Chronic anxiety can physically strain your body, particularly your nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, immune, and respiratory systems.
Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time, but chronic stress can impair your life quality. While anxiety is perhaps best known for causing behavioral changes, it can also have severe consequences for your physical health.
Continue reading to learn more about the huge effects of anxiety on your body.
The effects of anxiety on the body
Anxiety is a normal part of life. For example, you may have had anxiety before addressing a group or during a job interview.
You may experience bodily symptoms of anxiety, including:
- Fast breathing or heart rate
- Lightheadedness or dizziness
- Indigestion
- Chest pain
- Tiredness
- Sleeplessness
- Headache
Anxiety increases your breathing and heart rate in the short term, concentrating blood flow to your brain where needed. This very bodily reaction is preparing you to deal with a stressful scenario.
If it becomes too powerful, you may become lightheaded and queasy. Anxiety can be detrimental to your physical and emotional health, whether extreme or persistent.
Anxiety disorders can occur at any age but are most common between adolescence and young adulthood. According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, women are more likely than men to experience an Anxiety Disorder (ADAA).
Stressful life events may also increase your chances of developing an anxiety condition. Symptoms can appear right away or years later. Anxiety disorders can develop due to a major medical condition or a substance use issue.
The Nerve System’s Central
Long-term anxiety and panic attacks might cause your brain to emit stress hormones regularly. It can make symptoms like headaches, dizziness, and sadness more common.
When you are anxious or tense, your brain floods your nervous system with hormones and substances that aid in responding to a threat. Cortisol and adrenaline are two examples.
While stress hormones can be beneficial for rare high-stress events, long-term exposure to them can be detrimental to your physical health in the long run. Long-term cortisol exposure, for example, can contribute to weight growth.
The Circulatory System
Anxiety disorders can result in a racing heart, palpitations, and chest pain. You may also be predisposed to high blood pressure and heart disease. Anxiety disorders may increase the risk of coronary events if you already have heart disease.
Digestive and Excretory Systems
Anxiety has an impact on both your excretory and digestive systems. You may experience stomach pains, nausea, diarrhea, and other digestive problems. Appetite loss is also possible.
Anxiety disorders and the development of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) following a bowel infection may be linked. IBS symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation.
The Immune System
Anxiety can activate your flight-or-fight stress response, causing your body to generate a flood of chemicals and hormones such as adrenaline.
In the short term, this raises your pulse and breathing rate, allowing more oxygen to reach your brain. It equips you to react effectively in a stressful scenario. Your immune system may even receive a temporary boost. When you experience periodic stress, your body recovers to normal functioning.
However, if you are subjected to continuous stress, your body never receives the signal to resume normal functioning. It can deplete your immune system, making you more susceptible to viral infections and diseases.
Additionally, your routine immunizations may not perform well if you are anxious.
The Respiratory System
Anxiety produces shallow, fast breathing. If you have a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), you are more likely to be hospitalized due to anxiety-related problems. Anxiety can exacerbate asthma symptoms.
