What Is Anxiety?
The definition of anxiety is distress of the mind caused by fear of danger. Every human being experiences this common emotion at some time. However, not everyone experiences anxiety that escalates into extreme anxiety or a terrifying panic attack.
These episodes leave you the victim extremely dizzy with blurry vision, labored breathing, and body tingling all over. These symptoms make you feel as if you have a serious illness or are losing your mind. These feelings are so horrifying they make you feel as if you’re losing total control. This form of anxiety occurs when you’re in a confrontation with an unfriendly dog or a human attacker. A milder form of anxiety occurs when you have to take a test or you have a job interview.
There are several emotional symptoms that are associated with anxiety:
- A feeling of uneasiness and worry that never seems to leave,
- Difficulty in getting enough sleep leaving you feeling tired,
- Lack of concentration,
- Irritability or touchiness,
- A lack of control over your actions and emotions, and
- A detached feeling from your surroundings.
As if these emotional symptoms aren’t enough you can also experience terrifying physical sensations such as:
- Accelerated heart rate,
- Accelerated breathing,
- Heart palpitations,
- Nausea,
- Pain in the chest,
- Headaches,
- Dryness of the mouth, and
- Excessive sweating.
Anxiety causes your brain to send out signals to different areas of your body that bring about these physical symptoms. When your body is feeling under attack your heart beats in an irregular pattern and faster than normal while breathing accelerates.
Adrenaline is released when the body is in stress mode. Adrenaline is a hormone that enables your body to increase in speed and strength during dangerous situations. Your body goes into a “fight or flight” stance. When you have anxiety adrenaline is released even if you’re not experiencing danger. However, you don’t burn off the adrenaline because you don’t fight or run away. The excess adrenaline causes the emotional and physical symptoms mentioned above.
Just knowing the effects of adrenaline on the body should relieve some of your anxiousness. You now know you’re not losing control of your mind or having a heart attack!
