“Is this just anxiety?” – …is possibly one of the most common questions anxious people ask.
This is not surprising, since anxiety can cause a bewildering array of symptoms. The lists of anxiety symptoms are long one. They can become quite intense too, and persist for a long time until it is hard to reassure ourselves that there is not something more serious wrong with us.
Add to that, just when we finally accept a symptom, anxiety’s trick of replacing it with something new and often even more unpleasant and scary keeps us worried it must be more than just anxiety.
The variety of anxiety-related physical and mental symptoms is so vast it’s impossible to list them all. But here are some of the more common ones:
Physical Anxiety Symptoms
- Headaches
- Feeling of a “tight band” around the head
- Blurred vision
- Stiff or painful neck / back
- Dizziness, feeling light-headed, fainting
- Feeling weak, tired
- Trembling hands / body / legs
- Tingling skin / Pins and needles, itching
- Agitated / unable to rest or relax
- Sleeplessness (insomnia)
- Heart palpitations, racing / thumping heart
- Chest or abdominal pains
- Shallow breathing / Hyperventilation / Unable to get a deep breath
- Dry mouth
- Difficulty swallowing, lump in throat, choking sensation
- Upset stomach, diarrhea
- Frequent urination
- Blushing
- Flushed face, hot flushes, sweating
- Ringing in the ears
- Hypersensitivity to light or sounds
Mental / Emotional Anxiety Symptoms
- High levels of fear & anxiety
- Racing thoughts
- Scary, weird, or disturbing thoughts
- Night terrors
- Obsessive thoughts / Compulsive actions
- Thinking one is going crazy
- Difficulty focusing
- Short-term memory loss
- Highly sensitive to everything
- Feeling impatient / short tempered
- Frequent anger, emotional outbursts
- Fearing one’s thoughts and reactions
- Afraid of harming someone / self
- Feeling agitated yet exhausted
- Overwhelming feelings of despair, sadness, crying a lot
- Experiencing a lack of joy, numb
- Loss of confidence, blaming oneself
- Feelings of shame & guilt
- Disintegration, unreality
- Feeling incredibly alone
- A sense of bewilderment
- Feeling hopeless, no motivation
- Depressed
Spiritual Symptoms
- Feelings of absolute hopelessness and despair
- Feeling totally alone
- Existential fears – fear of dying or losing one’s mind
- Loss of purpose in life
- Lack of motivation (what’s the point)
- Feeling adrift, unmoored
- Loss of faith and connection
Even though any of these symptoms are likely to be anxiety if we are struggling with that condition, it is always good to get any persistent symptom checked out medically to rule out any other cause. When we have been assured it’s only anxiety, then the focus must be on allowing and accepting it as best we can.
Anxiety manifests in many different ways. Here are some of the more common Anxiety Types.