Physical and Mental Manifestations of Anxiety Articles | Anxiety

There are various mental as well as physical symptoms of anxiety. An otherwise happy and cheerful person can suddenly become gloomy and depressed. Is there any way by which you could identify some of these symptoms and prevent them from overpowering you? Let us take a closer look.

Physical symptoms of anxiety:

Though it may sound very strange, but a mental disorder like anxiety can actually make the sufferer quite ill physically. While he may look stressed, tired, unhappy or mentally burnt out, anxiety over any issue in life can make a person suffer from ailments like Irritable Bowel Syndrome, heat problems or even common cold. Since anxiety lowers reduces the capabilities of the immune system, the victim may easily contract one or many common infections. Anxiety also puts a pressure on the heart, making it beat faster. In fact, untreated and serious anxiety may lead to heart attack and stroke.

Deep wrinkles on his forehead, a permanent sadness on the face, dark circles round his eyes are some of the common physical symptoms of a person suffering from anxiety disorders. He or she will either be over or under weight. This is because anxiety often compels a person to overeat to get relief from stress or completely depletes his appetite for food which makes him lose weight.

There are several physical manifestations seen with people with other mental disorders. For instance, people suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD) would go on repeating the same action over and over again, as repetition of an activity is a stress-buster for these patients. A person suffering from chronic depression may have other physical manifestation like refusing to get out of bed every morning, resulting in loss of several working hours from school or work. You will often find these people missing from any activity which require physical contribution.

Mental symptoms of anxiety: The mental symptoms of anxiety are very difficult to cope with. People suffering from anxiety will find it very difficult to concentrate on anything else that their particular pet problem or issue that they are obsessed with. Whatever they do, they seem to come back on their favorite issue which makes them depressed. This in turn causes extreme depression. Sometimes these symptoms can get so serious can it causes a mental breakdown and the patients are completely incapacitated to perform even the daily chores.

Anxiety may even cause a person to change his outward behavior. Once a social person becomes an introvert and does not communicate much with the outside world. Serious anxiety disorders also cause severe mood swings – one moment he is happy and content, the next moment he is completely irrational. It can make him unusually quiet and reticent where his attention span is limited. The disorder can get so serious that it becomes nearly impossible for you to make him talk about his problems. Thus anxiety can overwhelm a person both mentally as well as physically. If you think that you have any of these symptoms it is in your own interest that you seek medical help without any delay.