Would you like to know more about anxiety signs and symptoms?
In this article, I’m going to explain the signs and symptoms of anxiety you can make sense of.
Let’s explore this further.
What is an anxiety disorder?
Anxiety is a normal feeling that we all experience sometimes. This is because we all have times when we feel afraid, worried or overwhelmed because of certain situations we encounter in life.
For instance, we might worry about being made redundant from a job, failing an exam, taking a test, or becoming unwell.
BUT, when these feelings of worry, danger or fear becomes ongoing such that it affects or interferes massively on our day-to-day life, even after the threat has gone, or make you feel worse, then maybe you have an anxiety disorder.
Other mental health problems may not be so obvious.
Is anxiety a mental illness?
When feelings of danger and fear gets intense and out of control such that your life is affected, anxiety becomes a mental illness.
Individuals with anxiety disorder may experience feelings like stress, panic and worry which last longer and are difficult to control.
Making sense of signs of anxiety can be useful to help control symptoms. Understanding these signs can help aid recovery.
I have organised these signs into 5 groups–so you can make sense of them.
- Emotions
- Thoughts
- Physical symptoms
- Life
- Behaviours
1. What are the emotional symptoms of anxiety?
- Feeling worried
- Feeling irritated
- Expecting the worst
- Feeling tense
- Feeling grumpy
- Watching for signs of danger
- Feeling helpless
- Moody most of the time
- Miserable
- Sad
- Empty
- Restless
- Agitated
- Panic attacks
- Trouble concentrating
- Unable to focus
How can I calm my emotional anxiety?
We know caffeine to be an anxiety inducer. As a result, cutting back will help calm emotional anxiety.
- Engage in meditation
- Engage in journaling where you can free write your thoughts.
- Talk to a friend, family or your GP about your symptoms.
- Take walks in nature
- Find a hobby
- Read an interesting book
2. What thoughts are associated with anxiety?
- Worried about family and friends.
- Thinking failure is imminent
- Feeling helpless
- Loss of interest
- Exhaustion increases
- Lack of clarity
- Difficulty in concentrating
How can you calm anxiety related thoughts?
- Take some time-out
- Engage in meditation
- Engage in journaling where you can free write your thoughts.
- Talk to a friend, family or your GP about your symptoms.
- Take walks in nature
- Find a hobby
- Read an interesting book
- Surround yourself with positive people.
3. What are the physical symptoms of anxiety?
- Sleep disturbances
- Insomnia–trouble sleeping
- Body aches and pains
- Outbreak of skin condition
- Sweating
- Shortness of breath
- Dizziness
- Heart palpitations.
How can you calm physical symptoms associated with anxiety?
- Take some time-out
- Eat a balanced diet
- Take deep breaths
- Exercise daily
- Engage in meditation
- Engage in journaling where you can free write your thoughts.
- Talk to a friend, family or your GP about your symptoms.
- Take walks in nature
- Find a hobby
- Read an interesting book or join a book club
4. How does anxiety affect a person’s life?
Anxiety may affect a person’s life in several ways. Individuals may experience the following life events.
- Feeling caged in
- Fear of trying something new
- Loss of income
- Feeling of unfulfilled potential
- Poor performance at work
- Less or no involvement in social activities
- Distancing oneself
- Feeling all alone
- Avoiding people
- Neglecting hobbies
- Neglecting interests
- Doing less in life
- The smallest tasks seem too much
- Having relationship difficulties
- Difficulties with family life.
5. What are behaviours of anxiety?
- Avoidance behaviours such as
- Avoiding social situations
- Avoiding using the elevator
- Avoiding going on the plane
- Avoiding crowded places such as shopping centre, football stadium, theatre
- A feeling of dread
- A feeling of being “on-edge”
Before you go
So, there you have it. It turns out to be easy to make sense of all those symptoms associated with anxiety.
The impact of anxiety can be damaging, and dealing with it can be very difficult.
People with anxiety find it difficult to live their lives the way they want.
They may have poor personal relationships because of their intense fear preventing them from engaging in social activities.
They may not be able to work and sometimes have agoraphobia or unable to leave the house.
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