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5 Ways Anxiety Shows Up in Your Body
Moderate anxiety has a good cause. When you’re in a dangerous or stressful situation, your body triggers a response that helps you either focus on a solution or spur you to action. This response is a built-in survival instinct, and it’s completely normal to experience anxiety in high-stress situations.
However, when you have an anxiety disorder, symptoms of anxiety can last long after the stressful situation has passed, or paralyzing fear can seemingly arise out of nowhere for no reason.
Anxiety disorders cause both emotional and physical symptoms. And if it goes untreated, it can begin to take a toll on your body. So, if you’ve been dealing with physical symptoms that don’t seem to have an underlying physical cause, emotions could be at play.
Because your mental and physical health is so intertwined, they can affect each other, even without you realizing it. So, our team at RapidRecovery TMS in Wilmington, North Carolina, wants you to better understand how anxiety affects your body and talk through treatment options.
Anxiety and your body
When you’re in a high-stress situation, you’re familiar with the physical symptoms. Your heart rate picks up, your breathing quickens, your palms sweat, and your legs shake. You may even experience nausea or stomach pain.
These symptoms all come from your autonomic nervous system. This system of nerves regulates breathing, urination, sexual function, and heart rate. It also has the responsibility of setting off the fight-or-flight response, releasing adrenaline and cortisol.
So, if your body thinks you’re in danger, the fight-or-flight response goes off, and the physical symptoms begin.
When you’re chronically anxious, all the increased fear and tension take its toll and can cause issues with these bodily systems:
- Central nervous system: headaches and dizziness
- Cardiovascular system: heart palpitations and chest pain
- Digestive system: stomachaches and loss of appetite
- Immune system: frequent illnesses
- Respiratory system: shortness of breath and asthma
If these symptoms don’t seem to be caused by a physical illness, anxiety could be the culprit.
How to effectively manage anxiety
If you suspect you have anxiety, you must seek help. It will benefit you mentally and physically. At RapidRecovery TMS, we can talk you through all your treatment options, helping you find what works best for you.
You can start by making some lifestyle changes, such as practicing mindfulness or relaxation techniques, establishing healthy sleep patterns, cutting back on alcohol, quitting smoking, and exercising as much as you can.
Medication is another great tool used to reduce anxiety, and there are many kinds available. So, don’t be discouraged if it takes trying out a few to find one that works for you.
Anti-anxiety medications work best when used in conjunction with psychotherapy. Therapy techniques, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), can help find the root cause of your anxiety and help you work through it.
Another emerging treatment for more severe anxiety offered at RapidRecovery TMS is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). During this treatment, an electromagnetic coil is placed on your head to stimulate portions of your brain that regulate mood, thereby reducing anxious thoughts.
Get expert help for anxiety
If you’re experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety, mental health treatment can reduce the amount of stress in your body and boost your overall health. Schedule an appointment for compassionate anxiety disorder treatment by calling our office or booking online today.