Anxiety: An Overview

I’m sure most of us know what anxiety feels like but maybe you’d like to learn more about what anxiety is, what can cause it, signs, symptoms, etc. We will discuss these topics and much more below!

Anxiety-Definition:

Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. Low levels of anxiety can alert us to dangers and help us prepare and pay attention. However, anxiety disorders differ from normal feelings of nervousness or anxiousness and involve excessive fear or anxiety. Anxiety generally refers to anticipation of a future concern and is more associated with symptoms like muscle tension (tight shoulders, jaw, etc.) and avoidance behavior (hey, there fellow procrastinator 🙃).

Fear is an emotional response to an immediate threat and is more associated with a fight or flight reaction – either staying to fight or fleeing to escape danger.

Anxiety disorders can cause people to try to avoid situations that trigger or worsen their symptoms. In general, for a person to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, the fear or anxiety must:

  • Be out of proportion to the situation or be inappropriate for their age.

  • Make it difficult for that person to function normally.

Anxiety disorders are the most common of mental disorders, and their prevalence has only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several types of anxiety disorders: 

  • generalized anxiety disorder

  • panic disorder with or without agoraphobia (extreme or irrational fear of entering open or crowded places, of leaving one's own home, or of being in places from which escape is difficult.)

  • specific phobias

  • agoraphobia (extreme or irrational fear of entering open or crowded places, of leaving one's own home, or of being in places from which escape is difficult.)

  • social anxiety disorder

  • separation anxiety disorder

  • selective mutism.


Causes of Anxiety:

  1. Genetics- If you have a family history of anxiety, you may be at higher risk of experiencing anxiety and developing an anxiety disorder.

  2. Stress

  3. environmental concerns, such as child abuse

  4. substance use

  5. situations such as surgery or occupational hazard

  6. Internal causes (physiological factors like hormone production, chronic diseases, etc.)

    • Depression

    • Diabetes

    • You may have a “sensitive nervous system” that is easily aroused when experiencing stress. It doesn’t take much to activate your “fight or flight” response to fearful inner impulses and emotions.

    • Your stress response causes you to experiences the same symptoms and body sensations often seen in a person in the midst of a panic attack (see signs and symptoms below ⬇️)

  7. Mental/Emotional causes (psychological factors):

    •  Your anxiety may have been caused by a recent emotional stressor

    • Emotional stress may be easily identifiable (such as the loss of a job or relationship) or may be subconscious and harder to uncover (often seen in cases of trauma— childhood, sexual, physical, etc.)

  8. Subconsciously hidden trauma: certain situations or events can trigger, reverting the patient to the traumatic event and setting up the resulting fight or flight response


Signs and Symptoms:

  1.  Physical symptoms associated with anxiety & anxiety disorders include:

    • racing heartbeat (aka tachycardia. Generally, a heart rate above 100 beats per minute)

    • heart palpitations

    • chest pain (usually noted as sticking or sharp pain)

    • cold sweats and/or general sweating are common

    • fine tremors of the hand

    • dizziness

    • “butterflies in the stomach”

    • nausea and sometimes diarrhea

  2. Breathing (Respiratory) changes:

    • Hyperventilation 

    • You may feel unconnected with the people and objects around you and may lose your sense of reality

    • hyperventilation combined with this feeling of unreality can often be the reason that the person’s situation can be prolonged or worsened as they feel as if they will lose consciousness and/or die

  3.  Acute panic attacks

    • Person experiences the alarm of terror for no obvious reason (may override rational thought as it ushers in a horrible dread that an unknown and nameless catastrophe will occur)

    • self-limited (will pass on its own with the help of healthy coping skills) and generally last from 2 minutes to 2 hours.

Symptoms of Chronic Anxiety

  1. Similar symptoms same as those in the acute attack (they are less severe and debilitating)

    • symptoms can often be of longer duration (days, weeks or months)

  2. A general and undefined sense of tension, apprehension or dread

  3. A tendency to startle easily

  4. An uneasiness in the normal situations of life such as work or shopping

  5. A vague, persistent fear of the future

  6. Physical signs:

    • generalized fatigue

    • Difficulty sleeping (falling asleep, staying asleep, or both)

    • Weight loss or gain

    • Headaches and other symptoms related to the chronic activation of the "flight or fight response”

    • Varying amount of dysfunction in personal relationships and daily activities

    • work is often hurt by fatigue and related inability to maintain concentration

 So, you believe that you have anxiety…what’s the next step?

Bring it up at your next doctor’s appointment — your doctor can’t help you if they don’t know what’s going on. Even if you don’t want to take a pharmaceutical or drug to address your anxiety, they may be able to identify other diseases or internal causes of your anxiety.

Find a therapist to help you address the mental/emotional causes of your anxiety — I SWEAR by therapy. Not just Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT aka talk therapy) but also other forms of therapy, like EMDR, that help us develop healthy ways to cope with our anxiety and reframe our thoughts.

Consider adding a naturopathic doctor to your care team— Naturopathic doctors and Functional Medicine doctors are well trained in the many holistic & natural ways to care for both our bodies and our minds. As a Naturopathic Doctor, I prioritize nutrition, supplements, & lifestyle changes while also looking for the root cause of your anxiety. In some cases, addressing nutrient deficiencies can provide significant relief from anxiety symptoms.

Health Conditions A-ZSarah Ellisanxiety, mental healthComment