The Different Levels of Anxiety
Anxiety can take a number of different forms in the body, depending on how intense it is in a given moment.
Low Level – Into the Muscles
When the intensity of the anxiety is low, we tend to feel it in the voluntary muscles of the body — that is, in the muscles we have control over. You might notice a tightness in the chest that causes you to sigh when breathing out, clenching in the hands, or a tightening of the muscles of the arms, neck, upper back and shoulders. Many people will start to fidget or bounce their leg when feeling this kind of low-intensity anxiety.
Medium Level – Into the Guts
As anxiety becomes more intense it leaves the voluntary (also known as the striated) muscles and enters the smooth muscles of the body’s internal systems. At this medium level of intensity we can experience anxiety that shows up like migraine headaches, nausea, queasiness or pain in the stomach, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms, the urge to pee and breathing problems. When feeling anxiety in the smooth muscles, a person might also suddenly start feeling tired, depressed or physically sore in the muscles and joints, similar to fibromyalgia.
High Level – Into the Head
At the highest level of intensity, anxiety will overwhelm the brain’s ability to think and perceive things clearly. At this level of overwhelm, anxiety can show up looking very much like medical or neurological problems that don’t typically resemble anxiety at all, including blurred or tunnel vision, difficulties hearing clearly or accurately, mental confusion, memory loss, dizziness, or feeling like things are no longer ‘real’ around you. We might also start to view other people with more suspicion, or become likely to lash out at those around us.
Coping With Anxiety
However your anxiety might be showing up, there are many ways to manage it and bring it back down to a level when you can think clearly and take steps to deal with the issues you’re facing. One is by doing whatever you can to become consciously aware of your own body and the sensations within. We call this ‘grounding’ and you can do it as simply as striving to follow the path of your own breath as it moves into and out from your body. Another way to ground is by talking to yourself, narrating your experiences as they’re happening right now (eg. “I’m noticing that I’m feeling dizzy and holding my breath. My chest is tight and my shoulders are up by my ears.”). This is very effective at reducing anxiety and bringing back the calm because the act of generating language harnesses the parts of the brain that think clearly and calms the other parts that go ‘on alarm’ when we feel afraid or overwhelmed.
See if you can become more aware of how anxiety is showing up in your body, and get in touch if you’d like help learning to cope with anxiety.
