Anxiety And Worry In Women – Causes, Symptoms And Natural Relief
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Mild to moderate anxiety is far more common but harder to identify than severe anxiety disorder. Called generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, it’s characterized by compulsive worrying and physical symptoms of anxiety which persist for more than six months. Often these women were anxious — and medicated — as children, suffered some form of childhood trauma, or grew up in anxiety-ridden households.
More often than not, my patients are so used to their anxious feelings that they don’t mention them until I ask. That’s because while anxiety can be debilitating — and may grow increasingly so if left untreated — symptoms of mild to moderate anxiety may not obviously impact your ability to function.
In fact, quite the opposite may seem to be true. Often it is the high-achieving, seemingly “together” woman who finds it difficult to admit she has chronic anxiety. And frequently I see dynamic, non-stop women who rarely felt anxious in their younger lives get slammed with anxiety and panic attacks as they enter perimenopause.
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These signs of anxiety can be misread at the doctor’s office precisely because these women appear to be such powerhouses. So let’s find out what the symptoms of anxiety really are.
Symptoms of anxiety and panic attack
While most of us will experience episodes in which we feel some or all of these symptoms, what differentiates healthy anxiety and/or panic from chronic anxiety and panic attacks is the trigger. If you think you hear a strange sound in the night, it’s natural to wake up with a start, your heart pounding and your muscles seizing. But it’s unhealthy to have these symptoms while sitting at a table in a restaurant.
One of my patients describes her chronic anxiety as a kind of internal grinding — an all-consuming revving up of energy that then has nowhere to go. Other symptoms of generalized anxiety and panic attacks include:
- Irrational fear or dread
- Muscle tension and headache
- Chest pain
- Elevated heart rate/palpitations
- Insomnia
- Diarrhea/GI distress/IBS
- Nausea
- A feeling of fullness or chest pressure/shortness of breath
- Jumpiness/irritability/shakiness
- Sudden changes in body temperature/hot flashes
- Tearfulness
- Depression — about 20-30% of people with anxiety disorders also suffer from depression.
Usually one of the things you don’t feel when you’re anxious is tired or hungry — until you eventually crash, feel more tired than ever, and then crave sugar to restore your mood.
How does a normal anxious feeling become chronic anxiety?
As we’ve said, anxiety is a knot of emotions and physiology. The root cause of the anxiety could arise on the emotional side or the physical side — or both.
The feeling of anxiety always begins with a trigger that initiates a survival response from the limbic system. At the first whiff of apparent danger, your brain chemistry, blood hormones and cellular metabolism all whirl into action.
When you have chronic anxiety, this response may lessen but it never gets turned off, even when there’s no palpable threat. Over time your anxiety symptoms may be triggered by less and less serious events because your limbic system has been sensitized to react in a highly anxious way.