Anxiety TreatmentNicole GiambroneStress Management

Anxiety Is Physical Too

By March 29th, 2022 No Comments

Anxiety is physical tooAnxiety is not only frequent worrying, feelings of nervousness, or rumination over daily events. It is not only in our heads, it is also in our bodies. It manifests in ways we may not be fully aware of. Anxiety is physical, too.

To understand the connection between our anxiety and physical symptoms, let’s first define anxiety. Anxiety is our “fight or flight” response. It is the stress hormone, cortisol, which releases adrenaline. For someone who feels anxious more often than not, they’re living in a constant state of “fight or flight.” Cortisol is constantly being released. Exhausting right? If we were about to be attacked by a bear, our bodies would enter fight or flight mode as a survival technique. Our minds begin to race in order to identify and protect ourselves from danger. The same thing happens with anxiety. As we begin to worry and ruminate about any particular topic, such as the consequences of failing an exam or that weird birthmark on our body, cortisol is constantly being released to stimulate adrenaline release even if there is no real impending danger.

Physical Symptoms of Anxiety:

  • Stomach pain
  • Insomnia
  • Shortness of breath
  • Sweating
  • Muscle tension
  • Nausea
  • Fatigue
  • Racing heart
  • Shaky hands
  • Jaw clenching

Coping Mechanisms

How do we cope when our survival mechanism is overactive? Below is a list of coping mechanisms to better manage anxiety and enhance your life.

1. Mindfulness – With anxiety, we’re often living in the past and the future. Mindfulness is focused on remaining present in each given moment. Many people associate mindfulness with meditation, yoga, and deep breathing exercises, which are great exercises for reducing anxiety. However, mindfulness can also be used in everyday activities, from work, school, driving, social events, and more. A lot of our daily activities are automatic or habit. Driving a car and work tasks can become automatic and allow our brains time to wander.

When that happens, recognize it, don’t judge yourself but enmesh yourself in the activity. Describe using your 5 senses (i.e., touch, taste, smell, hear, see) what you’re doing, and fully engage in the activity. Then focus on how you’re doing it. Focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking requires our focus to jump from task to task and makes it difficult to stay present in the moment, and remain non-judgmental. When a judgment arrives, identify it, and try to describe what you’re doing without any judgment both positive or negative (e.g., ‘I’m driving too slowly’ instead say ‘my foot’s on the gas and moving me closer to my destination.’)

2. Challenge Negative Thinking – Anxiety often results in our catastrophizing a situation and in negative thinking. With each negative thought, find the evidence to counter it. “I’m not smart enough to go to college.” Challenge it with evidence: “I have a 90 average,” or “I tutor younger kids.” There is often evidence in our life to dispute our negative thoughts and beliefs.

3. Acceptance and Control – This is one of the harder skills to use. Lack of control over a situation can be extremely anxiety-provoking as we often want to fix the situation. First, check the facts of the situation and remove anything that may be an assumption. This means focusing on the facts and not your emotions at this time. If the facts are true and not clouded by our emotions, then ask yourself can anything be done to change or improve the situation? If not, focus on acceptance. Don’t resist reality, instead, do something to cope with the moment. Do yoga, journal, exercise, color, watch TV, read a book, etc.

4. Distract – When ruminating it can be helpful to distract ourselves. Our brain can only focus on one thing at a time. If we focus our energy on something else we can alleviate our anxiety. There are hundreds of distraction techniques ranging from low effort (watching TV, playing a board/card game, dancing, watching TikTok videos, etc.), to medium effort (doing a puzzle, reading a book, taking a bath, bullet journaling, etc.), to high effort (cooking an elaborate meal, volunteering in your community, playing a sport, gardening, etc.). Choose anything that distracts you from your internal dialogue and focuses your energy on something else.

5. Speak it – Sometimes we all just need a safe space to say how we feel. If you don’t have a therapist, is there a family member or a friend you can speak to that will give you the space to just vent? Let them know that you just want them to listen, you don’t want them to try and fix the situation. You can journal your feelings in a book, or, if you don’t want a record of it, type it out and delete it later. Expressing our feelings can be cathartic.

6. Deep Breathing or Intensive Exercise – If your anxiety is too overwhelming, unbearable, or you’re already in a state of panic, stop what you’re doing. Jump in a cold shower or splash cold water on your face. Run as fast and as far as you can or do as many push-ups or jumping jacks as fast as you can. These techniques will physically force our hearts to calm down if our emotions have become too overwhelming.

7. Compassion and Patience – This sounds too easy but it’s important to be patient with yourself. Your feelings are valid and real. Our reactions may not always be appropriate. Despite an inappropriate reaction, the feeling itself is still valid. Apologize for the inappropriate reaction, don’t apologize for the feeling. Ask yourself what would I say to a friend going through this, and then show yourself that same compassion. Emotions are fleeting. They’re like a train passing by; it will come and it will go. Bad emotions are fleeting just like good ones. Be patient with yourself and show yourself compassion.

Importantly, remember that anxiety is physical and hormonal too, it’s not all in your head. Please feel free to contact us to schedule your complimentary 15-minute phone consultation or to make an appointment.