Anxiety tells you that you're smart to spend so much time worrying, convinces you that it's better to be prepared, that you'll surely save yourself from danger/diagnosis/death/destruction by thinking about every possible outcome.
The anxious mind will have you believing things about yourself, your circumstances, and your future that are just not true. Anxiety lies. Plain and simple. Once you can acknowledge that your mind plays tricks, you'll be able to get back in the driver's seat and regain a sense of control of yourself and your life.
Your brain is a liar. It makes assumptions not rooted in fact, draws conclusions that are more about fear than any kind of logical argument, and has insights often manipulated by the media and other compelling stories. Researchers have known for years that memories are not a good source of information.
But if the question is whether or not anxiety can cause weird thoughts, the answer is absolutely yes. Anxiety changes the way you think, causing you to have more negative, and ultimately more unusual thoughts.
It can trick you into thinking you're in danger when you're not, and it can trick you into doing things that make it worse instead of better. But there is a way out. It is possible to help your brain to learn something new. To do so, you need to learn to face the thing you're anxious about rather than fleeing from it.
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.
A reason for this is that anxiety, seemingly without stopping, feeds lies directly into your brain. When we're told something over and over and over again, we start to believe it. By telling you certain lies, anxiety strengthens itself so it can keep a hold on you and your life.
Polygraph tests- so-called "lie detectors"--are typically based on detecting autonomic reactions and are considered unreliable (see "The polygraph in doubt"). That's why psychologists have been cataloging clues to deception--such as facial expressions, body language and linguistics--to help hook the dishonest.
Pathological lying is a symptom of various personality disorders, including antisocial, narcissistic, and histrionic personality disorders. Other conditions, such as borderline personality disorder, may also lead to frequent lies, but the lies themselves are not considered pathological.
Sweating or dryness: Autonomic nervous system changes can trigger liars to sweat in the T-area of the face (upper lip, forehead, chin and around the mouth) or have dryness in the mouth and eyes — the person might excessively blink or squint, lick or bite their lips or swallow hard, according to Glass.
Verbal Cues
Liars take longer to start answering questions than truth-tellers--but when they have time to plan, liars actually start their answers more quickly than truth-tellers. Liars answers sound more discrepant and ambivalent, the structure of their stories is less logical, and their stories sound less plausible.
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.
Some common mental symptoms of anxiety include:
Feeling nervous, restless or tense. Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom. Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry. Having difficulty controlling worry.
The two most common diagnoses associated with intrusive thoughts are anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). They can also be a symptom of depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Bipolar Disorder, or Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Many anxiety disorder sufferers also deal with persistent self-doubt or judgment. Obsessive mindsets tend to go hand-in-hand with many different anxiety disorders, so it's very common to feel like you don't measure up to your own or to others' expectations and to let that impact you in a severe way.
Why do my HOCD thoughts feel real? There is emotion attached to them; if you felt nothing, you probably wouldn't notice them in the first place. If you let your mind wander as I suggested above or try it later, lots of your thoughts do not have emotion attached to them, so that you won't take much notice.
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.
One of the horrible hallmarks of any type of anxiety disorder is the tendency to overthink everything. The anxious brain is hypervigilant, always on the lookout for anything it perceives to be dangerous or worrisome.
“It's all in your head.” On some level, people who have anxiety disorders know the worry is 'all in their head. ' But that doesn't make their anxiety or fears any less real. Uttering this phrase dismisses their very real concerns and the impact anxiety is having on their lives.
They might seem a little aloof, disinterested or indifferent. Except they're not. People with anxiety can appear aloof to outsiders, but they're often the warmest people in the room.