Anxiety

Anxiety can be described as the body’s alarm system. It signals and prepares the body to quickly respond to danger through fight/flight/freeze reactions.

Anxiety can become a problem in our lives when it is activated without there being an actual danger in front of us.

Ruminating about the past or worrying about the future can furthermore perpetuate anxiety. The bodily symptoms of anxiety are created by the somatic and autonomic nervous system and can be discharged through the striated muscles, smooth muscles and cognitive/perceptual disruptions.

Anxiety may be experienced as tension in the arms, neck and legs, headaches, sighing, jaw clenching, fibromyalgia, increased heart rate and respiration, blushing, warm or cold hands, diarrhea, urge to urinate, sudden loss of feelings in areas of the body, ‘jelly legs’, nausea, vomiting, irritable bowel syndrome, confusion, loosing track of thoughts, poor memory, tunnel vision, blindness, visual blurring, fainting, dizziness, hallucinations, and ringing in the ears.