Your Body on Anxiety

Amy Taylor May 22, 2014

We all get anxious at times. And you know the feeling. You know it makes you feel uncomfortable. It’s terrible, really. If you’re one of the millions of people who suffer from anxiety disorder, you should know how this mental issue could be ruining your health.

Let’s take a look on what our body experiences whenever we are anxious and all.

Occasional Anxiety

When you first encounter anxiety, you may have any of these issues: throat troubles, muscle tension, an active spleen, skin reaction, and liver reaction. When you are anxious, fluids are dispersed to different parts of your body. This causes your throat to become dry, and your throat muscles to tighten. At the same time, your muscles immediately seize as a reflex reaction, thus, you experience muscle tension. Your blood flow is also constricted, which means oxygen in your blood could not flow properly. And in order to have sufficient amount of oxygen delivered to your body, your spleen discharges more red and white blood cells. Spleen is an organ that is part of the lymph system and works as a drainage network that defends your body against infection.

Another obvious symptom of anxiety is flushing. When you’re stressed and anxious, your blood pressure increases. This causes redistribution of blood to different organs. This is why some people tend to look paler whilst others flush when anxious.

And even during the first episode of anxiety, your body already releases cortisol. And as this happens, your liver starts to produce more glucose as a reaction. This causes a spike in your blood sugar levels, which if not used, could be reabsorbed throughout your body.

Persistent Anxiety

If you’ve been dealing with anxiety for quite some time now, it could cause more health problems. First off, it has a great impact on your heart. Research has shown that anxiety and chronic stress sufferers are more at risk of cardiovascular problems due to constant increase in heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and relatively high levels of cortisol. According to the American Psychological Association, long-term exposure to stress can lead to hypertension, arrhythmias and an increased risk for heart attack or stroke.

Apart from your heat, anxiety also takes a toll on your brain health. Chronic stress and anxiety affects areas of the brain involved in long-term memory, short-term memory and chemical production, which can result in an imbalance. Moreover, they can constantly activate the nervous system which can in turn influence other systems in the body, triggering physical reactions, including fatigue. Another thing, people with anxiety disorder tend to have sleep problems because their worries hunt them through bedtime. In the research carried out by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, more than 50 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women reported that stress and anxiety affect their ability to drift off, which caused them problems with concentration the next day.

Prolonged anxiety may also weaken your immunity and expose you to various diseases. Several studies show that people who are stressed are more susceptible to cold and flu, infections, and inflammation. Scientists also found a link between anxiety disorder and asthma. In one study, researchers from the University of Sao Paulo, suggest there could also be a link between anxiety, asthma and its effects on balance.

Furthermore, chronic anxiety can have long-term effects on your digestive health. It could cause reflux, bloating, diarrhoea and sometimes even loss of bowel control.

Beating Anxiety – Self-help Tips for Excessive Worriers

If you can’t help but worry and feel anxious, here are some simple suggestions for you:

1. Accept the inevitability of negative thoughts. Don’t try to repress or control them. The more you shut them out, the more they will continue to bug them. Instead, analyse what’s going on in your mind. Write them down if necessary. Examine what your real problems are. See which ones are logical and which are not. Re-evaluate the actual probability that something bad will happen so that you aren’t constantly over-anxious.

2. Avoid focusing on the negative by balancing the picture. Each night, before you sleep, grab a piece of paper and draw two columns. On the first column, write down things that keep you anxious. On the second, write those that make you feel grateful. Make sure to that with every ‘negative’ entry, you also write a positive one.

3. A few times in a day, tell yourself “at this very moment I am feeling okay”. Our brain tends to focus on the negative. Scientists call it the ‘negativity bias’ theory. It’s true that something bad could happen. But it’s not always today. Not right now. By reminding yourself that you are OK and DOING FINE right now, you can easily settle your fear and manage your worries.

4. Reach out to others. Connect to your friends and family. They offer emotional warmth and comfort that can soothe your worried mind. Their company can reduce your fear, stress and anxiety.

5. Don’t be afraid to be afraid. Expose yourself to fears, little by little at least. This will help train your brain to anticipate positive outcomes. If you have a particular phobia, devote 15 minutes a day for intense exposure to that fear by simply visualising being in that scenario.

Anxiety issues are real health threats that we should not ignore. It does more than make us stressed and overwhelmed. It can also cause serious mental and physical health problems. So make sure you deal with it effectively. Hope the tips mentioned in this post have been a great help.