Anxiety and the Body: Physical Experiences and Diagnostic Limits
Anxiety can involve physical symptoms, including muscle discomfort, fatigue, and breathing sensations. Those symptoms are not specific to anxiety. The useful first step is to describe the pattern and assess any new or concerning symptoms appropriately.
Anxiety can involve physical symptoms, including muscle discomfort, fatigue, and breathing sensations. Those symptoms are not specific to anxiety. The useful first step is to describe the pattern and assess any new or concerning symptoms appropriately.
A worked situation: Worry with poor sleep
Fictional example. A reader with recurring worry records headaches and poor sleep. She does not assume a new episode of severe breathlessness is the same pattern merely because anxiety has occurred before.
Work through these questions: Worry with poor sleep
Question or field
Fictional completed example
Pattern?
Worry with poor sleep
Physical observation?
Headache
Timing?
Several evenings
Function?
Difficulty concentrating at work
Care question?
Could anxiety or another condition contribute?
A relevant author lens: Freeze, Run, or Play Dead Mode
Clinical evidence relevant to anxiety and the body
