Each of us feels anxious sometimes. We worry mostly about our families and other issues related to them. However, you may have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or chronic anxiety if you constantly worry and feel scared to the point where your capacity to function and calm down is disrupted.
If you are experiencing a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) you may almost always be concerned about similar things that others do. Still, you consider these worries to be way bigger.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a typical anxiety disorder described as having persistent and chronic worry, tension, and apprehension. It is not the same as phobia, where your fears are related to a particular event or thing. The anxiety experienced in GAD is subtle but diffused – an overall feeling of discomfort or fright that engulfs your entire life. This form of anxiety is not as severe as a panic episode or panic attack, but it lasts longer, making it hard for you to get a hold of a normal, peaceful life. GAD is physically and mentally draining. It exhausts you of your energy, it fatigues your body, and it impedes sleep.
Sometimes, just thinking about surviving a busy day triggers anxiety disorder. People with anxiety perform tasks filled with extreme pressure and excessive anxiety even when nothing provokes them. Luckily, treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy can help with anxiety and depression.
Below are more details about chronic anxiety that you should know.
Treat Chronic Anxiety
GAD, or generalized anxiety disorder, is a type of anxiety disorder that presents chronic anxiety and extreme tension and worry, even if there’s nothing that’s provoking the situation. Some long-term techniques that you can do for your chronic anxiety can include:
- Find ways to deal with your triggers
- Practice a regular meditation or mindfulness routine
- Go through cognitive behavioral therapy
- Find a treatment that works for you in addition to cognitive behavioral therapy
- Take supplements and changing your diet
- Consult your doctor regarding anti-anxiety medications
- Keep your mind and body healthy
Symptoms Of Chronic Anxiety?
If you are suffering from chronic anxiety, you are constantly feeling restless, tense, or nervous, and you often have a sense of imminent danger or doom. Your heart rate is usually fast; you are almost always sweating, trembling, and hyperventilating. Finally, you often feel tired and have difficulty focusing because you are always thinking about your recent concerns.
Does Chronic Anxiety Ever Go Away?
The first form of anxiety will disappear by itself. The second might not go away. Most individuals with anxiety never fully recover from their condition. But they can learn to control how they feel and tremendously decrease the extent of their anxiety by going through therapy, joining support groups, and taking medications if necessary.
Some individuals may have a higher risk for developing anxiety, such as those with a family history of anxiety disorders, those who have experienced trauma or stressful life events, and those with certain medical conditions. Identifying and addressing these risk factors researchers have analyzed can help prevent or manage anxiety. This is why treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy are invaluable.
Can Chronic Anxiety Cause Physical Symptoms?
Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder are chronic worriers who are tense and anxious almost always and don’t even know why. The anxiety associated with GAD frequently presents with physical symptoms such as stomach problems, fatigue, restlessness, and insomnia.
Reduce The Physical Symptoms Of Chronic Anxiety
To help you decrease and relieve symptoms of anxiety that you are experiencing physically, you can start by exercising regularly. This lowers your stress levels and enhances your physical health. You should also try avoiding nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol, as these three could definitely worsen anxiety symptoms. Practicing relaxation strategies and trying to get enough sleep are also great ways to decrease your physical symptoms of anxiety.
Can Physical Symptoms Be Caused By Thoughts?
Yes, it can. And when physical symptoms lead to or are worsened by one’s thoughts or mental state, this is psychosomatic. Many individuals think that psychosomatic symptoms are unreal, but they actually are very true symptoms caused by psychological factors. For instance, when you imagine or over-think that you are sick when you’re not, this can potentially make you truly sick through a ‘nocebo effect.’ Pretentious sickness could emerge because of a person’s overactive imagination, overreaction, or over-diagnosis.
Is Googling For Symptoms A Bad Idea?
Aside from inappropriate diagnoses, using Google to come up with a diagnosis for your symptoms can cover up a possibly life-threatening condition. So besides a hazy and incorrect diagnosis from various medical websites on the web, it is the danger of not recognizing a disease appropriately that is far worse than you think.
Why Do I Always Think Something Is Wrong With Me?
When you often think something is wrong with you, you have a condition called illness anxiety disorder, sometimes called hypochondriasis. You constantly worry that you may become severely ill, even without seeing or feeling any physical symptoms. At times, ‘catastrophizing’ can also occur to individuals at any point in their lives. It might be because of one’s mental health problems, such as depression or anxiety, or it could have developed from a previous negative experience or trauma that you have not been able to overcome.
Can Chronic Anxiety Cause Body Sensations?
It is not uncommon for people with anxiety to feel tingling or numbness, which may happen at almost any part of the body but is most commonly sensed on the hands, arms, legs, feet, and face. This results from blood running to the body’s most vital parts that support the fight and flight response.
How Does Chronic Anxiety Make Your Body Feel?
For a brief period, anxiety increases one’s heart rate and breathing, focusing blood flow to the nervous system, where the person needs it most. This physical indication allows you to anticipate the severe or extreme circumstance you’re about to be confronted with. If the situation becomes too extreme, however, you may begin to feel dizzy and nauseated.
How Do I Stop Feeling Jittery?
You can minimize the ‘jittery feelings’ by drinking lots of water and avoiding too much caffeine from soda and coffee. You would also want to replace electrolytes, take regular walks, and practice meditation and deep breathing techniques.
Is Staring A Symptom Of Anxiety?
Staring at blank spaces is the body’s normal way of coping with anxiety. This anxiety gaze is a symptom that is associated with heightened stress levels.
Why Does My Body Feel Shaky Inside?
When you are extremely worried, angry, or stressed, your nervous sensation is increased, causing your body to shake. Some individuals are also more sensitive to prescriptions for anxiety compared to others. Antidepressants, antihistamines, lithium, or asthma medications can also cause shakiness.
Why Do I Feel Jittery And Shaky?
When you have anxiety, your body prepares to cope with the stress and tension, decoding the anxiety as a sign of your need to run from the threat or stand your ground. Your body’s different muscles get ready to take action, causing the body to tremble, shake, and twitch. If tremors accompany these symptoms, the type of tremor is called psychogenic tremor.
Why Do I Feel Shaky And Weak?
If you unexpectedly feel shaky, lightheaded, and weak, you could be having a hypoglycemic attack. Other indications of lowered blood sugar include sudden headaches, trembling, fatigue, or tremors of the legs or arms.
Bottom Line
Whether you acknowledge that your anxiety is far more exaggerated than the circumstances call for or think that your constant worrying guards you in whatever way, the outcome is the same – you cannot turn off your extremely anxious ideations. They continue running inside your head repeatedly, but there are ways to manage it, simialr to knowing how to handle teenage angst. But even if things may seem so intense and overwhelming right now, you can be free of this chronic anxiety, find ways to pacify your anxious mind, and regain that sense of hope in you.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)