Anxiety- It’s not all in your head.
Do you have a hard time explaining your experience with your anxiety? It’s difficult to accurately describe something that ranges from a few anxious thoughts to your full mind and body being held captive by major physical symptoms.
When I have a conversation about anxiety with my clients, some of the first few questions I ask them is, “Does it feel like your heart skips a beat?” “Do you ever feel uncomfortably hot when everyone else seems to feel normal?” “Does your stomach hurt a lot?” “Do you feel like you would just rather jump out of your skin sometimes?” Anxiety is shown to have the possibility of having full-body effects, and if left unchecked or unmanaged it can lead to more severe struggles such as panic attacks. A lot of times, my clients will struggle with these questions not because they don’t know, but because they’ve never connected their physical body to their anxious thoughts. Unmanaged anxiety can lead to other physical health concerns such as migraines, high blood pressure, hormonal imbalances, heart disease, weakened immune systems, or autoimmune disorders.
Did you know, that major screening tools used to diagnose anxiety include many questions about how your body feels? You’ll be asked if you feel dizzy, or lightheaded, if you have difficulty breathing, or if your hands clam up. Your physical symptoms are just as important and valid as your thoughts and inner dialogue. The reason why mental health professionals place an equal focus on physical symptoms as we do mental symptoms is because of the mind-body connection.
Have you ever woke up and had something annoying or inconvenient happen and thought, “Well, I guess this is how the day is going to go…” and then the day proceeded to be suckier than normal? Your body listens to your mind and your thoughts become reality more than what you may realize. This is important to understand because when we start having anxious thoughts, our bodies enter a “fight or flight” mode. That mode can include all of the sensations I listed earlier and further complicates our thoughts and lessens our ability to regulate. I encourage you to start checking in with your body at least once a day to see if you have any physical anxiety symptoms; are your shoulders tight? Is your jaw clenched? How fast is your breathing? When was the last time you purposefully slowed down your thoughts? Do you actually know what is in your immediate environment?
Want a few quick tools to work with physical symptoms of anxiety?
Run your hands under cold water for 3-5 minutes.
Slowly, find 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.
Start at your toes, flex one body part at a time, for 5-7 seconds at a time, and then release, repeat 2-3 times before moving on to the next body part.
Deep breathing. When we experience anxiety, we tend to take quicker and shallower breaths. Deep breathing allows us to fully fill our lungs again.
Change your environment. If you’re inside, step outside for a few minutes. If you’re in an office, take a quick walk through the building.
Want to talk more about anxiety? Check out my website to see how you can book a free 15-minute consultation with me.
Stephanie Townsend, LMSW, CCTP, ART Practitioner
