9 ways in which your regular Anxiety can affect your Mind and Body
Anxiety can affect your body and mind in many ways. While these changes might seem insignificant, they can have long-lasting effects.
If you have read our blog on anxiety as a necessity for survival, you will know that anxiety is an adaptive response that has been designed to keep us safe, and often, drives us to do a particular type of work that we wouldn’t have done without all the anxiety and pressure. Although anxiety helped people with fight-or-flight situations in the primitive days, today, anxiety is mostly related to psychological issues like studies, work, finances, marriage, etc.
Now, when one is anxious but there is no physical danger around, what happens with the extra resources that our body has produced to escape from some danger? Simple — it affects our mind and body. But do you know to what extent our mind and body are affected by our regular anxiety? Here is what happens to your body when you are anxious about things:
- Insomnia -
Anxiety often results in insomnia and disturbs one’s calm. But the problem does not end here because insomnia adds to the stress and anxiety of a person. This might result in a cyclical phenomenon ending into chronic insomnia and become a prolonged issue.
2. Breathing problems -
When anxious, the body tries to supply more oxygen to the muscles to help with the situation. This might result in rapid breathing and tightened airways. In addition to this, there have been several studies that show that those diagnosed with panic disorder are six times more likely to develop asthma than those without anxiety.
3. Increased blood pressure -
Because the body tries to supply more oxygen into the body when a person is anxious, the heart is worked into pumping more blood throughout the body with an increased force, thereby increasing one’s blood pressure.
4. Gastrointestinal issues -
Nausea, diarrhea, flatulence, and stomach aches are common issues related to anxiety. To cite a talkspace blog, “ The Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that those with anxiety are more likely to experience irritable bowel syndrome, while a 2013 study published in the journal Annals of Epidemiology found a higher degree of diagnosed ulcers in patients who also lived with anxiety”.
5. Heart stress -
Longer periods of stress and recurrent bouts of anxiety make the heart operate at an elevated level, thereby increasing the risk of hypertension, heart stroke, and other heart-related issues.
6. Muscle tension -
As the body is prepared to face a dangerous situation, the muscles tense up. Often, the muscles do not get enough time to relax thus, leading to muscle pain and knots.
7. Increased blood sugar -
To give the body extra energy for a fight-or-flight response, the liver produces extra glucose or blood sugar. Usually, this sugar is absorbed or utilized by the body, but if someone gets anxious often, then it can lead to type 2 diabetes over time.
8. Weight gain -
Not only do the chemicals released into the body when a person is anxious help store fats in the body, but one tends to eat more food, especially those foods that release serotonin, like cakes and chips, in anxiety.
9. Decreased immune system functioning -
Repeated bouts of anxiety keep the immune system suppressed for longer periods. Thus, one becomes susceptible to catching infections that one would have been protected against otherwise.
While anxiety is very common, it is a serious concern as it can have long-lasting effects on the body. If you want to overcome your issues related to anxiety through lifestyle and diet, then check out this blog at Fuzia.
If you think that your regular anxiety is getting more frequent, we suggest that you get professional help. However, if that is not an option for you, you can check out this blog on 7 things to do if you cannot afford therapy.
Take care, folks, and for more such informative blogs, sign up on www.fuzia.com to become a member today!
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Originally published at https://www.fuzia.com.