Signs and symptoms of anxiety

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is part of being human. Everyone experiences it. We describe anxiety as feeling nervous, worried, uneasy, panicky, and fearful about what might happen. Anxiety can happen when we’re about to give a speech at a wedding or at work, while driving a car, going to meet with our child’s teacher, or looking down from the top of a skyscraper. It can also occur when we worry about climate change, whether our children will have jobs when they grow up, or if someone could hurt us or someone we love.

Anxiety is related to fear. Fear is a natural response to something that is, or seems to be, a threat to our physical safety. To keep us safe, our bodies and brains are designed to respond with fear to physical threats. However, when we experience anxiety, our body responds to activities that are not life-threatening as if they are physical threats. This response leads to the signs and symptoms listed below.

Your body

Physical signs and symptoms of anxiety

• heart pumping fast and hard
• breathing fast or feeling short of breath
• feeling dry in the mouth
• sweating
• feeling sick in the stomach
• feeling like you need to go to the toilet
• shaking or trembling
• getting head pain – a ‘tension’ headache.

Your mind

Mental and emotional signs and symptoms of anxiety

• difficulty concentrating
• you can’t stop thinking about things you fear
• you start thinking that something bad might happen
• you think you would like to run away – fast!
  

Your actions

What you do in response to anxiety

• you run away from, or leave, the situation

• you avoid the situation.

“I get the palpitations first and as soon as I sense those, I notice my breathing gets faster. I hate this feeling. Then my palms are sweaty and I think ‘I can’t do this – I don’t want to do this’. But I push myself and I walk out on stage and welcome the new parents to the school. I keep thinking ‘please don’t stuff it up, please let them think you are going to be a good teacher to their children.’ And then it is all over and I can calm down again, until next year!”

Jan, aged 52, year 7 teacher.

“You would think I was about to commit some crime the way I carry on when I am late. I hate being late. As the clock gets close to the time to start work, I start to feel it. I’m going to be late. My heart starts racing, ‘Why didn’t I get up earlier, I am an idiot’, then I can feel it in my stomach and I start to feel sick. ‘What if the boss notices and he calls me in and says that I am fired?’ I find myself predicting all these horrible things that could happen and then I just want to turn around, go home and call in sick. It’s crazy, particularly because I am hardly ever late!”

Jane, aged 30, personal assistant.

What to do if you think you have anxiety

You can have the signs and symptoms of anxiety without having an anxiety disorder.

However, when anxiety disrupts or interferes with your daily life and you feel fearful most or all the time, then you need to do something about it.

One in three women will experience an anxiety disorder at some time in their lives. The good news is, anxiety can be managed.

The sections below may help you to do something about anxiety:

1. ways we can nurture ourselves;
2. e-programs for managing anxiety;
3. how to seek help from a health professional.