Tag: Anxiety

Fear, anxiety, and stress are closely related emotions that involve feelings of worry or discomfort.

Anxiety typically arises in anticipation of an event, while fear is a reaction to an event that has already occurred.

Stress, on the other hand, is the tension or pressure felt from external demands, such as deadlines.

Fear is an instinctual response to perceived danger, such as the fear experienced at the sight of a bear, which is a direct reaction to a potential threat to safety. In such situations, the fear response is rational, prompting actions to avoid harm.

Anxiety serves as a response to potential threats, similar to fear, but often occurs in situations where the threat is not immediate or is uncertain, like the worry about failing an exam.

Stress differs in that it is elicited by external pressures requiring adaptation or response, such as the pressure to meet a work deadline. It does not necessarily involve the perception of a direct threat to personal safety, which distinguishes it from fear and anxiety.

The physical symptoms experienced as a result of these emotions can vary based on the individual and the specific part of the brain that is activated during these emotional responses.

People with anxiety usually feel shaky, nervous, or tense. Some even feel scared or panic. These changes can include:

• sweating
• shaking
• trembling
• shortness of breath
• rapid heartbeat

You shouldn’t use any medications to treat anxiety without first talking to your doctor or pharmacist.

Anxiety is most often noticed in young children through excessive crying, sleep disturbances, or restlessness.

As children grow older, they might exhibit aggression, social isolation, problems concentrating, or frequent headaches.

When treating adults, doctors recommend using both medication and counseling.

The medicine works best alongside cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and relaxation techniques. So how does anxiety affect the body?

When someone experiences anxiety, their bodies become activated. Their heart rate increases, and blood flow goes into overdrive. Adrenaline floods the system, and breathing becomes shallow.

Blood vessels dilate, making it harder to breathe.

This is not dangerous per se, but it could leave a person unable to cope with situations that usually wouldn’t cause them concern.

For example, if someone was driving down the highway, they might begin to feel anxious about approaching traffic lights.

Their body reacts by preparing itself for action to avoid this happening.

By increasing blood flow to specific brain parts, adrenaline prepares the body for action. However, high levels of adrenaline also make it difficult for the person to think clearly.

Without thinking clearly, they might lose control of their car.

It’s worth mentioning here that there are many types of anxiety disorder. In addition, different types of anxiety require different treatments.

For example, some types of stress can be treated successfully with CBT alone.

In contrast, others need more intensive treatment involving drugs and/or psychotherapy.

Do I Have An Anxiety Disorder?

Suppose you have been diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

In that case, you are undoubtedly aware that having this condition means you have significant worries about everyday things.

You may find yourself constantly worrying about everything, from losing money to getting fired at work.

There are two primary forms of GAD. One form occurs only once – known as ‘pure’ GAD, and the other is called ‘chronic’ GAD.

Pure GAD tends to be less severe than chronic GAD.

This is because pure GAD usually happens when something triggers bad feelings – such as losing one’s job – rather than occurring all the time.

Chronic GAD is defined as lasting for three months or longer.

It may be tough to recognize chronic GAD since you won’t necessarily have a strong difference in apparent symptoms.

While a doctor might initially diagnose you with a different anxiety disorder, they may diagnose you with chronic GAD.

This typically happens after running tests and seeing how your anxiety responds to treatment.

What Causes Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

The exact causes of GAD aren’t clear. But experts believe it has several contributing factors:

• Genetic makeup. Studies show that people with family members with depression or anxiety disorders tend to develop these conditions themselves.
• Stressful life events. These include serious illnesses, death in the family, divorce, financial problems, relationship issues, moving house, starting school, getting married, or being separated.
• Life transitions. People who move away from home, get divorced, start a new job, or go back to college will experience increased stress.
• Brain chemistry. Researchers suggest that some people have an inherited tendency to produce too much serotonin, which helps regulate mood and behavior. This imbalance can lead to anxiety.

How Is Generalized Anxiety Disorder Treated?

There are many ways to treat GAD. Medication, therapy, and lifestyle changes can help control anxiety and reduce its impact on daily living.

Medications

Doctors often prescribe medications to treat anxiety in adults. However, they are most effective when used with behavioral therapies like CBT.

Behavioral Therapies

Behavior therapies focus on changing unwanted thoughts and behaviors through learning strategies. Examples include mindfulness training, exposure therapy, and cognitive restructuring.

Lifestyle Changes

Lifestyle changes can play a significant role in managing GAD. For example, if you smoke, try to stop. Quit drinking alcohol if you can.

Maintain a consistent sleep schedule. Exercise regularly. Eat smaller meals during the day.

And take breaks throughout the day by going outside or doing another activity.

Support Groups

Talking to others who understand can be helpful. In addition, support groups offer emotional support and information.

Many local and national organizations provide support groups for those dealing with anxiety.

Alternative Medicine

There are growing studies showing positive effects from using alternative medicine to manage anxiety.

For example, research shows that certain herbs have antianxiety properties. Several vitamins also seem to decrease stress and anxiety.

However, many of these remedies haven’t yet been extensively studied.

What Are Other Effective Treatments?

It’s common to feel anxious about being anxious. You’re worried you’ll make yourself worse if you talk to your doctor about how you’re feeling.

But talking to someone else about your feelings can help ease them.

There are different types of support groups for people with anxiety problems.

For instance, some focus on specific issues, while others address general anxieties.

Support group members usually meet regularly in person or online to chat with other individuals going through similar situations.

Another option is to join a group at a local library. Online forums are great resources too.

Many websites offer tips and advice for managing stress, anxiety, and related conditions.

What Are Some Other Common Types Of Anxiety Disorders?

Social phobia is characterized by extreme anxiety about interacting with other people socially. Social anxiety may cause you to avoid social situations, stay in your room or even leave the country.

You may feel fearful about meeting new people or talking to strangers.

As a result, you may isolate yourself from friends and family.

Specific phobias involve intense fears about particular objects or situations.

People with specific phobias tend to overreact to perceived threats and become anxious due to their fears.

Phobic disorders are common among children and adults.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves recurring intrusive thoughts and images and repetitive behaviors such as handwashing, counting, hoarding, and checking.

Obsessions refer to obsessive thoughts that may include aggressive, sexual, or religious themes.

Compulsions are rituals performed to cope with addictions.

OCD might affect school performance, job productivity, and relationships.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops when someone experiences an event or series of events that cause serious injury, death, or physical threat.

PTSD often results in nightmares, flashbacks, and avoidance of reminders of the trauma.

Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder involving sudden episodes of terror and fear.

The attacks are unpredictable, severe, and last up to thirty minutes.

During these “raids,” sufferers experience shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness, and numbness.

They may also experience chest pain, heart palpitations, shaking, trembling, and choking sensations.

Sufferers typically try to control themselves through breathing exercises and muscle relaxation but find this difficult.

Postpartum depression has both psychological and physiological components.

Women who experience postpartum blues can be reassured by knowing they are not alone in their sadness.

However, if these mood swings persist for weeks or months, then it’s time to see a doctor.

Depression leads to changes in sleeping patterns and appetite. A woman experiencing this condition feels sad, irritable, and guilty.

She may lose interest in activities she once enjoyed, like spending time with her baby. She may sleep poorly and eat little or overeat.

This state of mind can continue for weeks or months.

If left untreated, depression can lead to complications such as low birth weight, premature delivery, and suicidal tendencies.

Are There Any Natural Treatments For Anxiety Disorder?

Many natural treatments for anxiety include herbal remedies and meditation.

In fact, some studies have shown that certain herbs can help boost serotonin levels, which helps reduce stress.

Homeopathy is another effective way to treat symptoms of anxiety.

Most Anxiety Symptoms Are Normal

If you’re worried about having anxiety attacks, they might not signify a large disorder.

Most anxiety symptoms fall into one of four categories: everyday concerns, worrying too much, worrying about nothing at all, or panic attacks.

You might not be suffering from long-term anxiety because most common anxiety symptoms are entirely typical.

Consequences Of Stress And Anxiety On Your Body

Stress can impact all aspects of our lives. From simple tasks to more complex ones, we constantly face challenges and stressors in life.

We have to learn to cope with these challenges and stressors and handle them appropriately.

Unfortunately, if we do not manage stress properly, it may result in physical ailments and diseases.

Moreover, chronic stress can also contribute to the development of psychiatric illnesses, such as anxiety.

Final Thoughts

Stress is unavoidable. However, learning how to deal with stressful events and circumstances can significantly improve your overall quality of life.

If you need help coping with stress, seek the aid of a qualified counselor who can provide you with the tools necessary to effectively manage stress in your life.

A healthy lifestyle, regular exercise, adequate sleep, and good relaxation techniques can help you overcome stress and anxiety.

 

Obsessively fretting over one’s health to the point of irrationality can be severely limiting, leading to constant medical appointments, overmedication, and the avoidance of everyday situations and activities.

Known medically as somatic symptom disorder, with the outdated term being hypochondria, this form of health anxiety is a recognized condition that may present intermittently or persist over time.

Health anxiety manifests in various ways, including an excessive preoccupation with illnesses, diseases, and potential injuries, and should never be dismissed as trivial.

By seeking information, you’ve already made a significant step in acknowledging your struggle with health anxiety. The journey ahead involves breaking this cycle, and this guide aims to introduce several strategies to help you begin this process gradually and effectively.

Establish The Cause Of Your Health Anxiety

The first step to treating health anxiety is to understand the source or cause. By knowing where it started, you can begin to understand the problem and address any triggers that are associated with it.

Health anxiety is often caused by past trauma, such as a personal health scare, a health scare of someone you know, past injury, or the illness or death of someone close. It can also fit in as part of a broader diagnosis such as general OCD.

Do you identify with any of these? It might be the case that there is more than one source of your health anxiety. Whichever it is, knowing what caused it is the first step to understanding it and treating it.

Recognize Triggers

No matter whether you understand the source of your health anxiety or not, it is possible to recognize the triggers that cause your anxieties.

Think about moments in the past or recently where you experienced health anxiety. There might be more severe cases, as well as mild cases. Write these down and try to think about the triggers that caused them.

Triggers might include the symptoms of an illness itself, certain food, certain activities, situations that seemed dangerous, public areas, or even things such as leaving the house, crossing the road, or touching public surfaces.

When you have recognized these, it is also worth noting the physical effects you experienced and commonly experience. Health anxiety might occur with shakiness/jitters, nausea, elevated heart rate, fast breathing, sweating, and lightheadedness.

Educate Yourself On Illnesses

In many cases, health anxiety strikes due to irrational fear of specific symptoms of an illness that can be either false or overly common. The solution to breaking this cycle is to educate yourself on any illnesses that trigger you and the symptoms related to that illness.

By doing this, you can better understand the illness(es) and what the real symptoms of that illness are. Oftentimes, symptoms can be broad or common, which makes it irrational to excessively worry about them.

If needed or desired, seek a health professional who can help you to truly understand any illnesses and the symptoms that are worth worrying about or not.

Redirect Your Attention

Anxiety, or OCD, in general can be reduced or avoided by teaching yourself to change your focus of attention when you recognize a bout of health anxiety starting.

To do this, you have to first know what your triggers are. The next step is to remember that the feelings or thoughts are most likely irrational. When you have done that, try to redirect your attention to an activity that works for you.

This can include a hobby, doing some chores, engaging in a mental activity (such as a crossword or puzzle), taking a walk or doing exercise, gardening, or doing something creative, like writing, sketching, or playing an instrument.

Whichever you find beneficial for you, make it a habit to recognize triggers, irrational thoughts and feelings, and then change your focus of attention.

Challenge Your Anxieties

Having health anxiety can come with many different fears of certain places, situations, and activities. These are often the triggers that cause health anxiety to start, which you should learn to recognize.

Once you know the triggers for your health anxiety, try to challenge these anxieties by taking small steps to confront them.

Whether it’s a place, situation, or activity, attempt to put yourself in these situations or engage in the activities to help build your confidence and also realize (and overcome) any irrational fears you may have associated with them.

If it helps, confront these anxieties with a friend or family member who can provide you with the support you need.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a common method of treatment for a variety of anxiety disorders, including health anxiety.

In general, cognitive behavioral therapy involves educational discussions and classes, and putting patients through progressive exercises and situations to help rewire thought processes and reactions to different triggers.

If you feel that the above methods do not work, or you would like extra help, there is nothing wrong with seeking cognitive behavioral therapy as a means to overcome your health anxiety.

In most cases, cognitive behavioral therapy is a successful method of treatment that can help break the cycle of health anxiety and eliminate it altogether.

Conclusion

Living with health anxiety, also known as somatic symptom disorder and hypochondria, is difficult. It can prevent being able to live a normal life or even a happy life due to a range of obsessive fears and worries that are hard to control.

Health anxiety is not a permanent condition, however. While it might have been caused by a past traumatic experience, there are steps you can take in alleviating triggers and even overcoming health anxiety altogether.

If you feel that health anxiety is negatively affecting your life on a daily basis, always make sure to seek professional help or even confide in someone close to you.

In any case, try to establish the source of your health anxiety, realize your triggers, educate yourself on illnesses to recognize irrational fears, and challenge your anxieties in small steps to slowly get better over time.

https://youtu.be/Zqx692vcQms

Anxiety disorders affect millions of Americans every year. In fact, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), approximately 40 million adults suffer from some form of anxiety disorder.

The symptoms of anxiety include feelings of fear or worry, restlessness, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and sleep problems. These symptoms can cause significant distress and interfere with daily life.

Anxiety disorders are often associated with stress, but they also develop over time or can be a character trait such as OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder).

Understanding Anxiety

Contrary to popular belief; anxiety is actually a good thing for the body. Without it, we would never have survived past the days when we lived in caves and had to worry about being attacked by wild animals and rival groups.

When your body senses an external danger, it goes into survival mode which causes your mind to be distracted and focused on surviving any imminent ‘dangers.’

Whilst we are way past our days living in a cave, the modern world has caused us to become more stressed and anxious than ever before.

And for many people, after a long day, they find that their anxiety levels have turned up to eleven and they are not sure why.

Why Does Anxiety Kick In At Night?

People can experience stress for many different reasons and this can occur at different times of the day for different people.

However, some people only encounter anxiety at certain times of the day; in the case of our discussion today we explore why you might only feel anxiety at night.

There’s no one defining reason why nighttime anxiety rears its ugly head during the night, and it could be due to one cause or several reasons that all go hand-in-hand.

However, here are a few reasons why you might be experiencing high levels of anxiety during the night.

Overactive Mind

Are you exposing yourself to lots of high-adrenaline activities that are potentially making your stress levels increase?

This could be the reason why you are unable to settle down, as you have lots of thoughts flying through your head which can lead to increased levels of anxiety.

We’ve entered a place in our history where we are trying to do more than we can sustain, causing us to overwork ourselves which can lead to burnout.

Dietary Factors

Stress often leads to us making some not-so-healthy dietary decisions. Whether that’s because stress either causes you to eat more, consume less, or take in the wrong things all affect levels of nighttime anxiety.

For example, having too much caffeine has been shown to affect our ability to get to sleep, as well as stay asleep during the night.

However, many people rely on caffeine to make it through the day because they are already lacking in good quality sleep brought on by stress and anxiety.

This causes you to need to drink more caffeine which will continue to affect sleep. So you can probably see the vicious cycle that is playing out here.

We can also create anxiety in our bodies when we continue to eat foods that are not ‘healthy’ or good for us nutritionally.

We perceive ourselves as failures because we strayed from our diets, making us feel anxious that our health is spiraling out of control, whether that’s actually the case or not.

Substance Use

Along with caffeine, others may resort to using substances to help alleviate their nighttime anxiety, which may end up doing more harm than good.

Common drugs to mask anxiety conditions are usually alcohol and tobacco, which can exacerbate symptoms when the drug wears off.

Ongoing Stressful Events

Stressful life events, traumas, or emotional shocks can all bring the onset of nighttime anxiety.

They can include life situations like a divorce, loss of a loved one, relationship problems, change in living arrangements, and abuse from others.

Stressors that linger in your mind that don’t get resolved can lead to an increased heart rate and heart palpitations.

Worrying about paying the mortgage, or how you are going to afford Christmas this year can all affect the body’s ability to relax.

How To Stop Getting Anxious At Night

Whilst the best treatment option is to tackle the reason why you get nighttime anxiety, such as seeking a mental health professional; there are a few ways to help control the symptoms when you experience an episode.

Avoid Caffeine After Midday

Caffeine has a half-life of around 6-8 hours, meaning that 200 mg of caffeine that is ingested at 2 PM can mean we still have 100 mg of caffeine in our body at 10 PM, making it harder to relax in the evening.

Stick to only drinking caffeine in the morning and having decaf after midday, to help drop caffeine levels in the body.

Write Out Your Thoughts

If you’re stuck in your head and have stressful thoughts floating around, a good way to mitigate this is to complete a mind dump and get your thoughts out of your head onto paper or a document.

Either after you finish work, or before bed, set a timer for five minutes and write down everything that you need to complete or that you are stressing about.

Just getting it written down will help release some of the tension you have built up.

Relaxation Therapy

There are many strategies to help calm the mind, such as yoga, meditation, an Epsom salt bath before bed, or listening to relaxing music, which all help you to sleep at night.

On the flip side of this is disengaging in activities that can cause anxiety.

Avoiding your phone or laptop will not only mean you avoid blue light, which has been shown to decrease serotonin levels in the body – a key component of helping the body to relax; you avoid negative news articles, online arguments, and triggering social media posts that can raise anxiety levels.

Final Thoughts

People with anxiety are not uncommon, but if left untreated, it can become debilitating. The most important thing is to learn what triggers your anxiety, so you can identify the root causes and treat them accordingly.

Anxiety is something that affects everyone at some point in their lives. Some people experience it frequently, while others rarely or never feel anxious.

Regardless of whether you suffer from anxiety or not, it can affect your daily life in a number of ways.

The word anxiety comes from the Latin term ‘anxietas’, meaning worry or unease. People who suffer from anxiety often experience symptoms such as restlessness, sweating, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and nausea.

But this can go beyond the typical symptoms, and can even affect a person’s toilet habits.

What Is Anxiety Poop?

Anxiety causes changes in the body, especially in the digestive system, and often you may experience anxiety poop: a reaction from your brain to extreme stress.

The reason that anxiety makes you poop so much is that your brain is constantly sending signals to your stomach, telling you when to eat and drink, but also when to hold back on food.

Too much pressure on the stomach can cause problems with digestion and can manifest as constipation, diarrhea, and nausea.

Why Does Anxiety Poop Happen?

As we’ve learned; highly stressful situations can trigger the onset of the digestive system to act in an abnormal way through means of constipation, diarrhea, or nausea. But why does this happen?

It’s all to do with the gut-brain axis; the connection between your mind and the digestive system. When the brain feels a sense of danger, it releases stress hormones, namely control, and noradrenaline.

And the body responds with physical symptoms.

But one important hormone is serotonin. This is a neurotransmitter that has a role to play in helping food move through the gastrointestinal tract.

Hence, when serotonin is released it causes contractions within the colon that stimulates bowel movements.

This process also affects the vagus nerve; which helps to send signals that include the digestive system. Dysfunction causes anxiety, and thus you find an increase in gut motility.

How To Avoid Anxiety Poop

The number one response should be to actively fix your anxiety symptoms, which is easier said than done.

Working with a mental health professional could be a good option for those that need an outlet to voice their stressors and anxieties.

However, here are a few at-home tips and lifestyle interventions you can try to help soothe your excited bowel.

Dietary Considerations

It’s always a good idea to limit or avoid certain foods that are prone to cause inflammation to the body, and gut. If you experience anxiety poop you may want to consider limiting the following foods and drink:

• Refined sugar, i.e. chocolate, cakes, and candy
• Processed foods, canned meats, and processed meats
• Spicy foods
• Gluten-containing products such as white bread, or pasta.

Whilst on the topic of diet, you may also want to consider limiting any drugs that you are using, that could be masking the problem.

For example, too much caffeine in our system can affect the amount of sleep we have, which in turn can drive up anxiety and stress, leading to anxiety poop.

Alcohol is another common anxiety-inducing substance, as it temporarily relieves symptoms in the short term, which ultimately come back once the effect wears off.

It’s also shown to affect the body’s ability to get into a deep sleep where the body is able to relax, and therefore recover.

Eat Mindfully

How many times have you rushed down a plate full of food because you wanted to get back to your long list of items to-do?

Eating quickly doesn’t allow the food to be broken down effectively, which can lead to big chunks of food remaining undigested as it passes through the digestive system.

Allowing yourself to chew food until it is almost liquid will help create a soothing experience when dining, which helps to ease anxiety.

It’s also a good idea to place your knife and fork down in between every mouth full of food to keep yourself as paced as possible.

Relaxation Therapy

There are many healthy and helpful activities to commit to when trying to manage anxiety poop. Some of our favorites are meditation, yoga, taking a hot bath with Epsom salts, listening to relaxing music, and reading a novel.

By the same token, you should also avoid stressful triggers that can upset your digestive system. We’ve likely all been upset by something we’ve seen on the news or something we’ve read online.

Knowing what causes our anxiety to start and eliminating these triggers can help calm the digestive system and allow some relief from the stress of anxiety.

Move Your Body

Daily movement for the body can help keep things regular down there and decrease muscle tension, as well as lower stress and anxiety levels.

You won’t need to worry about completing a high-intensity training session (unless you want to, of course). All you’ll need to do is go for a walk as this is one of the best low-intensity exercises you can do.

It’s also worth resistance training at least two times per week, as this can also help reduce anxiety levels and improve our mood.

You won’t need to join a gym (unless you want to) as simple bodyweight exercises can help you achieve your twice per week target.

Final Thoughts

Anxiety pooping isn’t an uncommon thing for those suffering from anxiety and depression. Whilst it can sometimes be embarrassing, it’s important to remember that it’s not a sign of weakness.

Anxiety poops happen to everyone, but if you’re experiencing them regularly, then it’s time to take action to address the issue.

If you feel that you might be struggling with anxiety pooping, then please don’t hesitate to reach out for support. We hope that this article has helped you understand more about anxiety pooping and how to deal with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)?

IBS is a collection of symptoms that affect the digestive system, that includes bloating, gas, abdominal cramps, and skin irritation. If you are having issues with your digestion, seek advice from a doctor or health practitioner.

Anxiety can happen to all of us, no matter whether we realize it or not.

There are different levels of anxiety, and how bad the anxiety is, or feels, can be evaluated in relation to the negative side effects experienced and how often it happens and for how long.

Oftentimes, anxiety strikes out of the blue. It can arise from something that triggers us in the present, something we are anxious about in the future, or something that happened in the past that we are thinking about in retrospect.

When you are feeling anxious, it can be difficult to make sense of the feelings or thoughts you are having. And, as a result, it can be hard to explain anxiety to someone, whether that’s someone we are opening up to or want to open up to.

This guide will make it easier.

Talking about anxiety, and your mental health in general, is always worth it. It can be both a cathartic release and a means to receive constructive help.

Below, this guide explains anxiety, what anxiety feels like, and the effects that anxiety can have on your life, so that you can make better sense of it for yourself, as well as when it comes to explaining anxiety to other people.

Anxiety Defined

First of all, let’s define anxiety.

Anxiety is defined as an emotional state of unease and nervousness, typically due to feelings of fear or apprehension about an event with an uncertain outcome or something that has happened in the past.

In more serious cases, anxiety can be a chronic mental disorder (such as social anxiety) diagnosed by a psychiatrist that affects someone on a regular, long-term basis, with detrimental side effects to day-to-day life or overall quality of life.

In either case, anxiety can result in temporary or long-term physical side effects, the inability to concentrate, loss of appetite, low motivation, impulsive behavior, sleep depravity, and depression.

What Does Anxiety Feel Like?

So, what does anxiety feel like? We can break this down into fear, inadequacy, overstimulation, and physical symptoms.

You may identify with some or all of these symptoms, which can also depend on the severity and longevity of the anxiety you are experiencing.

Fear And Apprehension

The central emotions of anxiety are feelings of nervousness, fear, and apprehension, resulting in a state of general unease that will go wrong or did go wrong.

In most cases, it will be due to something that might happen or is going to happen in the future, often with an uncertain outcome in relation to your involvement.

But it can also be due to sudden bad news, or a recent event that you are looking back on, possibly with embarrassment or uncertainty about what you did or how you acted or performed.

Feelings Of Inadequacy

Since anxiety often strikes from nervousness about an upcoming event or situation, it can typically come with feelings of inadequacy.

This includes lack of confidence in one’s abilities and therefore the surety that something will go wrong, which can fuel the emotional state of nervousness and fear.

As a result, you might not feel good enough or confident enough to handle the event/situation ahead and get through any obstacles that might or will be presented in your path.

Overstimulation And Feeling Overwhelmed

Anxiety often feels like there is a lot happening mentally, which we can describe as mental overstimulation and feeling/being mentally overwhelmed.

Due to the apprehension, fear, and the possible lack of confidence to succeed or make it through a difficult situation or future event, anxiety often comes with a host of negative feelings and thoughts, all at once, that can feel like a complete lack of control.

With so much happening in your head, the result can be the inability to control your thought processes, emotions, and even your behavior.

The Physical Symptoms Of Anxiety

Anxiety is not just mental; it can come with, or lead to, physical symptoms that can exacerbate the negative emotions and thoughts that are already being experienced.

Both the mental and physical sides of anxiety may have a vicious cycle effect that fuels the other.

The physical symptoms/side effects of anxiety include elevated or irregular heart rate, ringing ears (tinnitus), headaches or migraines, and shakiness/tremors, either of the hands, head, or whole body.

The Larger Side Effects Of Anxiety

Anxiety often has a negative broader effect on one’s quality of life and/or usual routine on a day-to-day basis.

These effects may be temporary and even long-term, in which case action should be taken (seeking professional help) to treat the anxiety.

The larger side effects of anxiety include:

• inability to focus or concentrate
• lack of motivation
• inability to sleep and/or stay asleep
• irritability
• impatience
• loss of appetite
• compulsive/impulsive behavior
• social detachment and isolation
• depression

Seeking Help For Anxiety

The first thing to realize is anxiety is more common than you might think.

You are not alone if you experience anxiety – no matter whether it is temporary, frequent, or long-term – so there is not only someone who you can talk to (professional or not) but other people who you can talk to and relate to.

If you want help, talk to a close friend or family member. You can also find anonymous helplines and chatlines online, as well as anonymous groups and forums where you can discuss your experiences with other people.

Remember: opening up about your anxiety can be a cathartic, therapeutic experience but also a means to receive help. It does not show weakness to seek help, but real courage in opening up and wanting to get better.

Conclusion

Anxiety is a mixed emotional state that, as a result, can make it difficult to make sense of and explain.

But whether you experience anxiety frequently or infrequently on any level of severity, we hope you found this guide helpful in understanding anxiety and how it feels on a personal level, so that you can better explain it to someone else when seeking help.

So, for a final takeaway, never deal with anxiety on your own. It is more common than you might think and can be dealt with in more than one way: with a close friend or family member, professionally, or anonymously over the phone and online.

Anxiety is something that affects everyone at some point in their lives. If you suffer from chronic anxiety or panic attacks, you might want to try these simple relaxation techniques to ease stress and improve your overall health.

Anxiety disorders affect over 40 million Americans. This condition causes excessive worry and fear, often leading to avoidance behaviors.

Anxiety can cause muscle tension in the neck and shoulder area. This tension can lead to headaches, back pain, and other issues. Relaxation exercises can help reduce tension and increase flexibility.

If you are suffering from tension in your neck and shoulders due to anxiety, and want to stop it, then you’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, we are going to look at some tips and tricks that can help release the tension in your neck and shoulders.

How Are Anxiety, Neck Tension, And Shoulder Tension Linked?

You might be wondering how something you are feeling has physical effects on the body. Well, the answer is quite simple. When you are experiencing anxiety, your muscles can contract.

This is a reflex reaction of your muscles and some people refer to it as a flight or fight response.

So since your muscles tense up when you are anxious this can cause stiffness and tension in these muscles. There are many physical effects of anxiety, such as being out of breath or even sweating.

Ways To Release Tension In Your Neck And Shoulders

Now that you know how anxiety affects your neck and shoulders, let’s take a look at some ways to relax them.

Warm Shower Or Bath

One way to relax your neck and shoulders is by taking a warm shower or bath. The heat will open up your pores and allow for more blood flow. It also helps to loosen tight muscles.

You can use Epsom salt or baking soda in the water to make the experience even better.

A warm shower or a bath is a great way to help reduce stress and anxiety. The warmth can help you relax and can be quite soothing. In turn, you feel less stressed and anxious.

You can even make showering or taking a warm bath more relaxing by lighting some candles, listening to some music, or even using bubbles in the bath.

We would recommend that you massage your neck and shoulders when you are in the shower or bath. This will help to release the tension in your muscles.

It would also be a good idea to do some stretches for your neck and shoulders.

Stretch Your Neck

Another way to relax your neck is by stretching it. Stretching your neck can help to stretch out any knots or tightness in your muscles. Make sure to go slowly while doing this exercise so that you don’t strain your neck.

One neck stretch requires you to stand straight and tall. Then, you need to bring your left hand and place it on the top of your head with your fingers on the side of your face.

Slowly pull your head to the left side so you can feel your neck stretch. Repeat this on the opposite side.

You also should stretch the back of your neck. To do this you lean your head forward until you can feel your neck stretching. Hold your head in this position for a few minutes and then release.

There is also the option of moving your head side to side in a semicircle position to stretch your neck.

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Stretch Your Shoulders

Stretching your shoulders will also be able to release the tension in them caused by anxiety. One of the simplest shoulder stretches to do in order to release tension from your shoulders, is a shoulder roll.

All you have to do is keep your arms at your side and then roll your shoulders backward for a few seconds. Once you have done this, you roll your shoulders forward for the same amount of time.

Rolling your shoulders should help to loosen any tension that is in them.

Go To Yoga

Since stretching is so important for being able to get rid of shoulder and neck tension, doing yoga will help with this. If you repeatedly go to yoga this will help the tension in your neck and shoulders for longer.

Also, if you practice yoga regularly, you will notice that your body becomes stronger and healthier over time.

Yoga has been proven to help people who suffer from anxiety as well. Yoga isn’t just about stretching, it is also about meditating. The act of stretching and meditation can help to calm your anxiety.

When you do yoga, you focus on breathing. Breathing exercises can help to calm your mind and body. By focusing on your breath, you can take deep breaths which will help to clear your mind.

There are also specific yoga poses that are known for helping with anxiety and its symptoms.

Check Your Positions

If you notice that you get a lot of anxiety when you are doing specific tasks such as your job, then it is a good idea to make sure that your work area is comfortable.

You need to make sure that your laptop or computer is placed correctly so that your neck is not strained.

You can also check the seat is supporting your body to reduce the strain on your neck and shoulders. If you have a desk job it is important that you move around during your job.

Treat Your Anxiety 

Whilst all of these tips will help to reduce your neck and shoulder tension, the best way to get rid of it is to start treating your anxiety. This means that you need to talk to someone about how you are feeling.

It could be a friend or family member, or a therapist. Talking to someone about your feelings will help you to understand what is causing your anxiety.

You may want to try and find the trigger of your anxiety, this could help you work out the best treatment for it.

There are so many ways to treat anxiety, so to start working on your anxiety, speak to a mental health care professional.

Final Thoughts

Anxiety is something that everyone feels every now and again. However, some people feel anxious more often than others.

If you are finding yourself getting stressed out more often than usual, then there are things that you can do to help.

Having physical effects caused by your anxiety can make you feel worse. However, there are plenty of ways to reduce the tension in your body.

Hopefully, this guide has helped you to learn how to deal with tension in your neck and shoulders. Please share this guide with anyone else who might benefit from reading it. Thank you for reading!

Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental disorder in the United States. Approximately 40 million adults in the U.S. suffer from anxiety in some form.

Despite this, anxiety often remains misunderstood, and people with good intentions often say the wrong thing when trying to help people experiencing anxiety.

If someone in your life is dealing with anxiety, and you want to be able to support them, you’re probably wondering what you should say.

However, it’s perhaps even more important to learn what you should not say to someone with anxiety.

After all, there are many ways to help someone with anxiety without saying anything at all (taking care of household tasks, for example, or simply keeping them company), whereas saying the wrong thing can make somebody feel much worse and potentially hinder their recovery.

Keep reading to find out what you should never say to someone with anxiety if you want to help them to feel better.

1. Just Stop Worrying 

If you don’t have anxiety yourself, another person’s anxiety might seem confusing. Why do they keep thinking about things that make them anxious?

The thing is, if not worrying were that simple, nobody would have anxiety.

By telling a person with anxiety to ‘just stop’ worrying or ruminating, you’re essentially invalidating their experience of their mental health disorder by implying that anxiety is a choice.

Nobody would actively choose to live a life filled with anxiety if they could simply stop on command.

2. You Need to Get Over It 

In the same vein, ‘get over it’ is something you should never say to someone going through a difficult time, and that includes people with anxiety.

Just like ‘stop worrying’, this phrase implies that the anxious person can just turn off their anxiety like a light switch.

This particular choice of words is also trivializing because you’re essentially saying that it’s not that big a deal, and they should just be able to move past it, which is definitely not what it feels like when you’re in the middle of a panic attack.

3. What Do You Have To Be Anxious About? 

It’s certainly true that anxiety can be triggered by life circumstances. Certain situations can make a person more prone to anxious feelings or worsen existing anxiety.

For example, debt, poor living conditions, problems at work, relationship issues, and many other factors can be sources of severe anxiety.

However, not all anxiety is due to external factors. Anxiety can also be caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, meaning that it often has nothing to do with a person’s circumstances.

Additionally, you never know what someone is going through behind closed doors.

Questioning someone’s reasons for having anxiety will only cause them to feel guilty and believe that their mental health condition is not valid.

Far from encouraging them in their recovery, saying something like this will probably make the anxious person less likely to reach out to you, potentially causing them to isolate themselves to the further detriment of their mental health.

4. You’re Being Irrational 

This one is closely related to our previous point.

Anxious responses are often not based on rational thinking – in fact, part of the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder is that the anxiety becomes irrational as well as interfering with day-to-day functioning.

People with anxiety are typically completely aware that their anxiety responses are not proportional or rational, but that doesn’t make them any less real.

Often, people will point out that a person’s anxiety is irrational in a well-intentioned attempt to help them to gain perspective on the situation.

However, there are better ways of achieving this, such as remaining calm to foster a safe environment.

5. Everyone Gets Anxious Sometimes 

‘But everyone feels anxious sometimes!’ is another thing that people who don’t have anxiety disorders say while trying to be comforting.

Most of the time, this is an attempt to empathize and make the anxious person feel less alone.

The problem with this is that while most people do feel anxious from time to time, that’s not the same as living with anxiety.

Feeling sick to your stomach before speaking in public is not the same as dealing with overwhelming worry and fear so frequently that it impacts your health (mental and physical), social life, work, and relationships.

People with anxiety are significantly more likely to experience suicidal thoughts than those without. This is why it’s important to take anxiety disorders seriously and not say things that trivialize them.

6. It’s All In Your Head 

Yet another minimizing statement people without anxiety make is, ‘it’s all in your head.’ This is basically the same as telling an anxious person that they are being irrational because their problems are not ‘real’.

The thing is, we don’t use this kind of language to talk about any other health conditions. A patient with pneumonia would not be told, ‘you’ll get over it, it’s all in your lungs.’

Yes, the condition may be limited to the lungs, but that doesn’t make it any less debilitating or potentially dangerous. The same is true for anxiety.

Besides, this statement isn’t even correct. Anxiety is actually not confined to a person’s head.

Physical symptoms of anxiety include shortness of breath, racing heart rate, chest pain, muscle tension, gastrointestinal issues, numbness or pins and needles in the limbs and extremities, and uncontrollable shaking.

7. Have A Drink

Offering someone who seems stressed or anxious a drink might be a well-intentioned attempt to help them relax, but self-medicating anxiety with substances is not a good idea and can even be dangerous.

If a person with anxiety turns to alcohol to soothe their anxiety, it can quickly become an unhealthy coping mechanism that may spiral into addiction.

Many people with anxiety have noticed that their anxiety tends to feel more manageable after a couple of drinks. This is because of the gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) acid in alcohol that produces a calming effect.

However, because alcohol alters the brain’s serotonin levels, it’s common for people to feel even more anxious after the alcohol wears off.

Instead of grabbing libation consider meditation along with a diffuser in the background.

8. Why Are You Always So Negative?

Please, whatever you do, don’t make someone with anxiety feel like a burden or a ‘killjoy’ because of their mental health.

Most people with anxiety would love to always be able to see the silver lining, but anxiety can make the world seem like a dark and frightening place.

Instead of making the anxious person in your life feel guilty about their anxiety, try to lead by example in showing that person that there are good, kind people in the world who will support them through difficult times.

Final Thoughts 

If you have said any of the phrases above to someone with anxiety, don’t worry – you probably had good intentions, and you’re not alone in having said the wrong thing.

Now that you know what not to say to people with anxiety, you can be a better mental health ally and offer genuine support for anxiety without judgment.