Dan’s Blog

Can Anxiety Make You Feel Sick?

Have you ever felt so anxious that your stomach seemed to turn over? You lose your appetite, feel nauseous or as though you might be sick. Perhaps you even start worrying that you’ve picked up a bug or that something is seriously wrong with you. So can anxiety make you feel sick?

Many people I work with in Ely, Newmarket and online are surprised by just how much anxiety can affect the digestive system. Feeling sick is one of the most common physical symptoms of anxiety, yet because it feels so unpleasant, it often creates even more worry.

When anxiety strikes, your body changes the way it functions. Your breathing alters, your muscles tense, your heart beats faster and your digestive system begins behaving differently. For some people that means butterflies in the stomach. For others it’s nausea, loss of appetite or a constant unsettled feeling. You can start to dread that feeling in your stomach, and that anxiety can lead to it happening more.

Feeling sick can become particularly distressing because it can make eating difficult and can leave you worrying about being sick in front of other people. Some people begin avoiding eating out, restaurants, social occasions or travelling because they fear the nausea might suddenly become worse. Many clients have told me they avoid eating all day in case they are sick. Others describe feeling tense and hot while trying to pretend they’re enjoying a meal in front of other people.

Can anxiety make you feel sick? Yes, it certainly can.

Why Anxiety Can Feel Worse During Hot Weather

As I write this, another heatwave is hitting the UK, following on from the one a couple of weeks ago. Every summer I notice the same pattern: many people find their anxiety feels noticeably worse during hot weather.

Hot weather doesn’t cause anxiety. But it can definitely make anxiety feel much worse.

Many of the body’s completely normal responses to heat, such as a faster heartbeat, sweating, feeling light-headed, feeling flushed or becoming a little breathless, are almost identical to the physical sensations people experience during anxiety and panic attacks.

If you’ve struggled with anxiety before, it’s very easy for your mind to mistake one for the other.

Before long, you can find yourself worrying that your anxiety is returning or that something is wrong with you.

In my work as an anxiety therapist in Ely, this is something I hear every summer. People tell me that they had been coping well until the hot weather arrived, only to find themselves feeling anxious again seemingly out of nowhere.

The encouraging news is that understanding what’s happening often makes the whole experience much less frightening.

Social Anxiety Review: Feeling More Confident and In Control

Anxiety has a way of taking over your thoughts and feelings. You can find yourself thrown from one negative thought to the next, caught in a cycle of overthinking, racing thoughts and anxious physical sensations. You may start avoiding situations or simply endure them while your mind races and your body feels on edge.

Everyone experiences unwanted thoughts from time to time. The difference with anxiety is that those thoughts seem to gather momentum. They demand your attention, making it feel difficult to take back control of your own thinking.

One of the most rewarding parts of my work is hearing from people after they’ve completed their sessions and discovering how different life feels for them.

The recent Trustpilot review below comes from someone who initially came to see me because anxiety was affecting time with friends as well as life at home.