Can Chronic Anxiety Affect Your Physical Health?

You know that anxiety affects your thoughts and emotions, but did you know it can also have a significant impact on your physical health? Anxiety commonly triggers physical symptoms such as a racing heart, an unsettled stomach, muscle tension, and difficulty breathing. For occasional stress, these symptoms are temporary. However, chronic anxiety can keep the body in a prolonged state of alertness and potentially contribute to longer-term health effects.

The reason your body is affected by anxiety is simple: the mind and body are closely interconnected. When you experience anxiety, your brain activates the body’s stress response, sending signals that prepare your systems to respond to a perceived threat. In cases of chronic anxiety, this can lead to ongoing physical strain.

Can Chronic Anxiety Affect Your Physical Health?

About Our Body’s Stress Response

While chronic stress can harm your body, the stress response system is a natural and even healthy process in the short term. When you face a perceived threat, your brain triggers an alarm throughout your body that is propelled by a release of various hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol.

Adrenaline speeds up essential bodily functions, like your heartbeat, while cortisol slows down bodily functions that are not needed in a fight-or-flight situation, like your digestive system. The body’s stress response is a complex system that affects more than you may realize.

Central Nervous System

When you experience long-term anxiety, your brain will begin to release stress hormones on a regular basis. This can increase certain symptoms of anxiety, like dizziness, headaches, and fatigue. Eventually, a hyperactive central nervous system can result in cognitive deficits, like memory lapses or trouble concentrating, and nerve hypersensitivity.

Cardiovascular System

Chronic anxiety can result in a faster heart rate, palpitations, and even chest pain. Over time, it can even lead to an increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. And for individuals with preexisting heart disease, there is an even higher risk of a coronary event.

Digestive System

Digestive symptoms are a very, very common response to anxiety. In fact, that’s why we experience butterflies or knots in the stomach when we’re stressed–because our brains and our guts are strongly connected. Other digestive symptoms that are a result of anxiety include diarrhea, nausea, bloating, cramping, and loss of appetite.

In the long term, chronic anxiety may rewire how your brain communicates with your digestive system. Forcing your digestive system into a permanent state of survival mode can increase your risk of developing Irritable Bowel Disease (IBS), ulcers, reflux, heartburn, malnutrition, and chronic pain.

Immune System

In cases of temporary stress, the flood of adrenaline can cause a short-term boost to your immune system. However, with chronic anxiety, the continued elevation of your fight-or-flight response will weaken your immunity, leaving you more vulnerable to illness or infection.

What’s more, prolonged exposure to cortisol can cause chronic inflammation–which can lead to the development and progression of diseases like:

Psoriasis
Fibromyalgia
Arthritis
Lupus

An overworked immune system opens the door to many negative outcomes. It may even cause routine vaccines to work less effectively.

Respiratory System

Anxiety can cause shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, and feeling like you can’t get enough air. This is due in part to the rush of adrenaline that speeds up your heart rate, but it is also the result of muscle tension in the ribs and chest. This is uncomfortable in the short term, but in the long term it can lead to chronic muscle fatigue and hypersensitivity to CO2. It can also worsen preexisting conditions, like asthma or COPD.

Other Mental Health Issues

In addition to the many physical risks associated with chronic anxiety, there are additional mental health conditions you may be at higher risk for. The most common is depression, which frequently occurs alongside anxiety. These additional disorders may also be a concern:

Substance use disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Phobias
Insomnia
Emotional dysregulation

Frequent exposure to stress hormones can also lead to cognitive issues.

Factors that Can Affect Your Body’s Response to Anxiety

While there are many standard truths to how the human body experiences anxiety, the reality is that no two people experience and react to stress in the same way. Anxiety may trigger physiological responses, like rapid heart rates or muscle tension. How those sensations manifest, how intensely they are felt, and their effect on a person’s long-term health vary greatly from person to person.

These are the factors that can influence how your body responds to anxiety:

Genes
Life experience
Current life demands

In other words, the way anxiety affects your short- and long-term physical health may depend on your genetic makeup, past trauma, and daily pressures.

How to Recognize and Ease the Effects of Anxiety on Your Physical Health

The bad news is that chronic anxiety can have long-term physical effects. The good news is you can be intentional about recognizing and easing these effects when they arise. Here are some simple strategies that are proven to soothe anxiety and its physical outcomes:

Distract your mind with chores, a movie, or a good book.
Practice deep breathing or other relaxation techniques.
Take daily walks.
Remind yourself that you are not in crisis, despite what your anxiety is telling you.
Know when it’s time to seek help.

Remember, everyone experiences stress from time to time. And it’s important for your body to react in natural ways to that stress. However, if it feels like your anxiety may be crossing the line into disorder territory, we encourage you to seek support.

« Back