Excessive worrying and anxiety as symptoms of stress

Stress and anxiety share many symptoms, but are inherently different: stress is the response to a situation and anxiety is a reaction to that stress. Chronic, or permanent, stress can induce excessive worrying, fear, panic attacks, or other physical symptoms, which are thus symptoms of chronic stress.

Stress and anxiety, the story of the chicken and the egg

As we have pointed out in an earlier article, stress and anxiety share many characteristics, but are subtly different from each other. Briefly stated, stress is caused by pressure from the environment, such as a demanding boss or a dispute between loved ones, whereas anxiety is triggered from the inside when thinking about things that may go wrong.

Stress and anxiety largely share networks in the brain, and therefore influence each other and trigger essentially the same emotional and physical reactions. Thus, it can be said that stress can trigger anxiety and worrying, and that anxiety can make one more susceptible to stressful events. It is therefore not always clear whether anxiety and worrying are triggered by stress or vice versa.

When is excessive worrying triggered by stress?

As with many symptoms of stress, excessive worrying and anxiety are not specific to stress. Sickness, for example, may start you to worry about the possible outcome of treatment. This may or may not elicit stress reactions, depending on the situation and personality of the person going through the illness. Persons with generalized anxiety disorder, which is a medical condition, will worry excessively whether there are stressful circumstances in their lives or not.

Notwithstanding that, worrying and anxiety are often triggered by stress. Worrying arises as a feeling, reflecting that you are overly concerned about a stressful situation or a problem. So if you are normally a light-hearted person, benefitting from the beauty of life and handling problems as they present themselves with ease, then you are obviously not somebody who is worrying a lot. If, however, you have to face stressful situations and you notice that you start to worry a lot more, then your worrying is a sign of stress.

This is quite common, and does not need to be a bad thing. Stressful events such as a job interview or speaking in public can make anyone feel a bit anxious and worried. Sometimes, this may be helpful to find solutions for a particular problem. For example, if you are preparing for a job interview, a little worry or anxiety may push you to find out more about that position or the company where you are applying. Then you can present yourself with more confidence and professionality to the potential employer. Worrying about giving a presentation in public may help you to study more to have more background information to answer questions better.

When worrying becomes problematic

With excessive worrying, your mind and body go into overdrive as you constantly think about “what might happen”. In the midst of excessive worrying, you may suffer with high anxiety or even panic during waking hours. Many people with excessive worries report unrealistic fears that only increase their worries further. They are typically ultra-sensitive to their environment and to criticism of others, and may see anyone or anything as a potential threat.

Excessive worrying can affect your daily life so much that it may interfere with sleep, concentration, short-term memory, eating habits and lifestyle. People with excessive worries can become so anxious that they start to seek comfort in eating calorie-rich “pleasure food”, or in consuming alcohol or drugs. Needless to say that this makes their problems only worse in the longer term, due to additional effects on physical health.

When excessive worriers encounter a stressful situation, they will typically react quickly and intensely. Even thinking about the stressful situation can cause them great distress and disability. At times, excessive worrying and anxiety become so irrational that it is no longer possible to focus on reality or think clearly. An additional problem is that people with high anxiety find it difficult to shake off their worries, so that their worrying, with all the negative effects that come with it, becomes chronic. Chronic excessive worrying can furthermore trigger stress reactions in the body. The interactions between stress and worrying are thus a two-way street, with one being able to cause the other.

Consequences of excessive worrying for physical and mental health

Excessive worrying may cause physical health problems. These are typically related to the effects of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline (epinephrine). These are released into the blood because of the fight-or-flight reaction that is launched during stress. This reaction serves to increase blood sugar and fat levels to give energy to physically deal with a stressor (a thing that causes stress). Some effects on the body further include:

• Muscle tension
• Muscle aches
• Irritability
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Fast heartbeat
• Rapid breathing
• Sweating
• Trembling

These effects are normally short-lasting, and disappear when the stress is over. These symptoms of stress are further discussed in other articles on the Stressinsight website.

However, if the increased blood sugar and fat levels are not used for physical or mental action, physical problems may occur. These are typically related to symptoms of chronic, or permanent, stress:

• Cardiovascular problems
• Short-term memory loss
• Difficulty concentrating
• Impaired decision making
• Suppression of the immune system
• Digestive disorders
• Reduced libido
• Anhedonia (not liking the things anymore that you enjoyed before)

In the longer term, if chronic worrying and stress are not treated properly, depression and in severe cases even suicidal thought may develop.

Whether or not you will become sick depends on how you handle stress. Some people are good at dealing with stress in general, whereas others can deal with some stressors better than with others. This all depends on perception of threat, psychological state and coping style (active or passive towards a stressor). They all influence the magnitude and duration of stress reactions in the body, and how the brain behaves during stress. Effectively dealing with stress will dampen the negative effects of stress hormones, so that stress is less likely to bring on physical illness.

Lifestyle changes to mitigate excessive worrying

Although excessive worrying and high anxiety can cause an imbalance in your body, there are many things you can do to re-establish equilibrium of your physical and mental systems. As you may have retained from one of our earlier articles, stress is a condition in which internal equilibrium is disturbed, and that stress reactions help to re-establish this equilibrium (or homeostasis) or to find a new one that is adapted to altered conditions. Some of lifestyle changes you may try include:

• Exercise. It is important to be consistent with physical exercise. Three to five times per week for 45 minutes of moderate exercise does absolute wonders for the brain and body. Or try some exercise daily, but for a shorter period of time if that fits your schedule better.
• Eat a healthy and balanced diet. Vegetables and fruits have many fibers that are good for digestion. Avoid the high-calorie fast foods such as hamburgers and sodas. They may make you feel better in the short-term, but in the long-term they do more harm than good (obesity and diabetes type II).
• Be moderate in drinking coffee. Coffee contains caffeine, which stimulates the nervous system and induces the release of adrenaline (US: epinephrine). This can make you more irritable and nervous.
• Do breathing exercises. Deep and slow breathing will help you to reset the sympathetic nervous system so that less adrenaline will be produced.
• Try to relax. Yoga and mindfulness are techniques that help to breathe calmly, and make you live “in the moment” so that you do not assign much negative value to bad things that have happened in the past. You may become more resilient to stress.
• Talk with family members or friends. Having a large social network may help mitigate worrying and stress. Social support has been shown to produce chemicals in the brain that help to reduce anxiety and stress.
• Seek professional help. If you really feel stuck, and have a number of physical symptoms that indicate you may be under stress, go see your doctor or a psychiatrist. They can help you to find out the causes of your stress and may advise you what to do to reduce your worries and stress. They can also prescribe medication or help you with therapy.

These and other options to reduce worrying and stress are discussed in more detail in other articles. But for now, we hope that you have a better understanding of why excessive worrying may be a symptom of stress, and have an idea of the options you have to reduce stress.