What is anxiety disorder?
Does anxiety affect your physical health? Can anxiety give you a headache? If you, like millions of other people around the world, are wondering whether your nausea is due to anxiety or a stomach bug, this information might help you uncover some answers.
Anxiety disorder is a mental and medical concern. Those who suffer from anxiety may experience excessive amounts of worry, fear and apprehension. According to a 2017 report from the World Health Organization, 264 million people around the world suffer from anxiety.
Symptoms of anxiety
Symptoms of anxiety can range from mild to severe, temporary or lasting. You may experience all of the symptoms below, or only a few, as the disorder manifests differently in everyone. Symptoms of anxiety can include:
- Feeling on-edge
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Excess apprehension and fear
- Muscle tension
- Poor sleep quality, insomnia
- Racing thoughts
- Trembling
- Nausea
- Increased tension headaches
How anxiety affects your physical health
The symptoms listed above can have severe impacts on your health. Between headaches, nausea, poor sleep, and muscle tension, you can be feeling very poorly if you’re suffering from anxiety. The good news, however, is that there are many treatment methods that can greatly reduce symptoms of anxiety.
Can anxiety give you cold and flu symptoms?
Elevated stress levels tax the body’s limits. Increased apprehension can cause the brain to activate the stress response, which could leave you feeling ill at ease, lethargic, dizzy, and a range of other symptoms. Having anxiety is like revving the engine in high gear – eventually, something’s going to wear down. Increased stress can also lower the body’s regular immune response, making you more vulnerable to viruses and bacteria.
Things that can reduce physical symptoms of anxiety
Professional Treatment
Psychotherapy has been proven to help reduce symptoms of anxiety. A professional treatment team, including a therapist and psychiatrist, can help you make decisions about medications and treatments that will be the most beneficial to you. Talk to your doctor today about treatment for anxiety. You can also call our hospital for a free mental health assessment, just call 801-264-6000.
Mental grounding
Mental grounding is focusing on the present and the world around you. What are your senses experiencing? Find some textures can you feel with your hands. Are there sounds can you hear? Some activities for mental grounding are slowly counting to ten, describing in your mind how you do a task, or reading backwards. Below is a video you can use for visual grounding. Focus only on the images to give your brain a break.
Physical grounding
Physical grounding involves your body. Moving, stretching, tapping a finger, exercising, or similar activities that incorporate movement of the body can be used to ground you to your environment.
Soothing grounding
Soothing grounding involves thinking of situations and people that you find comforting. You can ask yourself questions like, what is my favorite color? What is my favorite animal? If my favorite relative was here, what would they be saying to me right now?
Living in gratitude
Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and death camp survivor, said “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Choosing gratitude takes mental effort, but is a useful tool for battling anxiety. An exercise that has been proven to reduce anxiety is keeping a gratitude journal.
Routines
Having a predictable routine can help you maintain a sense of normalcy and help you cope during stressful times. Too many routines, however, can be burdensome and negatively impact your mental health.
Self-Nurturing
Doing those things that bring you joy, be it hobbies, spending time in nature, spending time with family, or reading, can help you recover from anxiety episodes.
If you or someone you know is experiencing intense anxiety, mental breakdowns, thoughts of suicide, or other mental health concerns, contact our hospital for free mental health assessment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Just call 801-264-6000.