High-Functioning Anxiety in the Body

Can you have high-functioning anxiety? 

Yes, you can have high-functioning anxiety. Let's take a look at what that can look like.  Because we do wellness, brain, and body here, let's start with what it can feel and look like in your body, and then we will talk about it in the mind/brain in the next post.   

You might be breathing shallowly. You can especially notice that it is just in your chest and not the deeper breaths that move your belly in and out. You might have a racing heartbeat, and you might feel achy all over or in a certain place, like the neck and shoulders, that you are holding too tight. So, what might help are some deeper breaths, lowering those shoulders, and moving your neck side to side.  

You might feel tired, but wired, that I can't rest, jittery feeling.  Make sure you are using good sleep hygiene, and you can read more about what that looks like here. Also, stress can kick up the hormones in your body, making you feel not just jittery but like your body needs to move around.  Moving your body can help, so can getting your feet on the ground, breathing some fresh air outside, and even a shower.  

You may not feel like eating, or you may just not feel like eating healthy foods.  This is one of those push through, have some food, something that nourishes your body.  And make sure you are hydrated, odds are you aren't, so have a glass of water.  

Nobody likes to talk about poop, but we are going to.  Signs of stress and anxiety in the body can look like gas, bloating, diarrhea, and IBS.  Again, good foods, healthy food, and drinking water can help, and so can some of the other anxiety-relieving action items mentioned above.  

What might help is to choose one item and just work on getting that one to be a habit, then build on that habit with another one.  Or write them down, put them in a little bowl, and make the habit be to pulling one out every day, and do that one.  Once you learn the tools that work best for you, you will learn that you can untrain the habits your body is holding, and you can live a more comfortable life.  But start slow, you aren't going to change everything in a couple of hours! 

---