause the muscles of the human body to tense up and thereby experience stiffness/pain in most areas of the human body.
12. Restlessness
Restlessness is termed as one of the many physical symptoms of anxiety that commonly happen in teens and children. When a person feels restlessness, the feeling can often be ‘on the edge’ or having an ‘uncomfortable urge to move around’.
13. Inability to relax
There is no denying that everyone gets anxious at one point or the other. However, if your fears and worries are constantly interfering with your ability to relax and function properly, then you might be experiencing Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
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Psychological symptoms of anxiety
1. Excessive worry
GAD or Generalised Anxiety Disorder is one of the many types of anxiety that mostly includes excessive and persistent worry and anxiety about certain events or activities, including daily, routine issues. The worry can be out of proportion to the circumstance, affecting you physically.
2. Irritability
Irritability is termed a common symptom of anxiety in men, especially in people who suffer anxiety attacks. Thus, such people become easy to upset and thereby run the risk of feeling aggressive.
3. Impatience
In case you are unaware, impatience and anxiety are closely linked because being anxious can easily make it difficult to wait for something to take place. For instance, at the office, you might worry about when your shift will be over.
4. Feeling “on edge”
When anxiety attacks take place, it can be common to feel irritable from time to time. Such feeling is termed as being ‘on edge’. It is one of the common mental health anxiety symptoms.
5. Fatigue
Since anxiety attacks lead to a hormonal rush inside your body, you might feel drained after the attack subsides. Hence, you might experience sleep or lightheadedness due to such psychological anxiety symptoms.
6. Vivid dreams
As anxiety leads to stress, you will also experience frequent and vivid stress dreams. For instance, you might be waking up panicking in a cold sweat due to a dream in the middle of the night.
7. Mind racing
One of the common causes of racing thoughts is anxiety. Even though racing thoughts can be quite common during an anxiety attack, they can take place at any moment. Mind racing can also precede an anxiety attack.
8. Mind going blank
Brain fog anxiety takes place when a person tends to feel more anxious than usual and thereby experiences difficulty in thinking clearly or concentrating. Brain fog or the mind going blank can happen due to physical and mental illnesses.
9. Indecisiveness
One of the causes of anxiety is that it can make you feel frustrated and indecisive. Hence, due to anxiety, you can feel difficulty in making proper decisions – not just the bigger ones but even the smaller ones.
10. Difficulty concentrating
GAD or Generalised Anxiety Disorder is mostly characterised by worry which feels very difficult to control and thereby feels often out of proportion to the overall situation. People with GAD find it hard to concentrate properly.
11. Decreased memory
Symptoms of anxiety and depression affect the nervous system of the human being. And since the nervous system controls basic functions like learning and memory, persistent anxiety is connected with memory loss.
Behavioral symptoms of anxiety
1. Obsessive or compulsive behavior
Obsessive or compulsive behavioral symptoms of anxiety are the feeling of repeated, unwanted, and persistent thoughts, images in the mind, or urges, caused due to anxiety. These obsessions override other things that you are trying to do or think.
2. Phobic behaviour
Phobic behavior is mostly worrying about humiliating or embarrassing yourself. As a result, people who are suffering from anxiety feel intense fear of interacting with strangers.
3. Avoidance of situations
When anxiety strikes, avoidance can be the common behavior. Hence, you might try to avoid doing your daily life activities as well as avoid interacting with your loved ones.
4. Distress in social situations
Otherwise known as social phobia, it is an overwhelming and long-term feeling of facing various social situations. It is a stress and anxiety symptom in people suffering from anxiety attacks.
Conquering Anxiety with Support
Symptoms of anxiety are a sneaky bugger. It can creep up on you when you least expect it, and it can make you feel like you are losing control. Do not let anxiety win. If you are struggling with anxiety, please know that you are not alone. There are many resources available to help you, and you can overcome this challenge.
With the right support, you can manage your anxiety and live a full and meaningful life.
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Ultimate Anxiety Remedies Say Goodbye to Stress for Good