When you think about anxiety, symptoms like intrusive thoughts, persistent worry, restlessness, and a sense that something bad is going to happen are probably what immediately come to mind.
But what about physical symptoms? Can anxiety cause dizziness? Headaches? Nausea? The answer is yes. Anxiety can manifest physical symptoms, and sometimes the sensations can appear before you even realize you’re anxious.
At ACTion Psychology, our psychologists and registered psychotherapists provide anxiety therapy in Toronto and virtually across Ontario. We know that anxiety can affect both your mind and body, and that the physical sensations can be confusing or even frightening.
That’s why, in this post, we’re explaining what anxiety does to your body, the common symptoms, and when it might be time to seek support.
Important: Many of the physical symptoms of anxiety can also be caused by health conditions. If you’re experiencing new, severe, persistent, or unexplained symptoms, we recommend speaking with a healthcare provider to rule out a medical issue.
What Anxiety Does to Your Body
While there are different types of anxiety disorders, what they have in common is that they cause a sense of fear or distress. When you have an anxiety disorder, the brain may interpret real or imagined situations as threatening, even when you’re not actually in danger.
This can activate the autonomic nervous system and trigger the fight-or-flight response, your body’s built-in mechanism to protect you from harm. Stress hormones such as adrenaline are released, increasing heart rate, breathing rate, and muscle tension, while also diverting blood and energy to the heart, lungs, and muscles.
These changes are useful when you need to react quickly to a genuine threat. With anxiety, however, they can occur in situations where no physical danger exists. This helps explain why anxiety can produce very real physical sensations, from dizziness and heart palpitations to nausea, headaches, and shortness of breath.
As Harvard Health notes, this can create an uncomfortable cycle where anxiety produces a physical symptom, and noticing the symptom leads to more worry, which intensifies both the anxiety and the sensation itself.
Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the specific ways anxiety impacts the body.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Physical Symptoms of Anxiety
Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness?
Yes, anxiety can cause dizziness and lightheadedness. During periods of intense anxiety or panic, people often breathe more quickly and deeply, which lowers the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood. This can cause the blood vessels that carry blood to the brain to narrow, leaving you feeling dizzy.
The surge of adrenaline and other physical changes happening throughout your body from the fight-or-flight response may also make you feel unsteady and disoriented. As this happens, you might worry that you’re going to faint, which can worsen the dizziness.
Can Anxiety Cause Chest Pain?
Severe anxiety and panic attacks are notorious for causing chest pain and tightness. In fact, according to research published in The Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, approximately one in four patients who visit a physician for chest pain have panic disorder.
The authors state that anxiety-related chest pain may be due to hyperventilation (rapid, deep breathing), which can cause tension and spasms in the muscles of the chest wall, as well as spasms in the esophagus. When the fight-or-flight response kicks in, an increased heart rate can intensify symptoms.
That said, chest pain should never automatically be dismissed as anxiety. If you have new or worsening chest pain, especially if it’s severe or accompanied by symptoms like significant shortness of breath and fainting, seek prompt medical attention.
Can Anxiety Cause High Blood Pressure/Hypertension?
Anxiety and stress can cause your blood pressure to rise temporarily. When we’re anxious, the body releases stress hormones that make your heart beat faster and cause your blood vessels to constrict, raising blood pressure. Once the stress response subsides, blood pressure generally returns to its previous level.
The relationship between anxiety and chronic hypertension is more complicated. The American Heart Association notes that the link between anxiety, stress, and hypertension is still being studied. Stress and anxiety may also contribute indirectly by influencing behaviours associated with hypertension, such as poor diet and drinking too much alcohol.
While a short-term spike in blood pressure isn’t usually a major concern, chronic hypertension shouldn’t be ignored. It requires appropriate monitoring and treatment, regardless of the cause.
Can Anxiety Cause Diarrhea, Nausea, or Stomach Pain?
According to the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, it’s common for anxiety to affect your stomach and bowels, which highlights the mind-gut connection.
When you’re anxious, stress hormones can flood the body and redirect blood flow away from the digestive system. While this frees up energy for faster reactions and movement, it can interfere with stomach muscle contractions and slow digestion, leading to gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, cramps, bloating, and diarrhea.
Anxiety and stress can also influence how and what you eat. You might reach for fried foods and sweet treats that are harder to digest, eat too quickly, or swallow more air while eating, all of which can worsen digestive discomfort.
The mind-gut connection can work both ways too. Living with a gastrointestinal condition can contribute to anxiety, while anxiety and stress may increase the severity and frequency of symptoms of existing conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
What does anxiety stomach pain feel like?
There isn’t one specific type of anxiety stomach pain. Depending on the person, anxiety-related digestive issues could include:
- Cramping or spasms
- Trapped gas
- A “knot” or tight feeling in the stomach
- Nausea
- An urgent need to go to the bathroom
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Bloating
- Loss of appetite
Because gastrointestinal symptoms can have many causes, persistent diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, or changes in bowel habits should be discussed with a healthcare provider.
Can Anxiety Cause Shortness of Breath?
Yes, shortness of breath is a common physical symptom of anxiety. A review in the journal Depression and Anxiety discusses how altered breathing patterns are common in people with anxiety. Some people experience faster or shallower breathing when they’re anxious, while others hold their breath.
The author explains that these changes can make it feel like you can’t get enough air. When worry sets in, it becomes even harder to breathe naturally, leading to an increased fight-or-flight response. This can cause tightness in the diaphragm and even shallower breathing, followed by symptoms like numbness and tingling in the lips or fingertips.
Can Anxiety Cause Acid Reflux?
As noted above, stress, anxiety, and depression may coincide with or worsen digestive symptoms, including acid reflux. But experiencing heartburn or acid reflux doesn’t necessarily mean anxiety is causing it.
A study in Frontiers in Psychiatry found that people with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) had an increased risk of anxiety disorders and depression. However, the researchers did not find evidence that having anxiety and depression increased the risk of GERD.
Since reflux can have a variety of contributing factors and medical causes, you should have any ongoing symptoms assessed by a healthcare professional.
Can Anxiety Cause Headaches?
Yes, anxiety can cause headaches.
According to research published in The Journal of Headache and Pain, migraines and primary headaches are more common and more severe in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Additionally, up to 75% of patients with chronic migraines also had anxiety.
While anticipating the pain of a migraine can make anyone anxious, the relationship is bidirectional. Anxiety often creates muscle tension in the neck, shoulders, jaw, and upper back, leading to what’s known as a tension headache. Changes in breathing, disrupted sleep, and prolonged stress can also contribute to headaches in some people.
Can Anxiety Cause Hyperactivity?
Anxiety can make it difficult to sit still or relax. You might find yourself pacing, fidgeting, talking quickly, feeling “wired,” or constantly needing to do something.
This is better described as restlessness or agitation than hyperactivity in a diagnostic sense. Essentially, your body is on high alert and prepared to respond to a perceived threat.
Anxiety symptoms can also overlap with symptoms of other conditions, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If you’re experiencing hyperactivity, impulsiveness, difficulty concentrating, or other concerns, scheduling a psychological assessment can help you better understand what may be contributing to your symptoms.
Can Heart Palpitations Be Caused by Anxiety?
Yes, heart palpitations can be caused by anxiety. Your heart might feel like it’s racing, pounding, fluttering, or skipping a beat.
During the stress response, adrenaline makes your heart beat faster so more blood reaches the muscles that help you respond to danger. Again, this can create a feedback loop: you notice palpitations, worry about them, and that worry further activates your stress response.
How Do I Know If My Physical Symptoms Are From Anxiety?
This is the difficult part because you can’t always tell based on sensations alone.
Physical symptoms may be more likely to be anxiety-related if you notice that they:
- Appear or intensify during stressful or anxiety-provoking situations.
- Occur alongside fear, racing thoughts, and other anxiety symptoms.
- Ease as your anxiety subsides.
- Follow a pattern that you’ve detected during previous periods of anxiety.
Anxiety can trigger physical symptoms, and physical symptoms can trigger anxiety. You can also have anxiety and an unrelated medical condition at the same time. That’s why it’s important to talk to your healthcare provider about new, persistent, or concerning symptoms.
How Can You Calm the Physical Symptoms of Anxiety?
In the moment, there are a number of strategies that can help, such as:
- Practicing slow, deep breathing.
- Intentionally relaxing tense muscles.
- Grounding yourself in your surroundings (for example, taking an inventory of what you see, feel, smell, hear, and taste).
- Going for a walk or a jog.
- Redirecting your attention away from the physical symptoms by doing something like listening to music, calling a friend, drawing, or working on a puzzle.
While these tips can help to interrupt the cycle of anxiety and physical symptoms, addressing the anxiety itself will benefit your long-term wellbeing.
Therapy is an effective way to learn to identify triggers; understand the relationship between your thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and physical sensations; and develop practical tools to manage your symptoms.
When Is it Time to Consider Anxiety Therapy?
Everyone feels anxious sometimes. But if anxiety is persistent, interfering with your day-to-day life, or difficult to manage, it may be time to seek support.
You might want to consider anxiety therapy if:
- You’re consistently worried or preoccupied with “what if” thoughts.
- You avoid situations that could make you anxious.
- You’re constantly monitoring your body for signs that something is wrong.
- You’re having panic attacks.
- Sleep is difficult because you can’t switch off your thoughts.
- Anxiety is interfering with your work, school, relationships, or daily activities.
- Medical causes have been ruled out, but you’re still experiencing physical symptoms.
Approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can help you recognize and change patterns that contribute to anxiety, while Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help you alter your relationship with difficult thoughts and feelings and take actions aligned with what matters to you.
At ACTion Psychology, our therapists use integrative approaches tailored to your experiences, goals, and needs. Depending on your situation, they draw from a range of modalities, including CBT, ACT, mindfulness-based practices, and more.
Can Anxiety Manifest Physical Symptoms? The Bottom Line
Can anxiety cause dizziness, stomach pain, palpitations, or other physical symptoms? Yes, it can. Anxiety activates biological processes throughout the body that can produce very real physical sensations.
Since many of these symptoms can have other causes, it’s best not to just assume anxiety is responsible. If you’re experiencing new, ongoing, or concerning symptoms, speak with a healthcare provider.
If you’re struggling with anxiety, therapy can help you better understand your triggers, break the cycle between your thoughts and physical sensations, and develop strategies for managing both.
Get Support for Anxiety in Toronto & Across Ontario
At ACTion Psychology, our psychologists and registered psychotherapists provide personalized anxiety therapy in Toronto and virtually across Ontario.
Whether your anxiety shows up as racing thoughts, constant worry, panic attacks, physical symptoms, or a combination of all of these, we’ll shape your care around your individual needs and goals.
Ready to take the next step? Book a free 15-minute consultation today.
