How Anxiety Affects Your Mind and Body
The mind and the body have a special connection to each other. When the mind feels something different, the rest of the body has a reaction to it. Just like if you see your favorite food and you think about how hungry you are, your stomach will react by rumbling. The same works with anxiety.
If you are experiencing racing thoughts that keep you awake at night, your body will react to these thoughts. You could experience problems with your heart, stomach, immune system, and more. Anxiety is not a mental health condition to ignore as your physical and mental health can pay the price for it.
Here are ways that anxiety can affect both your mind and your body..
Effects on the Brain
Anxiety awakens your brain to be on full alert. This is what you would call a fight or flight state. The central nervous system is suddenly filled with cortisol and adrenaline prepared for any danger coming your way. Normally, you would become calm once danger leaves. But, anxiety can leave you stuck in this state if you feel danger always exists.
The amygdala alerts the prefrontal cortex of any danger lurking. The prefrontal cortex is supposed to be like a counselor to the amygdala by communicating rational thoughts to better calm you down. An anxious brain is different in that the communication is weak, leading to irrational thoughts and unpredictable behavior.
Breathing Changes
Anxious people tend to hyperventilate when their breathing becomes very quick. The extra oxygen your body is taking will prepare yourself to fight or run.
Even though your body is taking in extra oxygen, you believe you are lacking it. This can cause you to keep gasping for air, making you feel faint.
Heart Problems
Anxiety can make your heart beat faster, making it easy to run or fight danger. However, your body temperature can be negatively affected. Narrow blood vessels can cause you to experience hot flashes.
The sweat from hot flashes cools you down, but you may be feeling too cold from so much sweating. Without treating this anxiety, you could be at an increased risk for heart problems.
Digestive Issues
Adrenaline reduces blood flow and relaxes stomach muscles which leads to nausea, diahrrea, and a churning stomach.
Anxiety can make you feel like you cannot eat because of your overwhelming nerves. Long-term stress can lead to stomach conditions like irritable bowel syndrome when you experience persistent stomach discomfort.
Poor Immune System
While anxiety can provide an immune system boost for the short time danger lurks, it can do the opposite if you feel like danger is always there.
Cortisol turns off the parts of the immune system that help fight off infections. This can make you more likely to get the flu, the common cold, and any other type of infection.
Attention Focused EMDR
There are many ways to cope with anxiety like talk therapy, mindfulness exercises, lifestyle changes, and more. But, there is another form of therapy that can be beneficial in treating anxiety like Attention-Focused Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). This focuses on the attachments people form on a parental figure during childhood.
The anxiety you are experiencing may have come from not feeling safe growing up. This form of therapy uses bilateral stimulation, tapping, resourcing, and visualization to mentally bring you to a place of comfort. You will be able to return to this safe space during therapy and outside of it. Your traumatic memories will no longer have a negative impact on the present.
If your anxiety is robbing you of your physical and mental health, I specialize in Attention-Focused EMDR that uses bilateral stimulations to help you process your memories and find an inner space of peace.
At Balance Counseling we offer Teen Counseling, Child Counseling and Trauma Therapy.
