Living with anxiety can be tough. It’s bad enough with the frightening thoughts swirling in your head, the endless worrying, and the panic you feel for seemingly no reason. It’s even worse that
anxiety disorders also come with a host of symptoms that are not only uncomfortable but also can make you feel embarassed. If you’re among the 40 million people in the U.S. who typically have some form of anxiety each year, you can probably relate.
Whether you have a generalized anxiety disorder, a
phobia,
panic disorder, or social anxiety—among other diagnoses—you may struggle with symptoms that are noticeable to others. This occurs because your body is reacting to the worrisome thoughts running consciously or unconsciously through your mind. And at times, these outward signs can be hard to control, especially since anxiousness can be unpredictable and crop up suddenly. When these outward anxiety symptoms manifest in the presence of others, they can make you feel worse.
5 Uncomfortable Yet Common Symptoms of Anxiety
Know that if you’ve ever experienced any of the following bothersome issues, you are definitely not alone!
1. Sweating
While it’s normal to sweat as the temperature goes up, when you’re exercising, or even giving a presentation, people with anxiety can break into a serious sweat when they get triggered. You can thank your stress response system for this. When it is activated, your heart rate goes up which raises your body temperature, and sweating is nature’s way to help cool you down. Nonetheless, it can be very uncomfortable for your face, head, or armpits to show obvious signs of profuse sweating for no apparent reason—especially while everyone else looks cool and collected. The self-consciousness you may experience when this happens can make your anxiety feel even worse.
2. Shaking and Trembling
The brain is wired for survival and responds immediately and unconsciously to any perceived danger. However, since people with anxiety are more predisposed to having fearful thoughts, they tend to have an elevated sensitivity to perceived threats (even if they aren’t real). The brain, however, responds to real and imagined threats the same way. When the fight-or-flight mode kicks in,
stress hormones speed up your heart rate and respiration, while preparing your muscles to respond. This leads to varying degrees of uncontrollable shaking or trembling, which often can affect your hands, voice, legs, or your whole body—and even cause your teeth to chatter.
3. Gastrointestinal Distress
Your fight-or-flight system is also responsible for anxiety-related nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, gas, and other G.I distress. When it is activated, some of the neurotransmitters and hormones released get into your digestive tract and disrupt the balance of micro-organisms that live in your microbiome. This can lead to the sudden onset of G.I. symptoms. In turn, this can elevate your fear about having to get to a bathroom quickly, especially when you’re out in public or with friends, which of course can make you worry even more or cause you to repeatedly make up excuses for staying home.
4. Stuttering
While stuttering is a different disorder than anxiety, it isn’t unusual for someone who’s really anxious to stutter when talking. This can be caused by difficulty slowing down and organizing your thoughts or overthinking them which basically makes you trip over your words as you try to express yourself. Interestingly,
a 2014 study in the
Journal of Fluency Disorders has found that many people who stutter also have social anxiety disorder.
5. Raggedy nails
It’s not uncommon for someone who struggles with anxiety to bite their nails. The act of chewing on your nails can relieve stress—it’s a habit that usually starts in childhood or adolescence. However, those who continue to bite their nails and fingers when nervous can cause damage to the tissues of their fingers and nails which can be hard to hide and is another source of embarrassment. Also, chronically biting your nails can progress to a more severe condition called onychophagia which goes beyond nervous nail chewing to a category of disorders known as body-focused repetitive behaviors that are related to
obsessive compulsive disorder.
Many of the patients who have come to Amen Clinics to get help for their anxiety, undergo a
SPECT scan as part of their evaluation. They often learn that one of the biological underpinnings for their anxiety is overactivity in the basal ganglia, which is a part of the brain that is involved in setting the body’s idle. Armed with this important information, the doctors can develop comprehensive treatment plans to reduce anxiety, so these patients can get be free from their symptoms, including those unpredictable ones that can make you feel even worse about yourself.
Anxiety disorders and other mental health problems can’t wait. and other mental health issues can’t wait. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, clinical evaluations, and therapy for adults, teens, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here.
