Worry is temporary. There's a concerning situation (like COVID-19) and you worry about it. Worry prods you to use problem-solving skills to address your concerns. Anxiety is persistent, even when concerns are unrealistic. It often compromises your ability to function.
Some common mental symptoms of anxiety include:
Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom. Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry. Having difficulty controlling worry. Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety.
Only a trained mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, can diagnose a mental health disorder like social anxiety. While you cannot self-diagnose, you can take steps to figure out if your symptoms are the result of normal shyness or if they could be something more.
Those who have an anxiety disorder often feel anxious for no reason at all; their anxiety cannot be traced to a specific event, task, or situation. With an anxiety disorder, an individual may continue to feel anxious even after the presentation is finished, even if they clearly did well.
If your blood sugar drops too low, it can cause you to sweat and feel shaky, which may be confused with anxiety. If your thyroid gland is overactive, you can sweat excessively and feel restless and nervous. Irregular heartbeats and tachycardia, which is increased heart rate, can also present as an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety and fear can slow blood flow because stress hormones like adrenalin cause blood vessels to constrict. Known as vasoconstriction, this can in turn lead to changes in body temperature and hot flashes. Research suggests long-term stress and anxiety can even increase the risk of heart disease over time.
feeling tense, nervous or unable to relax. having a sense of dread, or fearing the worst. feeling like the world is speeding up or slowing down. feeling like other people can see you're anxious and are looking at you.
Check if you have health anxiety
You may have health anxiety if you: constantly worry about your health. frequently check your body for signs of illness, such as lumps, tingling or pain. are always asking people for reassurance that you're not ill.
Set time limits. One thing to try to help yourself break this habit is actively limit the time you spend Googling symptoms. “If someone is finding that they are frequently getting lost in the internet Googling symptoms or trying to self-diagnose, I would suggest practicing using a timer,” Daino advises.
Hyperthyroidism. Hormonal imbalances can look like anxiety. For example, an overactive thyroid gland makes too much thyroid hormone. This can speed up your metabolism and lead to nervousness, restlessness, and a fast heartbeat.
A little anxiety is fine, but long-term anxiety may cause more serious health problems, such as high blood pressure (hypertension). You may also be more likely to develop infections. If you're feeling anxious all the time, or it's affecting your day-to-day life, you may have an anxiety disorder or a panic disorder.
A big event or a buildup of smaller stressful life situations may trigger excessive anxiety — for example, a death in the family, work stress or ongoing worry about finances. Personality. People with certain personality types are more prone to anxiety disorders than others are.
Brain imaging can reveal unsuspected causes of your anxiety. Anxiety can be caused by many things, such as neurohormonal imbalances, post-traumatic stress syndrome, or head injuries. Brain scans can offer clues to potential root causes of your anxiety, which can help find the most effective treatment plan.
While prior research suggests that the most common reported reason people with SAD or GAD haven't gotten care is out of fear of what others will say or think, showing how powerful stigma really is, other common reasons include lack of financial resources and not knowing where to go for care.
Health anxiety can actually have its own symptoms because it's possible for the person to have stomachaches, dizziness, or pain as a result of their overwhelming anxiety.
People with health anxiety often misinterpret normal or benign physical symptoms and attribute them to something more serious. For example, if they were to compress an arm while asleep, instead of rolling over and shaking off the numb feeling, they might worry they were having a stroke.
When we are more susceptible to stress, depression, or anxiety, our brains may be playing tricks on us. A cycle of continuing to look for what is wrong makes it easier to find what is wrong out there. It's called a confirmation bias.
Untreated anxiety can result in changes to the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. This impaired functioning may increase the risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and dementia.
Brain fog can be a symptom of a nutrient deficiency, sleep disorder, bacterial overgrowth from overconsumption of sugar, depression, or even a thyroid condition. Other common brain fog causes include eating too much and too often, inactivity, not getting enough sleep, chronic stress, and a poor diet.