“A tree that won’t bend easily breaks in storms”
– Tao Te Ching- Chapter 76
Do you want to know how anxiety affects your body and mind? Learn how anxiety works, why we have it, and 3 common ways it continues to affect us to this day.
When one’s training is in anthropology and counseling, you frequently get to occupy odd (fun) spaces and your takes on a myriad of issues are, well, a bit different. The ways anxiety affects the body and mind is one such area. In my humble clinical opinion, any anxiety treatment that doesn’t acknowledge the origin and evolutionary purpose of anxiety is woefully incomplete.
The most watered-down version of how bioanthropology discussed stress and anxiety while I was a student can be summarized as such:
Our brain’s primary function is to help us detect and manage threats in our environment so that we can live long enough to project our genes into the future. (Very romantic, I know.)
Millions of years of evolution have made us fine-tuned threat detectors. Our distant ancestor’s justifiable jitteriness around that movement in the grass, that sound in the night, or a bad smell in the wind, has done an amazing job of helping our species proliferate. In the face of danger, anxiety can be our early alert that something is off, flooding us with cortisol and adrenaline so that we can fight, fawn, flee, or freeze.
What happens though when this primal system is activated by something non-life threatening, like an unanswered text or impending school deadline? Or, when it is active chronically due to ongoing real-world stressors navigating discrimination, and bias?
While anxiety isn’t always a bad thing, there are a few ways it impacts our body and mind.
3 Common Ways Anxiety Affects the Body and Mind
1. Weathering and allostatic load (minority stress)
When anxiety takes the form of navigating systems that are homophobic, racist, ableist (to name a very few) people experience, at least, a low-grade chronic anxiety and stress that wreaks havoc on many body systems.
When we’re in fight or flight nonstop, our bodies are not able to adequately rest or repair, and this can lead to everything from greater instances of cardiovascular disease to poor sleep, to suppressed immune system response. The anxiety that accompanies the threat of systemic violence and discrimination still harms the bodies and minds of marginalized people, even at times when there’s not an identifiable threat — because the body *knows* danger is present in a million ways, big and small. This same weathering and breaking down of the mind and body can exist in other forms of anxiety too.
2. Cognitive myopia and the tyranny of now
Like most things in my field, it’s a complicated term for something very simple. When anxiety floods the body with adrenaline et al. we can lose the ability to focus anywhere else except on the thing that is making us anxious. Or, in the case of generalized anxiety, on the feeling of the anxiety itself.
In fact, it can feel *bad* to attempt to focus elsewhere or engage in a coping strategy. Because the body, in a general sense, views relaxation as the most dangerous thing you could do at the moment. It can cause us to hyper-focus on our ongoing tasks and challenges without end. As one clever client of mine calls it “the tyranny of now”.
3. The looming future
For me, this is one of the most insidious ways anxiety affects the mind and body, which isn’t discussed frequently enough. When we’re constantly anxious our nervous system, in an act of mercy “shifts”. It becomes even better at detecting threats and keeping us in the fight or flight.
One of the many challenges that come with this is the future becoming less something that we look forward to. But rather something difficult, a terrible thing to be managed. It can quickly rob life of joy. Anxiety can make our thinking and view of the world rigid. Casting everything in dark and light, fear and safety. This particular phenomenon can also lead people to self-medicate in ways that can actually intensify anxiety.
The good news is that therapy for anxiety and medication are highly effective at treating symptoms. Therapy can provide new ways to approach your thoughts, feelings, and life in general that can help you decrease anxiety. Understanding what causes anxiety and identifying your triggers is the first step to better coping with it and regaining control of your life.
Anxiety Treatment in Baltimore, MD
Do you fear your anxiety is affecting your body and mind? Have you been wondering if you have an anxiety disorder? When anxiety starts to escalate and takes more and more space in your life, it might be a sign you’re developing an anxiety disorder.
Our therapists at New Connections can help you understand your anxiety, work through your symptoms, and find new and healthier ways to cope. You can learn to use your anxiety for good, instead of letting it control your life. Talk to us to know more!
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