Physical Anxiety Symptoms: Why Anxiety Feels So Physical

This article explains the common physical symptoms of anxiety, why they happen and what you can do to calm your nervous system when those sensations arise.

Anxiety fills your mind with racing thoughts of the worst happening. You get caught in a loop of worrying thoughts, fear and overthinking. Alongside this, you experience all the unpleasant, frightening and uncomfortable physical anxiety symptoms. For some people, the most distressing part of anxiety is what they feel in their body.

It doesn’t matter whether your anxiety is about something specific or more general. Your heart races, your chest tightens and you can experience dizziness, nausea and a wave of fear. When those bodily sensations and feelings strike and hit you, it can feel debilitating and crushing.

These symptoms can be frightening and feel overwhelming. They can appear suddenly or without any obvious cause. The bodily feelings can become more and more frequent. You start to focus upon them more and more. Even when you feel fine, you worry about feeling that bad again. You may start limiting what you do and avoiding things. You just want to retreat to somewhere where you feel more safe.

It’s very common for people to start worrying that something is physically wrong with them. The medical tests all come back normal but your anxiety about your health continues.

If you’re experiencing anxiety symptoms in Ely, Newmarket or the surrounding Cambridgeshire area, it’s helpful to know that these physical reactions are very common and treatable with support such as hypnotherapy.

This article will help you to understand why anxiety causes physical symptoms and how you can start feeling better.

 

Why Anxiety Causes Physical Symptoms

Anxiety activates the body’s fight-or-flight response, your survival system designed to protect you from danger.

When this system switches on, the body releases stress hormones such as adrenaline. These changes prepare you to respond quickly to a threat. This is helpful if you were to be faced with an external threat. However, most threats in the modern world arise within your own thinking and perception.

You know you are logically safe but your mind and body would rather prepare to keep you safe than do nothing and there was an actual threat. In evolutionary terms, a delay in responding to keep yourself safe could have proved fatal. The sensations can feel intense and confusing. They cause you more stress and worry and this increases your anxiety.

Physical anxiety symptoms are the body’s automatic fear responses, causing sensations like racing heart, shaking, breathlessness or tension even when no immediate danger exists.

Common physical anxiety symptoms include:

• Rapid heartbeat or palpitations
• Chest tightness or discomfort
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness or feeling light headed
• Nausea, diarrhoea or stomach discomfort
• Muscle tension and aches
• Shaking, trembling or restlessness
• Hot flushes and sweating
• Feeling unreal or detached

Although these sensations feel alarming, they are not dangerous, your body is designed to experience these symptoms. They replicate the sensations you have when vigorously exercising except, in that situation, they have an outlet as you move. With anxiety, the feelings go around and around and make you feel worse. However, you are medically safe, your mind and body are reacting to a perceived threat.

Struggling with anxiety sensations?
If physical anxiety symptoms are affecting your day-to-day life, hypnotherapy can help calm your nervous system and build lasting regulation – including support through Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely.

 

Why Physical Symptoms Can Feel So Frightening

Physical anxiety symptoms can feel distressing, uncomfortable and frightening. You worry about what your body is doing and you may think there is something seriously medically wrong with you. You can become hyper-vigilant about the feelings in your body, constantly scanning the sensations you feel.

Physical symptoms of anxiety often create a feedback loop:

• You notice a sensation (e.g. heart racing)
• Your mind interprets it as danger
• Your anxiety increases
• The symptoms intensify and you worry more

This cycle can make anxiety feel unpredictable and overwhelming, particularly if symptoms resemble serious health conditions.

It’s quite common that my anxiety hypnotherapy clients will have been to their doctor and had numerous medical tests before seeking psychological support.

If you recognise this pattern of anxiety, you may find this helpful: 👉 Anxiety Support Hub for physical symptoms

 

Anxiety vs Physical Illness

Many people with physical anxiety symptoms worry they may have:

• Heart problems
• Breathing disorders
• Neurological issues
• Digestive illness

It’s always important to rule out medical causes where appropriate. However, when tests are normal and symptoms continue, anxiety is often the underlying factor.

This overlap is especially common in health anxiety, where attention becomes focused on bodily sensations. You may find these health anxiety articles helpful:

Health Anxiety Disorder Risks

Health Anxiety and Online Health Information Seeking

Health Anxiety

Health Anxiety Hypnotherapy Testimonial

Healthcare Anxiety

 

Panic Attacks and Physical Anxiety Symptoms

Physical symptoms are particularly intense during panic attacks. Panic is a sudden surge of anxiety that causes the fight-or-flight response to peak.

Symptoms may include:

• Chest pain
• Breathlessness
• Dizziness
• Fear of losing control
• Fear of dying

Although panic attacks feel extreme, they are still a temporary nervous system response. You are still medically safe, and left alone, the feelings would come back down. However, the intense sensations scare you and you start to think the worst. That worry leads to even more adrenaline and oxygen moving through your system. That then panics you even more as you become more sure there must be something wrong with you. The anxiety spiral then continues.

👉 Related reading about panic attacks: Panic Attack physical symptoms

Physical symptoms often trigger overthinking such as checking sensations, monitoring the body, or seeking reassurance. Reducing anxiety at a deeper level often reduces the need to constantly monitor physical sensations.

 

How Hypnotherapy Can Help with Physical Anxiety Symptoms

Hypnotherapy works with the habitual patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that lead to anxiety responses continuing.

Using normal psychological processes, you can start to interrupt that pattern and take back control over thoughts and feelings. You can then purposefully create a pattern where you feel more calm, confident and in control.

Rather than focusing only on symptoms, hypnotherapy aims to:

• Calm the anxious feelings and physical symptoms
• Reduce fear responses
• Change how the body reacts to stress
• Break the anxiety–symptom–fear cycle
• Change the thought patterns that support anxiety
• Restore a sense of safety, calmness and control

When anxiety reduces, physical symptoms gradually become less intense and less frequent. You start feeling better and this leads to more positive thoughts, feelings, actions and behaviours. That then becomes more automatic and habitual and you use the strategies you have learnt to stay on top of things.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does anxiety cause physical symptoms?
Anxiety triggers the nervous system’s threat response, releasing adrenaline and creating physical sensations even when there is no real danger.

Are physical anxiety symptoms dangerous?
No, while uncomfortable, these symptoms are the result of your body’s stress response and are not evidence of physical illness (but do get checked).

How can I calm physical anxiety symptoms quickly?
Slow breathing, grounding exercises and calming the nervous system through hypnotherapy can help.

 

Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely

If physical anxiety symptoms are affecting your daily life, whether through panic, health anxiety or ongoing stress, hypnotherapy may help you feel calmer and more in control.

👉 Learn more about anxiety hypnotherapy in Ely

👉 Hypnotherapy Appointments in Ely and Newmarket

Physical anxiety symptoms are very real and very disconcerting. However, they are caused by anxiety rather than something being wrong with you.

With the right support, your nervous system can learn to respond differently, and your body can return to a calmer, safer baseline. You can move forward feeling more calm, confident and in control.

To your health and happiness,

Dan Regan

Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

 

Could you use some help with anxiety in Ely, Newmarket or Online? Struggling with anxiety, stress, worry and fear and need some help? Find out how I can help with a Complimentary Anxiety Hypnotherapy Strategy Session. Contact Dan

Find out what hundreds of other people have said after their anxiety hypnotherapy sessions with Dan: Hypnotherapy Testimonials

And check out these popular and powerful hypnosis downloads that can start helping you right away with anxiety, confidence and more: Hypnosis Downloads