In recent years, anxiety disorders have been gaining more public awareness. Despite this, many people struggle to recognize the signs of clinical anxiety in themselves or their loved ones. This lack of recognition causes people to prolong their struggles with anxiety, believing that the difficulties they are dealing with are the result of character flaws rather than clinical disorders that can be treated with therapy. This article will cover three of these lesser known signs of anxiety–if you recognize any of them from your own experience, you can reach out to the office of Dr. James Campbell, LLC to get the help and support you need.
- Fatigue – One common assumption about anxiety is that it causes you to jump at shadows and to be constantly over-alert. In reality, many people with anxiety struggle with fatigue, as the brain uses up a lot of energy with all the intense worry, which can make it hard to stay alert during the day.
- Stomach Pains – While many people think of anxiety as a purely mental problem, it can also have a significant impact on your body. Clinical anxiety activates the body’s flight or fight response, which triggers a number of physical responses. One of these responses is to interrupt proper digestion, which often leads to stomach pains, nausea, or diarrhea. If you are experiencing these types of complaints with no apparent medical cause, the true culprit could be clinical anxiety.
- Cold Hands and Feet – Building on the theme of flight or fight responses, anxiety can also give you cold hands and feet. The flight or fight response is your body’s “crash landing” protocol, designed to help you survive a life-or-death situation. One of the ways it does this is by diverting blood away from your extremities and toward your vital organs, which leaves your hands and feet feeling icy cold even when there’s no external reason they should be.