How Does Anxiety Influence Your Health
Posted April 30, 2018 by Ingeborg Hrabowy, Ph.D.
Your body is capable of dealing with short bursts of this physical response as it is preparing you to face a stressful situation. However, after a prolonged period of time, anxiety disorders can have significant negative effects on your overall physical, relationship and mental health and wellbeing as well as one’s ability to function at work.
Although anxiety is silent, it still ravages an effect. Just like one doesn’t need to know how electricity works, you can still see the effect of electricity. Likewise, it may be the silent and unidentified cause in sleep disorders, GI diagnoses and stress – all factors adversely impacting health outcomes.
Let’s discuss the different ways that anxiety can manifest so that you might be able to identify it in yourself, a friend, a spouse or a coworker. Listed below are several different types of anxiety disorders; a few of the most common are:
- Social anxiety, also referred to as social phobia, can have a crippling effect on day-to-day activities. It is usually characterized by a feeling or fear of being judged, rejected or of offending others in social situations.
- Panic attacks are sudden periods or bursts of intense fear or a feeling of impending doom. These attacks can trigger heart palpitations, sweating, shortness of breath or in severe cases it can feel like a heart attack resulting in visits to the emergency room.
- GAD, or generalized anxiety disorder, affects roughly 6.8 million Americans every year and is very common. GAD is defined as excessive anxiety for no specific reason often with an inability to stop the worry and can have a huge toll on your life.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder occurs after witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event. Symptoms can arise immediately after the event or can take years to manifest themselves.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder can include excessive hand-washing, continuously counting items, endless “security” checks or repeatedly obsessing and ruminating over certain thoughts. People who suffer from this disorder often are unable to stop themselves from performing routines or rituals or stopping the unwanted thoughts despite their best effort.
How anxiety affects the body
Prolonged emotional stress and worry can lead to a variety of health concerns and can even influence hormonal levels. The body’s central nervous system goes into overdrive and releases cortisol that can boost sugar levels and triglycerides. But if cortisol is constantly being triggered it can result in physical reactions, including: short-term memory loss and concentration problems, digestive disorders, sleep disorders, lowered immune system, elevated blood pressure and in rare cases even a heart attack.
Patients report that emotional symptoms are just as debilitating and include incessant worry, dread, inability to relax, spinning thinking, racing thoughts, negativity and projected negative outcomes, fixation on thoughts surrounding safety or death, having a looming dark cloud over one’s head, feeling hopeless about the future and at times feeling like one is losing their mind. These thoughts are often all-consuming and inescapable and are difficult to control.
Research shows there may be a cyclical effect of anxiety when related to the brain. When anxiety disorders are left undiagnosed and untreated, certain areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, can decrease in size. Those particular parts of the brain are where anxious feelings are registered, even created. When those areas are reduced or weakened, it can contribute to the negative, anxious thoughts that are already present creating a cycle of negative thinking.
Experiencing anxiety can be a very lonely, isolating, stressful or overwhelming experience which often adversely impacts mental, physical and emotional functioning. But it doesn’t have to be. Anxiety is a manageable disorder and treatment options can make a big difference in your overall health and well-being. Help is available through Summa Health Behavioral Health Institute so you can experience relief from mild, moderate or debilitating symptoms of anxiety. You might even come to face the world with renewed hope for new possibilities in your life.
Sometimes people are uncomfortable discussing their anxiety or are stymied because they don’t know where to turn for help or whom to call. Summa has several practices throughout the area and teams of dedicated, skilled and knowledgeable psychiatrists and psychologists who are familiar with treating patients experiencing anxiety. The great advantage is coordinated and seamless care often under one roof within our system that allows for real time care as well as communication and coordination of treatment between your providers.
We practice a patient-centered philosophy and are committed to meeting each patient’s mental health needs in a holistic manner. Most insurance plans are accepted. For more information, call 330.379.8190.
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