How to Spot the Signs of Anxiety (Even If You Don’t Feel Anxious)
The problem with being on your own a lot during the pandemic is that you get too used to your habits; all personal hygiene goes out the window, the sweatpants become your norm, and since going out to see your mates is semi-illegal, drinking alone every night seems like the best plan.
While some people thrive in these unprecedented times, baking too much banana bread for one person, others have seen a dramatic decline in their mental health, with stress and worry affecting millions nationwide.
Even if you might not think you’re feeling anxious, you could be experiencing a few of these symptoms. So it may be time to check in with yourself.
Excessive worrying + jumping to worse case scenario
In the last few months, doom and gloom has been filling our news feed. From devastating unemployment stats to wondering how much longer we’ll all be stuck inside, it’s no wonder that 49.6% of Britons reported to have high and average anxiety during the initial lockdown. Yet, as lockdown has eased and tightened, for some, the worry just isn’t going away and is filling every inch of our lives.
Of course, during these uncertain times, worry is a completely normal reaction. But when does worry become TOO much worry? If you’re finding that you’re spending a lot of the day worrying, having intrusive, troubling thoughts, or have difficulty calming yourself down during these bouts of panic, you are probably dealing with symptoms of an anxiety disorder.
Obsessive behaviours
Whenever you get the shopping in, do you need to wipe it down to feel calm? When working from home, do you need to check in with your manager constantly so you feel like they know you’re doing work? Or, do you find yourself having obsessive, intrusive thoughts, unable to stop thinking about a certain triggering topic no matter how hard you try? If so, you could be suffering with anxiety.
Due to the lack of control you may be feeling against the virus or your situation, you may have developed a few obsessive behaviours. Although these are commonly associated with other conditions such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, they are also commonly found in patients who suffer from anxiety.
‘You’re so irritating!’
Although people often associate anxiety with feeling nervous or worried, it can have a range of other emotional effects, most notably irritability.
As people with anxiety are ‘often easy to upset’, with that comes the risk of being irritated or upset by people you live with or love. Of course, seeing as you have been spending more and more time with the people you live with in recent months, this is entirely normal, but check in with your mental health if you are regularly snapping at colleagues while WFH. While you may feel like the world is against you, making you feel isolated and possibly withdraw from virtual social events, you’re not alone.
Tummy troubles
Has the lockdown situation made you feel sick? Not covid symptoms, but with nausea? If so, it could be a symptom of anxiety.
Nausea is a common symptom of anxiety. A study in 2002 by the Haukeland University Hospital in Norway found that: out of all patients with symptoms of nausea, “41% of those who had major complaints of nausea were found to have an anxiety disorder, while 24% were clinically depressed”, and that people “who reported symptoms of nausea were more than three times as likely to also have an anxiety disorder”. This is because your gut and brain are connected, so when your fight-or-flight response is triggered, your stomach reacts too.
Similarly, as the gut and brain are linked due to the ‘fight-or-flight’ response, those with anxiety often have increased trips to the bathroom. So whether you’re needing the toilet more or are experiencing frequent bouts of nausea, or even been physically sick whilst feeling excessively worried or anxious in the last few months, try eating small meals regularly. If you have seen a dramatic loss in your weight due to nausea, contact your GP for further advice.
Physical pain
Although Anxiety is a mental condition, it can cause physical, and sometimes painful, symptoms. Psychogenic Pain is a very real chronic pain that is brought on by mental illnesses, such as anxiety or depression, and causes physical reactions due to mental conditions even though there is no apparent physical cause.
While a psychogenic pain can be anywhere in the body, the most common are prolonged headaches, muscle, back, and stomach pains.
Although you may not know if you have a Psychogenic Pain, a doctor can quickly determine this, as ‘tangible organic or physical findings are neither present nor substantial enough to account for the pain that you experience’. Instead, your mental condition will be exacerbating the pain you’re experiencing, and increase the intensity of headaches or pains throughout your body when you are feeling low.
Difficulty sleeping
Often spend your night staring at the ceiling while panicking thoughts about coronavirus whirr around your brain? It could also be a symptom of anxiety.
While 50% of adults have some form of sleep problem, due to the pandemic, more of us are struggling to sleep due to worry. Although getting a few hours less each night, getting a good night’s sleep plays a key part in ‘emotional regulation’, which gives us the ability to stabilise our emotions, keeping us in check for the days ahead.
If you’re finding yourself sleeping less and less each night, or having vivid dreams due to the lockdown, check in with your mental health, as there is a chance you could be experiencing some form of anxiety without even knowing it.
So, what now?
If you have found yourself with two or more of these symptoms, although self diagnosis and awareness of your own mental health is an important step, ultimately you should still reach out to a medical professional to ensure you can get the best support.
Mental Health Charities:
If the matter is urgent, and you feel like you need support immediately as you may harm yourself or are feeling suicidal, the NHS has urgent helplines for cases throughout England.
Written by Alison Irlam
WellBe is spearheading the way to a brighter future for corporate wellness. Our innovative portal is scientifically designed and tailored to each individual employee to improve their wellbeing. We specialise in a range of services from coaching and therapists, to meditation and reading materials. Our aim is to reduce workplace stress that costs UK businesses £42 billion per year. Get in touch with us by visiting our site wellbe.global for more information.
