Anxiety is first and foremost a mental health condition – and as such, much of the conversation surrounding anxiety is about its mental symptoms. 

From racing thoughts and ruminations to catastrophising and seeking reassurance, anxiety can have a massive effect on the way you think and feel. But its impact is rarely limited to the brain.

In fact, anxiety can have a significant impact on the body, so much so that one of the other mental symptoms of anxiety – anxiety sensitivity – refers to the fear that people with anxiety disorders develop towards the physical symptoms of their anxiety.

This is because they fear their anxiety will be more easily observed by others, or that their symptoms are a sign of a serious physical or mental illness.

In this way, educating yourself about the physical symptoms of anxiety is important – not just because it gives you the chance to label your anxious feelings and reduce feelings of anxiety sensitivity, but also because it empowers you to identify when you’re feeling anxious and seek the help you need.  

It’s important to note that everyone experiences anxiety differently, so you shouldn’t compare your experiences to those of others.

Indeed, while you may experience some of the physical symptoms almost every time you get anxious, other people may not experience them at all.

According to the mental health charity Mind, there are a number of physical symptoms which can occur as a result of anxiety. These include:

• A churning feeling in your stomach
• Feeling light-headed or dizzy
• Pins and needles
• Feeling restless or unable to sit still
• Headaches, backache or other aches and pains
• Faster breathing
• A fast, thumping or irregular heartbeat
• Sweating or hot flushes
• Problems sleeping
• Grind your teeth, especially at night
• Nausea
• Needing the toilet more or less often
• Changes in your sex drive
• Having panic attacks

According to Anxiety UK, other symptoms may include increased muscle tension, difficulty in breathing, a tight band across the chest area, shaking and choking sensations.

It’s easy to assume that, because anxiety is a mental health condition, it hasn’t got anything to do with our physical health. However, the two are more linked than people realise.

“It’s important to note that anxiety isn’t ‘bad’ – it stems from our innate stress response which is necessary for survival,” explains chartered psychologist and author Dr Meg Arroll. “This response is triggered by a cascade of physiological processes, driven by the automatic nervous system in conjunction with our endocrine system.”

According to Arroll, understanding the way in which these symptoms work is crucial to understanding why anxiety causes physical symptoms.

“The endocrine system is made up of numerous glands which secrete hormones,” she explains. “These hormones enable the body to maintain homeostasis (i.e. keep the body in balance so that it can function optimally) and helps to regulate metabolism, growth, sleep and mood.

“The autonomic nervous system is a type of control system (think of it as your computer’s operating system) which influences heart and respiratory rates, digestion, pupil dilation and sweating amongst other functions. The hypothalamus, which is an area of the brain located just above the brainstem, is an important part of both the endocrine and autonomic nervous systems.”

As Arroll explains, when we experience stress or anxiety, the hypothalamus releases hormones which in turn trigger the endocrine and automatic nervous system, meaning our body goes into “preparation” mode to face the threat our body thinks we’re facing. This relationship is called the HPA axis.

“The HPA axis is essentially ‘activated’ in times of acute stress, to increase heart rate and blood flow, dilate our pupils so that we can spot any dangers in the environment and utilise glucose for a burst of energy – all so that we are in the best state possible to engage in ‘fight-or-flight’,” Arroll says. 

“This ancient physiological process has served us well – we’ve been able to fight predators such as lions as early homosapiens, or run out of harm’s ways.

“But this operating system hasn’t been updated even though in modern life we don’t have to fight for our lives in such a way. The consequence of this is that the stress response creates the same type of physical sensations, but we don’t have the same use for it, which is why when we feel stressed or anxious our hearts still pound and we sweat.”

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