Symptoms Of Anxiety That No-one Talk About
Constantly needing to go to the toilet. This is especially common if someone is experiencing a period of heightened anxiety, or a panic attack. This is because our fight or flight response is triggered, which can cause a need to urinate. Diarrhoea is also common.
Feeling paranoid and not being able to trust others. This can make other people angry, but when someone’s mind is constantly over-analysing every single situation, it can completely take over. Many people with anxiety need frequent reassurance, and this isn’t a bad thing.
Being unable to move or speak. For a short period of time, a person may feel physically unable to move their body or be unable to speak, no matter how hard they try.
Irritability. Anxiety can cause someone to be constantly on the edge. Sometimes anxiety can make people more prone to snapping at other people, or getting frustrated easily by a seemingly small thing.
Constantly feeling like everyone hates you. Your thoughts don’t turn off. You can’t stop interpreting every single slight gesture someone makes as evidence that they hate you. Feeling like this can really affect your self-confidence and make everyday life exhausting.
Things like biting nails, picking skin, pulling hair or eyelashes, and scratching yourself. The person may not realise that they are doing this, or they may do it as a way to calm the torrent of anxiety inside of them. It can be embarrassing if people notice, and also it can hurt.
Never feeling well-rested or not tired. Waking up in the morning, already being hit by a thousand thoughts spiralling at a hundred miles an hour, means exhaustion from the moment your eyes open. Complete physical fatigue too. Anxiety takes everything out of you.
Appearing ‘rude’ because you don’t have the energy to manage things asked of you, or not joining in with things because you know it will send you into a panic attack. People who don’t understand anxiety can automatically assume you are rude. It sucks.
Feeling like you are constantly at war with your own mind. Fighting your thoughts every moment that you are awake. Your brain thinks that it’s keeping you safe, and going against your natural survival instincts, even if irrational, requires a huge amount of mental strength.
Anxiety can increase acne and greasy hair. I believe this is because stress impacts hormone levels. The effects of this on our appearance can make us feel worse about ourselves, which can increase our anxiety. It’s a vicious cycle.
If you have an anxiety disorder, what symptoms do you feel aren’t spoken about enough?