Stress and worry are natural human emotions. It’s your brain’s method of responding to stress and warning you about any dangers that might be coming. Everyone experiences moments of anxiety from time to time. When faced with an issue at the workplace, before answering exams or deciding on a significant choice, you might experience anxiety.
It’s normal to feel anxious now and then. However, anxiety disorders constitute a distinct condition. They’re a collection of mental disorders that health professionals characterize by extreme and unrelenting anxiety and worry. Too much stress can cause you to avoid social settings that might set off or aggravate your symptoms, such as family gatherings, school, work, and other get-togethers.
Using Food as a Coping Mechanism
Here comes the problem of bingeing and overeating. In many cases, people unintentionally develop a habit of overeating when they are stressed or anxious.
A study showed anxiety as the most common emotion associated with compulsive eating in one research, followed by sorrow, fatigue, happiness, and anger. However, take note that people with Binge Eating Disorder (BED) are not the only ones who use food to cope with their anxieties. Even those who don’t indulge in binge eating might partake in “emotional overeating,” which is when they eat more than what their bodies require for nourishment in reaction to particular triggers, such as anxiety.
A team of experts who can tackle the social, psychological, and biological aspects of recurrent BED and anxiety is helpful when seeking treatment for binge eating.
Sleep Problems
Anxiety disorders have a significant link to sleep problems. A common symptom of anxiety disorders is difficulty falling or staying asleep in the dead of night. People experiencing insomnia, according to some statistics, are up to 17 times prone to develop other mental health issues, including anxiety.
Even though anxiety and insomnia are closely related, it’s not apparent the former causes insomnia, if it’s vice versa, or both, for that matter. What’s understood is that treating one’s underlying anxiety issue generally leads to more minor problems with sleeplessness.
Fatigue
It’s also a possible sign of GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) to get quickly drained. Arousal or hyperactivity can be a surprise to some because research often links anxiety to these symptoms. Moreover, fatigue can be a side effect of an anxiety attack for certain people, while others feel exhausted constantly.
Chronic anxiety can have hormonal consequences that cause weariness, but it’s uncertain if other anxiety symptoms like sleeplessness or muscular tightness can also cause it. However, anxiety disorders are not often diagnosed just by signs of exhaustion. Fatigue can be an indication of depression or other health issues.
Inability to Focus
People who suffer from anxiety are more likely to say they have trouble concentrating. In a survey of 175 people with GAD, nearly all of them said they had difficulty focusing. It also showed a relationship between higher levels of anxiousness and concentration problems.
According to some findings, anxiety can interfere with cognitive function, which is responsible for retaining recently learned knowledge. This might explain why people typically perform worse when they’re under a lot of stress. Concentration issues can also be a sign of other mental issues, such as depression or ADHD. As a result, having trouble focusing alone is not enough to diagnose an anxiety disorder.
Excessive Worrying
Excessive worrying is a typical sign of an anxiety condition. People who suffer from anxiety disorders tend to be overly concerned about minor incidents or ordinary occurrences. Physicians will diagnose an individual with GAD if worrying happens daily for six months or more and is harder to manage. A person with intrusive and severe worrying makes it tough to focus and get things done daily.
Around 6.8 million people in the US – approximately 3.1% of the American population – suffer from anxiety disorders, as per the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). However, only about 45% of those suffering from the condition seek therapy. The prevalence of GAD is twice as high among women as it is among males, and the state frequently occurs in conjunction with severe depression.
Keeping a Social Life
Anxiety disorders such as social anxiety affect 5 to 10% of the global population. It usually appears in the early stages of life. About 90% of individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) are diagnosed by the time they are 23 years old, while the average age of those first to experience SAD is 13.
When interacting with someone new or in gatherings, individuals with social anxiety might look excessively quiet and reserved. They look calm when observed by other people, but they feel terrified and anxious within.
If you suffer from any form of anxiety disorder, you can work with a certified healthcare practitioner to employ various natural remedies to help alleviate their symptoms.