It’s Not Just In Your Head: How Your Anxiety Might Be Affecting You Physically

Most people struggling with an anxiety disorder face distress and challenges in daily life due to the impact it has on their bodies. If anxiety is affecting the way you eat, sleep, work, or your relationships, it is time to seek professional assistance. Dr. Zlatin Ivanov works with you to identify the anxiety-triggering factors and challenges you experience in daily life to reduce stress and the accompanying physical symptoms. He recommends a combination of therapy, medication management, and lifestyle changes that minimize the effects of anxiety on your body and make you feel better within no time.

The human body and mind have a complex connection which often makes it difficult to fully understand some of the problems we face. When it comes to our mental health, the symptoms affect our mood, behavior, and emotional processing, but they are not all. Many of the conditions that were at one time considered just to be in the head are very real and affect your physical health too.

Chronic or long-term anxiety can affect quality of life. Even though it is commonly known to cause behavioral changes, it can also have serious consequences on physical health. Living with anxiety can cause physical stress on the body, especially to the nervous, digestive, and immune systems.

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Are There Any Physical Symptoms of Anxiety?

Anxiety can cause symptoms like restlessness, irritability, excessive worrying, racing thoughts, and inability to concentrate. While these symptoms cause a lot of stress, they are most localized to the mind and our overall mood and personality. These symptoms help define anxiety and related disorders, but it is not all - anxiety has physical impacts too.

Anxiety is not just in the head, you may be able to feel its effects physically. It is because when you are exposed to a perceived threat, your body triggers a response to help you focus and take action. Mental health conditions such as anxiety, stress, and depression can also have a negative impact on our bodies and result in various physical health issues like increased heart rate, sweating, or feeling sick to the stomach.

Here are some common physical symptoms of anxiety you may experience:

• Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms – Anxiety also affects your digestive system. Nausea, stomach pain, problems with digestion, difficulty eating, and even excessive gas are some of the gastrointestinal issues you may experience.
• Sleep issues – Insomnia is commonly linked with anxiety. You may find it difficult to fall asleep when you cannot get rid of the persistent feelings of worry and fear. Other problems include waking up frequently throughout the night or the inability to stay asleep.
• Pains and aches – Headache is a common physical symptom of anxiety that usually results from overthinking and an endless cycle of stress. Muscle tension and pain in the body are general effects of anxiety.
• Skin issues – There is a strong relationship between your skin and emotions. When you are happy or satisfied from within, your skin glows, but when you are anxious, it can affect the skin negatively. You can get strange rashes, eczema, or other flare-ups as a result of your anxiety.
• Effects on the autonomic nervous system – The autonomic nervous system controls a lot more of the automatic process that takes place in the body, and most of the physical symptoms fall under this category. Effects of anxiety on ANS include shorter and rapid breathing, pounding heart, increased heart rate, trembling or shaking, excessive sweating, and frequent yawning.

When your body feels threatened or faces stress, it triggers a flight or fights response and releases a flood of chemicals and hormones into the system to help you respond to that threat. It is a natural reaction and results in several physical responses in the body, including dilated pupils and directing our circulation away from the processes like digestion and toward muscle and other components of the body that are more helpful for immediate survival.

The physical symptoms caused by anxiety are equally troubling as the mental symptoms for a lot of people. Feeling like you are struggling to breathe and your heart is racing are common physical effects anxiety could have on your body.

Can Anxiety Make You Cold?

Feeling chilled and having cold sensations is a common physical symptom of anxiety. Anxiety can alter how our body temperature feels. Chills are an especially confusing physical symptom, and you need to understand something is affecting your mood or emotions to make you feel this way. There may be multiple reasons that your anxiety could be making you feel cold.

Discussed here are some of the ways cold sensations and anxiety are connected:

• It is related to swelling – It may seem paradoxical, but sweating that occurs with anxiety may be the reason you are feeling cold. Anxiety is a kind of flight-and-fight response, but it is often a poor one. When your body heats and produces sweat, coming across cold air can make you feel cold. Anxiety can cause hot and cold sensations, but the process of heating is less noticeable, and we focus on cold.
• It is due to poor circulation in extremities – When your hand and feet are cold, it feels like your entire body is cold. Anxiety can cause hyperventilation, and as a result, the blood flows less efficiently. Also, the blood flow is directed towards the larger organs that are crucial for survival, leaving the extremities with sensations of being cold.
• Fear could be the cause of your chills – People who struggle with panic disorder and experience panic attacks or fear having them can feel cold when they are anxious. It is a complicated reaction that is not well understood, but there is something about the rush of adrenaline that accompanies a sudden fight or flight response, which leads to chills or shivers down the spine.
• You are more sensitive to feeling cold – People who go through anxiety frequently are more sensitive to bodily sensations than other people. While some people can ignore particular physical sensations, anxious individuals may be hyper-focused on them. Even feeling slightly cold can spike your anxiety in terms of wondering if something is wrong and thus, it becomes a cycle.

Sensations of cold and chill are not the only symptoms associated with anxiety, but you may feel cold at the time you experience anxiety, as your body is struggling to cope. The physical effects that accompany the fight or flight response can make you feel cold.

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How to Treat Physical Symptoms of Stress?

Even though you have come up with ways to deal with psychological symptoms of anxiety, learning how to manage or treat the physical effects that anxiety has on your body is also significant. The physical effects are just as challenging to deal with as the impacts it has on the mind.

Fortunately, there are plenty of self-care-related adjustments you can make in life to cope with physical symptoms of anxiety successfully.

Your healthcare expert may suggest the following to manage your symptoms:

• Maintain a healthy diet – Opt for healthier choices that provide your body with more energy to deal with stress and its symptoms. Limit your sugar and carb intake as much as you can, and eat a diet that is rich in fiber and unsaturated fats. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine, as they can worsen anxiety.
• Stay physically active – Being physically active not only helps release chemicals that boost your mood and make you feel happier but keeps you in good health too. Exercise is a great coping strategy that keeps stress levels down and strengthens your body to deal with stress more effectively. It also helps you sleep better.
• Try relaxation techniques – Yoga and meditation are effective relaxation techniques for managing your anxiety. Breathing exercises help calm down and relax the body physically by slowing the heart rate. Relaxation and mindfulness techniques ease the stress and physical tension and also distract your mind from stressful thoughts.

Yoga promotes a sense of calm both mentally and physically within the body. Research shows that relaxing strategies like yoga and meditation help reduce a lot of mental as well as physical symptoms associated with anxiety.

The impact of anxiety on the mind and body can be detrimental and intimidating to deal with. Even though you may want to attribute them to other reasons, symptoms like headaches, feeling cold or digestive issues can be a result of your anxiety. Call Online Psychiatrists now to find the best solution for your anxiety and the causes that affect your well-being. Dr. Zlatin Ivanov provides empathetic, judgment-free care and personalized treatment for your mental health issues. He helps you overcome the grip of anxiety and its unpleasant symptoms by addressing underlying causes and developing coping mechanisms that give you the energy to enjoy your life in a happier, healthier way.