When Anxiety Takes Over the Body
4-minute read time
So often we hear about anxiety being “all in your head” - but what happens when it permeates outside your mind and starts manifesting physically in your body? This is something that many with a diagnosis of trauma or anxiety disorders experience on a daily basis. These physical symptoms can range from mild annoyances to complete debilitation, impacting the way we function in our daily lives.
We’ll cover:
How to Recognize Physical Anxiety
Is the tension in your body due to physical anxiety? It may be. But there are many symptoms, so let's break them up between the head and the body:
Head Sensations
Symptoms that occur in the head area can be specifically challenging for focus and contribute to fatigue. These include:
Headaches
Ringing in the ears
Dizziness, lightheadedness, or feeling as though you are going to pass out
Bodily Sensations
Symptoms that occur in the body can cause concerns of deeper health issues, but are typically benign. This includes:
Pins and needles sensations in the arms or legs
Chest pain or tightness
Racing heart or pulsing in the body
Neck, back, and shoulder pain
Warming sensations throughout the body
Nervous or upset stomach
Difficulty breathing
How Stress Impacts the Body
So where do these symptoms come from anyways? To start, anxiety can be understood as a form of energy in the body, much like excitement. When we experience stress or inflammation, this energy can be misinterpreted by our nervous system as danger. What follows is a chain reaction of distress. These physical anxiety symptoms can lead people to feel as though they are in danger, or even having a heart attack.
Cortisol is known as the “stress hormone” that regulates our body’s flight-or-flight response. It's also responsible for regulating our metabolism, immune response, blood pressure, and our sleep cycle. Carrying stress in the body leads to an increase in cortisol. High cortisol levels can manifest as any of the symptoms above, and oftentimes result in panic attacks. Additionally, many of the foods we eat or activities that we participate in can cause inflammation. Some common inflammatory factors include dairy, garlic, gluten, alcohol, and use of nicotine products.
When we experience our anxiety physically, it can become debilitating and leave many people feeling helpless to their symptoms. The pain and discomfort of living in a body that is stuck in fight-or-flight mode can be completely overwhelming.
Traditional coping strategies often fail to bring relief. Mental health professionals understand that “logic does not work” in these situations. It’s important to note your symptoms of physical anxiety and label them as such, but this is only the first step in finding relief.
Find Relief With Somatic Techniques
So how do we move anxiety out of our bodies? This is often a long process that requires commitment, but it can be easy to maintain once you get into the flow of it!
Once we identify the symptoms of physical anxiety, we must then focus on moving this anxious energy out of our body. This can be very uncomfortable depending on what symptoms you are experiencing, but trusting yourself and your body’s ability is key. We can start to incorporate somatic or sensorimotor psychotherapy techniques into our practices to release this energy.
Some of the most useful techniques for moving the energy out of our bodies are as follows:
Movement
Movement is key to getting negative energy out of our body. This helps to activate our feel-good hormones, such as endorphins, and help our bodies relax. The following are simple, yet effective methods for movement:
Walking - focusing on the path and the way it feels to move your body.
Somatic Shaking - a therapeutic, body-based practice involving rhythmic, intentional shaking to release stored tension, stress, and trauma from the nervous system.
Yoga - pigeon pose, frog pose, child’s pose, or anything to open the hips can have a significant impact on the body’s ability to release pent up energy.
Acupressure Points - holding, tapping, or thumbs of different body parts to release energy.
Hobbies & Diet
Our diet has a significant impact on the inflammatory response in our body, which can contribute to increases in physical anxiety symptoms. Additionally, many hobbies that focus on fine motor movements can help to break the cycle of symptom checking, and reengage with the world outside of our body's symptoms.
Eating - soft crackers, fruits, and vegetables can reduce symptoms of physical anxiety by triggering the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).
Diet - limiting inflammatory foods such as dairy, gluten, garlic, and onions.
Fine motor skill hobbies - puzzles, crochet, painting, or building with Legos.
Mental Health Support
It’s important to note that sometimes the activities above may not work to fully alleviate symptoms of anxiety, and that’s okay! This is a journey, and one size does not fit all. It’s important to speak with your healthcare provider if you continue to experience moderate to severe symptoms of physical anxiety, to see if the following may help you:
Medications - Many SSRIs such as Lexapro, Celexa, and Zoloft can be used to ease the symptoms of physical anxiety.
Therapeutic interventions - Exposure Therapy, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, and Trauma-Informed therapy can help to alleviate symptoms of physical anxiety.
Want to use therapy to learn to manage your anxiety or trauma symptoms?
Get started with a Wellspring Connection therapist.
Whether you choose to implement therapeutic interventions, hobbies and dietary changes, or medications to your daily routine, it’s important to remember that you are taking steps to care for yourself. The discomfort can becoming overwhelming, but you are not alone in this! There is help and relief!