Signs Your Anxiety is Affecting Your Health

Anxiety. It’s something absolutely no one can outrun forever. It may hit us at the most random of times, and it can last for a short period of time or drag on like when your child explains why Minecraft isn’t cool to play anymore at his age. Just the thought of that conversation sends a parent into anxiety, doesn’t it?

It’ll get you breathing heavier, maybe make you sweat a bit. You might even get lightheaded. Nothing to be too concerned about – totally natural and you’re over it almost as quickly as it came on.

But, anxiety is sometimes relentless and all-consuming. Chronic and debilitating. When it gets in the way of your everyday life, it’s really more of a disorder and becomes not just a mental health issue, but also your physical health.

A couple of anxiety disorders you might recognize:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder – there’s no logical reason for GAD, but it lasts at least 6 months and can often last longer.
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – this anxiety shows up after experiencing a trauma, whether you witnessed the trauma or personally went through a traumatic event.

So, how’s anxiety affecting your health?

Anxiety is known to go hand-in-hand with depression. Is it always the case, no. However, it isn’t always easy to understand how anxiety is hurting you physically, right? Your body deals with stress in a variety of ways – one big one is releasing chemicals and hormones.

These are super special hormones and chemicals that flood your nervous system. Adrenaline and cortisol help your body deal with the stress, and aren’t destructive for those short spurts of anxiety. But when they stick around, like when dealing with GAD, or other panic disorders, they are destructive as hell!

Extended exposure to high levels of cortisol causes your body to succumb to:

• Headaches
• Depression
• Cardiac episodes
• Weight gain

Anxiety can also cause digestive problems, gastrointestinal issues, and muscle tension. When dealing with anxiety, your body often saturates your body with adrenaline. Again, not terrible to get you through a short bout with anxiety, because once the feeling passes your body understands it can go back to running normally again. However, when your body never really “calms down” and is in a constant state of stress, it never gets that message to return to normal. Plus, more often than not, you suffer with insomnia – leading to your body having no chance to rest and repair itself. The result: your immune system tanks and you end up unable to fight off illnesses.

How can you work through your anxiety so it no longer hurts your mind and body? It often entails working with a professional. I’m here to help you navigate through the stress life has handed you, and provide you with all the necessary tools so you can manage your anxiety and heal your mind and body. Let’s get started today.