You can become anxious about external situations — such as a stressful day at work, an upcoming date, or a competition you’ve entered into. When you become stressed or anxious, however, it sets off a chemical reaction in your nervous system. Ever wondered how your stress hormones and anxiety impact your body? Let’s dive into the topic in today’s blog.
What Are Stress Hormones?
Cortisol is your body’s primary stress hormone. When you face a stressful or threatening situation, a region at the base of your brain called the hypothalamus sounds the alarm in your nervous system. Cortisol adds sugars to the bloodstream and boosts the parts of the body that repair tissues.
Your stress hormones help to facilitate your flight-or-fight response in the midst of a threat. This is an important reaction designed to protect you, but an overexposure to cortisol can lead to excess stress or anxiety.
An Imbalance of Cortisol
Typically, once you have removed the stressful situation, cortisol levels drop as your body’s heart rate returns to normal. But what happens if you cannot easily extricate yourself from a stressful situation? When the stressor remains present, your stress response stays in place, leading to an imbalance of cortisol that can increase your anxiety. It can also impact your body in other ways, including:
- Digestive issues
- Headaches
- Tense and aching muscles
- High blood pressure
- Higher risk of heart disease
- Difficulty sleeping
- Fluctuating weight
What Causes Anxiety?
Anxiety has to do with an overexposure of cortisol or a dysfunction in your body’s stress response. People with anxiety may experience that stress response even when there is no external stressor. But how does this happen, exactly?
As stated above, lingering or ever present stress can cause your stress response to overwork itself. Another common cause of anxiety comes back to trauma. When a particularly stressful event traumatizes you, that stress may linger with you, flaring in situations that resemble your trauma. Those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms may experience painful flashbacks in which they relive their trauma and may find themselves trying to avoid that scenario. This is why PTSD and anxiety often go hand-in-hand.
Childhood abuse, whether in the home or through bullying, can also lead to anxiety. Children who are abused may have low self-esteem as they grow up, and they may become avoidant of social situations that might lead them to be abused in the future. This is another common root cause of anxiety.
Symptoms of Anxiety
No one enjoys stress, but in most cases, stress is temporary. It’s an uncomfortable situation or a job that, once removed, goes away and allows you to resume life as normal. With anxiety, however, the distress and the fear of that distress is lingering. So how do you know when you’re just anxious about a particular issue and when you might be suffering from anxiety?
Typically, if you exhibit anxiety symptoms for two weeks or more, it’s worth speaking to a mental health care provider. Some of those symptoms include:
- Restlessness, fidgeting, or feeling agitated
- Constant fatigue or becoming easily tired
- Struggle with focus and concentration
- Headaches, muscle aches, stomach aches, nausea, or constipation
- Constant worry that you struggle to control
- Dizziness, chest pain, or lightheadedness
- Chills or hot flashes
- Shortness of breath
- Increased heart rate or trembling
- A feeling of detachment
- Panic attacks and anxiety attacks
Panic attacks and anxiety attacks may feel similar in some ways, but they are distinct. A panic attack typically comes on quickly. During a panic attack, you may experience difficulty breathing, a racing heart rate, dizziness, or intense chest pain. You may feel a critical fear of death, and some individuals in the midst of a panic attack have gone to the hospital to make sure the attack was not something else. Panic attacks typically last less than half an hour.
An anxiety attack develops more slowly and can last for weeks. Anxiety attacks tend to be milder, with symptoms that mirror more of an intense episode of anxiety. During an anxiety attack, you may feel agitated and easily irritated. You may withdraw and isolate in an effort to avoid the symptoms that cause you to feel anxious. Sudden bouts of crying and feeling overwhelmed can happen in the midst of an anxiety attack.
What To Do If You Have Anxiety
If you’ve been dealing with symptoms of anxiety for two weeks or longer, and you feel that they might be impacting your work, relationships, or day-to-day life, it may be time to contact a mental health care provider. One of the first steps you will take is an intake appointment to do an assessment on your mental health. The assessment may take 1-3 appointments, but is often done in one appointment.
From there, the mental health care provider may recommend possible treatments and make referrals to health care providers who can help in further detail, such as therapists or psychiatrists. In terms of medication, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) are a common treatment for anxiety. Benzodiazepines such as xanax may also be used to treat anxiety.
In addition to medication, the provider may recommend therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or interpersonal therapy (IPT). If your anxiety is rooted in trauma, therapy focused on processing trauma, such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) may be recommended. You may receive a few recommendations and referrals at the end of your assessment, and you can choose what you think would suit you best.
Reach Out To Rivia Mind For Anxiety Solutions Today
Need help to manage your own stress and anxiety? Rivia Mind works with dozens of mental health care providers experienced with treating anxiety, whether you need counseling or therapy, medication, or a combination of both. We even work with nutritionists who can help you care for your physical health while improving your mental health. We take a holistic approach to mental wellness, beginning with your personal strengths, and then developing the skills you need to manage your wellbeing.
Contact us today to learn more or schedule a 15 minute free consultation.
