If you suffer from anxiety, it can be tough to live in a world of constant fear. This is especially true if you have had anxiety for an extended period of time as your brain might be exhausted from being so hypervigilant. If this is the case, it can be difficult to tell if your symptoms are getting worse. You may be so used to feeling anxious that you may not realize your symptoms are worsening and you need to get help. Here are 8 signs your anxiety is getting worse and you should reach out for help.
Sleep Problems
Getting to sleep when you have severe anxiety is nearly impossible. You probably find yourself laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, worrying about anything and everything. However, anxiety can cause other sleep problems such as waking you up in the middle of the night and being unable to fall back asleep, having generally restless sleep, or having intense nightmares. This can cause you to become fatigued, which can make your anxiety worse. This cycle will continue until it is treated properly.
Constantly Worrying
Anxiety is associated with worrying, but sometimes it reaches a severe level. Generally, anxiety can be calmed with reassurance from an outside source, but this isn’t always the case. More severe anxiety will still cause you to obsessively worry despite being reassured that what you are worried about isn’t as serious as your anxiety is making you believe. This can cause a person to become isolated as they lose trust in others and spend all of their time worrying about life in general.
More Relationship Issues
It can be difficult to be around someone with severe anxiety. This is because they worry all the time, are super negative, don’t trust easily, and often don’t like trying new things. Friends and family may stop calling or hanging out with an individual that has worsening anxiety, causing the person to become more isolated. This can increase their anxiety even more, making the situation worse.
Having Irrational Fears
It is not uncommon for people to have phobias, which are debilitating fears associated with a specific place, situation, or thing. This can include small spaces, crowds, spiders, and more. If you find yourself obsessively worrying about these specifics, reaching out for help can help you overcome these fears. This is important because phobias can keep you from doing new things in life and keep you from enjoying common activities. An example of this would be being unable to take a nature walk because you are deathly afraid of bears, even if there are no bears in your area.
Digestion Problems
Worsening anxiety can often result in digestion problems, namely chronic indigestion. This can include diarrhea, indigestion, and nausea. Most individuals try to treat these with medication or relaxation techniques, but severe anxiety will perpetuate these symptoms. This is a tell-tale sign that you need to reach out for help to manage the anxiety so the physical symptoms go away.
Panic Attacks
Panic attacks are caused by sudden onsets of fear and can last for minutes at a time, leaving the person feeling helpless and panicked for this amount of time. Symptoms include dizziness, a racing heart, problems breathing, pain in the stomach, hot or cold flashes, sweatiness, and more. These are a sign that anxiety is getting severe, especially when they happen frequently. The best thing to do is to contact a mental health professional to receive help for these.
Insecurity
Those with social anxiety often find themselves unable to do common social things due to insecurity. For example, a person may be the first to finish a test in class, but they won’t go and turn it in until someone else gets up. This is because the person feels as though everyone around them will be staring at them, judging their every move, and secretly laughing at them. This is an irrational fear because the most likely scenario is that everyone is too focused on their own test and personal thoughts that they won’t even notice the individual getting up to turn in their test. Anxiety causes insecurities to be blown out of proportion, making the person doubt themselves and hold back from engaging in common social activities or behaviors.
Muscle Tension
Another physical symptom of severe anxiety is constant muscle tension. This can include grinding your teeth, clenching your jaw, flexing muscles, balling your fists, etc. Someone with these physical symptoms may not even notice them if they have had anxiety for a long time. However, others around them may notice them and point them out. If this happens, it is worth it to ask your doctor or therapist about them to see if anxiety could be causing them. From there, you can receive the proper treatment.
Anxiety is often felt by those with a substance abuse disorder and it is important to recognize worsening symptoms. Be aware of the symptoms anxiety brings on your body when it gets more severe which can stop the progress of both your anxiety and addiction. This is because both can be treated so that when the person goes back to normal life they can manage not only their sobriety but also their anxiety symptoms. You cannot know if you have severe anxiety unless you know the symptoms to look for, such as the ones in this article. However, it should be remembered that anxiety can present itself in different ways depending on the individual, so any behavioral changes are to be examined. If you find yourself exhibiting any of these symptoms, you should reach out for help. For more information on anxiety, addiction, and healing, call Hired Power at 800.910.9299.
