Anxiety Symptoms (A Complete Guide)

In this brief article, we will be discussing anxiety symptoms, the physical anxiety symptoms, severe anxiety symptoms, emotional symptoms of anxiety, and more information about anxiety symptoms

What are anxiety symptoms?

Anxiety symptoms are the feelings and bodily sensations that people with anxiety feel.

These kinds of symptoms vary from different affected people and some may have these symptoms in severe forms than others. 

Although some common anxiety symptoms are reported and are the following:

• anxiousness, being tense or sleeplessness
• feelings of danger, dread or panic
• quick heart rate
• quick breathing or hyperventilation (before labelling shortness of breath with anxiety, you should learn when to associate it with anxiety and when not to. This is because shortness of breathe doesn’t only occur in anxiety, but in other health conditions too).
• enhanced or heavy sweating
• shaking or muscle twitching
• fatigue and lethargy
• Issues in focusing or thinking clearly and directly about anything other than the thing you’re anxious about
• insomnia
• digestive or gastrointestinal concerns such as gas, diarrhoea or constipation (it is believed that anxiety can cause a pulse in the stomach)
• a strong need to prevent the things that cause your anxiety
• obsessions about specific thoughts which is a sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder
• doing specific behaviours repeatedly
• anxiety about a certain life event or experience that has happened in the past, especially implying post-traumatic stress disorder

Panic attacks or anxiety attacks

A panic attack is an unexpected arousal of fears and worries that may be triggered or not by any kind of stimuli with the following anxiety symptoms:

• palpitations
• sweating. Check the best antiperspirants for anxiety sweat.
• shaking or trembling
• feeling shortness of breath or being smothered
• feeling of choking
• chest aches or tightness
• nausea or gastrointestinal difficulties
• dizziness, feeling faint or light-headedness
• Sensations of hot or cold
• Emotional numbness or tingling feelings or paresthesia
• feeling detached from oneself or reality which is recognized as depersonalization and derealization
• fear of going insane or lacking control
• Anxiety about dying

Anxiety symptoms can occur in some psychological disorders that aren’t considered as anxiety disorders.

This is the case with panic attacks in panic disorder or agoraphobia. 

People often associate general physiological symptoms, such as abnormal EKG or shortness of breath with anxiety.

Though, these symptoms or signs are not an indication of anxiety solely, but also indicate other health conditions.

Panic attacks may have the symptoms that are related to heart disease, breathing disorders, thyroid difficulties and other conditions.

This is why people with these kinds of symptoms are regular visitors in physicians’ offices. 

These affected people tend to believe that they are suffering from conditions that may lead them closer than death aside from a condition that makes them have anxiety symptoms.

You can learn more about these attacks by buying this book on this website.

What are the effects of anxiety symptoms?

The effects of anxiety symptoms differs for each person with anxiety.

Here are some of the effects of these kinds of symptoms in affected people.

Effects of anxiety symptoms on your body

• a churning and uncomfortable sensation in your stomach
• feeling light-headed or dizzy
• Feeling of pins and needles
• feeling sleepless or unable to sit still
• Backache, headaches or other aches and pains
• faster breathing
• a fast, thumping or abnormal heartbeat
• sweating or hot flushes
• problems sleeping
• grinding your teeth, especially at night which disturbs your sleep
• nausea 
• needing the toilet more or less than typical
• alterations in your sex drive
• having panic attacks

You can learn more about the feeling of anxiety in your body by buying this book on this website.

One of the most frequently asked questions about anxiety and it’s symptoms are, can it lead to your demise? is this actually a possibility?

Despite knowing it’s answer, one should still strive to treat anxiety.

Effects pf anxiety symptoms on your mind

• feeling tense, unable to calm down or nervous
• having a sense of dread or fearing the worst that can occur
• feeling like the world is getting fast or slowing down
• feeling like other people can see you’re nervous and are observing you
• feeling like you can’t avoid worrying or those bad things will occur if you stop worrying
• worrying about anxiety itself, for instance, worrying about when panic attacks might occur
• needing lots of reassurance from other people or worrying that people are mad or disappointed at you
• worrying that you’re lacking contact with reality
• rumination which is thinking a lot about bad events or thinking over a circumstance repeatedly
• depersonalisation which is the feeling of being disconnected from your mind or body or like you’re seeing someone else and this is considered as a form of dissociation
• derealisation which is a sensation of being disconnected from the world around you, or like the world isn’t real at all and this is also considered as a kind of dissociation
• worrying a lot about stuff that might occur in the future

What are the types of psychological disorders with anxiety symptoms?

The types of psychological disorders with anxiety symptoms are the following:

Agoraphobia

People with agoraphobia have locations where they feel helpless and lacking control of themselves such as being worried about escaping from a crowded place.

This feeling in this situation will make these people feel the trigger to have panic attacks. 

This will make people with agoraphobia to prevent going into these places despite they have be there with friends.

You can learn more about this anxiety disorder by buying this book on this website.

Generalized anxiety disorder

People with a generalized anxiety disorder to worry and be on edge of every activity even if some of these activities are routine.

This anxiety disorder tends to last for 6 months which is enough to cause significant distress in the affected person. 

This worry about many things can trigger physical anxiety symptoms in the body like headaches, trouble sleeping or stomach pain.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder 

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is where the affected person will have to do repetitive behaviours to get rid of unwanted thoughts.

These compulsive behaviours tend to take too much of the affected person’s time that it may cause dysfunction in the person’s life such as always getting late to work due to making sure that the hands are washed thoroughly for an hour. 

Aside from hand washing, other compulsive behaviours as anxiety symptoms are counting, making sure not to step on lines, and repetitive checking.

You can learn more about the obsessive-compulsive disorder by buying this book on this website.

Panic disorder

Panic disorder is when the affected person experiences unexpected and extreme anxiety attacks that can last for minutes.

This means that this psychological disorder has the anxiety symptom of panic attacks. 

Affected people who have panic attacks are experiencing the following anxiety symptoms:

• sensations of impending danger
• shortness of breath
• chest pain
• quick or abnormal heartbeat that feels like fluttering or pounding or palpitations

Panic attacks make these affected people anxious about the re-occurring of these episodes which makes them avoid situations where these attacks may happen.

Post-traumatic stress disorder having anxiety symptoms

Post-traumatic stress disorder usually happens when the affected person has experienced one or more of the following distressing situations:

• war
• assault
• natural disaster
• accident

Anxiety symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are disturbing dreams, having difficulty calming down or flashbacks of the traumatic event or situation.

These affected people prevent themselves from encountering stimuli that remind them of the traumatic event they’ve experienced.

You can learn more about post-traumatic stress disorder by buying this book on this website.

Selective mutism

Selective mutism is a psychological disorder that can occur in childhood where the child is unable to speak.

These affected children would not speak at school but would speak with only family members. 

As you can see, selective mutism can cause dysfunction in a child’s life.

Separation anxiety disorder

Separation anxiety disorder is a childhood anxiety disorder where the child fears about leaving a loved one or the loved one is nowhere to be found.

Although separation anxiety is a normal part of childhood development. 

Most children get out of this anxiety by 18 months.

But some children don’t grow out this anxiety which makes them greatly distressed whenever the loved one is always not around.

Specific phobias

Specific phobias are a collection of fears of certain objects or situations.

People with this anxiety disorder are fearful of these stimuli that they will do any means necessary to avoid these stimuli. 

They also have a strong need to avoid these stimuli since they encounter panic attacks when they face a feared object or situation.

Causes and risk factors of anxiety symptoms

Most doctors are confused about the causes and risk factors of anxiety symptoms.

Some would suggest these kinds of symptoms can occur in people who are susceptible to these symptoms due to their experiences of distressing events. 

Hereditary also causes anxiety symptoms in affected people.

These kinds of symptoms can also be triggered by the occurrence of a physical disorder that can cause physical symptoms of this anxiety disorder.

An affected person may have one or more anxiety disorders with different anxiety symptoms at the same time.

These kinds of symptoms can also be comorbid with other psychological disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder. 

This is very accurate of generalized anxiety disorder where most affected people would experience depression with this anxiety disorder.

Treatment for people with anxiety symptoms

Anxiety symptoms tend to be minimized thanks to psychotherapies. Although this still depends on the severity of an affected person’s symptoms. 

Most anxiety symptoms can be treated with only therapy or only medication but there are times when both of these treatment options are used at the same time.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy and exposure therapy are the most widely used psychotherapies for these kinds of symptoms where the emphasis is on the change of negative behaviours. 

These kinds of therapies can help you be more able to manage your anxiety symptoms in daily life.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy helps you determine the negative thinking patterns that may have triggered these kinds of symptoms.

Exposure therapy makes you get exposed to your feared object or situation in an environment where no one will judge you and your severe anxiety symptoms may not be present.

You will be encountering your feared stimuli whether in imagination or real-life where you can feel more in control of the feared stimuli. 

When you face your fears without the possibility of getting hurt, you will find yourself able to control your anxiety symptoms.

Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) is reported to be an effective treatment for anxiety. It is an FDA-approved, prescriptive, noninvasive electromedical treatment that has been shown to decrease anxiety, insomnia, and depression significantly.

Here is a quick list of the Best cranial electrotherapy stimulation devices that can lower symptoms of anxiety.

Medication for anxiety symptoms

Severe anxiety symptoms tend to be treated with medications that reduce these symptoms.

However, anti-anxiety medications may not be good for your long-term health and you can ask your doctor about the safest treatment option available. 

Many affected people are fond of taking anti-anxiety medications, especially when other forms of treatment are currently ineffective.

It is important that you check the advantages and disadvantages that you may get from the treatment option for anxiety symptoms that you might be selecting.

Also, nootropics are considered as a treatment for the cognitive symptoms of mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. If you’re interested in trying nootropics to better manage your anxiety disorder, try the Best Nootropics for Anxiety.

Conclusion 

In this brief article, we have discussed anxiety symptoms, the physical anxiety symptoms, severe anxiety symptoms, emotional symptoms of anxiety, and more information about anxiety symptoms

If you have any questions about anxiety symptoms, please let us know and the team will gladly answer your queries.

FAQs: Anxiety symptoms

Citations

Healthline. Everything You Need to Know About Anxiety.

HelpGuide. Anxiety Disorders and Anxiety Attacks.

Mind. Anxiety and panic attacks.

Rethink Mental Illness. Anxiety Disorders.

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