Common Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

For many people struggling with anxiety, the physical symptoms can be alarming and confusing. Sometimes we can interpret these sensations as requiring urgent medical attention, or we can find ourselves not wanting to do the things we normally do, since we’re in such a state of discomfort.

Although these symptoms are a normal response to our body’s ‘threat’ response being activated, in the moment as they are occurring they can feel frightening, overwhelming and unpleasant. In fact, we can even get to the point where the symptoms themselves start to create anxiety – meaning we’re stuck in an uncomfortable anxiety loop of feeling anxious, and then feeling anxious about feeling anxious. 

The origins of anxiety

Our anxiety response is one of the oldest human responses around. Anxiety helped us to survive when the world was more dangerous, since being alert to potential threats or dangers was a huge benefit for our survival. Unfortunately, these responses are less helpful in our modern world, particularly because we can perceive threats everywhere we look – from a big mistake at work, to an uncomfortable conversation with a friend. 

One useful thing to consider is that, as you’re reading this guide, you may become more aware of the physical sensations in your body! This is totally normal, and is a good opportunity to just pay attention to what is going on for you. We can sometimes be hyper-vigilant about our body’s anxiety response (‘Oh no, my heart is racing again, and I’m feeling dizzy), and being able to recognise these sensations as normal responses to stress or threats can be really useful.

Even better, once we have some solid ways of managing the symptoms (eg. deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, grounding exercises), we will not be so worried by them – since we know exactly what to do when they come up. If you’d like to try new exercises for managing your anxiety, Mind Ease is full of them (you can download it here).

Here is a guide to some of the common anxiety symptoms you might experience – and a brief overview of what is happening in your body. 

Pounding heart / rapid breathing

You might notice that, when anxious, your heart starts to beat faster. This is your body’s natural response to a threat, with your brain telling your heart to pump blood around your body so that you’re ready to either fight or run away. Some people even have chest pain or a feeling of constriction in their chest – and this can be mis-interpreted as a heart attack, when it is, in fact, the body’s reaction to large amounts of adrenaline. 

This can be managed by taking long, deep breaths and focusing on your breathing – by doing this, you’re counteracting the ‘something’s wrong’ message from your brain, and shifting your body into the ‘everything’s fine’ mode. For some people who are hyper-sensitive to an increase in their heart rate, strategically doing some exercise or running on the spot is a good way to get used to what a racing heart feels like – and begin to recognize it as a normal response to physical activity rather than something to be worried about. 

Stomach tightness / indigestion / nausea

Many people experience gastrointestinal issues when anxious – either their digestion stops working totally, or their body tries to get rid of the food that is in its system. Either way, the results are uncomfortable! On a survival level, this is your body shifting its focus away from digestion towards survival – it needs all its resources to fight or run away, so it doesn’t have time to focus on digesting that sandwich you had for lunch.

Exercise in the morning, drinking lots of water, and activities like yoga can be helpful if you’re having these symptoms – yoga especially can stimulate the vagus nerve which helps with digestion. For some people who suffer from anxiety, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) can be an issue, and changes in diet might be necessary to help manage the symptoms.

Cold or hot Flush/dizziness

Stress hormones can have a major effect on our body – again, this would have helped our ancestors to survive, but if we’re regularly having cortisol dumped into our system by modern-day stressors (eg. an email from your landlord, running into an ex-partner in a restaurant, getting overdue electricity bills) we are going to be feeling jittery and on edge. Stress hormones cause our blood vessels to constrict so we may get a ‘cold flush’ or feel suddenly dizzy.

Again, these are all symptoms related to the ‘fight or flight’ reaction, and each of these is (technically) there to give us the best chance of survival in a life-or-death situation. Again, deep breathing and grounding exercises can help to bring us back from these physical states – reminding ourselves that things are actually okay, and that – for the moment – the best thing for our body to do is to calm itself down, rather than tick over into survival mode. 

Sweaty palms / dry mouth

The anxiety response also affects our sympathetic nervous system which, as well as causing our heart to race and our hands to shake, can cause a dry mouth and sweaty palms. This is our body readying itself for action and moving the blood flow away from digestion and towards your muscles. As discussed before, this can be really uncomfortable if you’re in your day to day life and don’t actually need to fight or run away!

Other than being aware that these symptoms are a normal response to threat or anxiety, it can be helpful to identify when they are likely to occur (eg. when catching public transport) and having some strategies in place to manage them (eg. a bottle of water, a calming soundtrack to listen to, doing some breathing exercises before leaving home). The better we get at identifying these anxiety symptoms, and learning how to manage them, the less we will be bothered by them. 

There are other physical manifestations of anxiety, but these are some of the most common. As noted, as distressing and uncomfortable as these symptoms are, they can be managed really effectively in a number of ways. Understanding that most of these symptoms are due to the ‘fight or flight’ response means that we also have a good idea of how to switch this off, or lower the intensity.

Mind Ease has a number of ‘Calm Me’ exercises that are designed to lower your arousal and anxiety symptoms, and help you to access a feeling of calm and wellbeing.

If you’d like reliable relief from anxiety, you can install Mind Ease for free here.