6 Signs of Anxiety

Photo Courtesy: B.Riordan.

Anxiety stems from the mind. It depends upon how you react to things that happen around you. Either you are hyper-sensitive, or you are rational, or you do not care. But sometimes, anxiety can reach a level that it could make you a mental patient. There are some signs that would tell you if someone is falling prey to such condition. Listed here are the major 6 signs of anxiety:

1. Helplessness

The first main sign of anxiety is the feeling of helplessness. A person is unable to fathom the goings-on around, and feels simply out of control. Everything around seems to be breaking in on him/her and he/ she finds it impossible to be able to take things in stride and do something. A feeling of sheer helplessness even when everything is fine is a very big sign of anxiety.

2. Apprehensiveness

Apart from feeling helpless, a person also feels apprehensive about everything. All possible negative outcomes play inside the mind, and all one can think of at this point is how everything can go from bad to worse. Even when there is no external trigger, the person will begin to panic for no reason, thinking about possible misfortunes. Such illogical apprehensiveness is a sure sign of anxiety. Sometimes the patient himself/herself knows that the feeling is irrational but still is unable to control it.

3. Sweating and trembling

Apart from whatever goes on in the mind, a person also experiences physiological problems like trembling and sweating. This happens due to stress and tension which anxiety brings with it.

4. Nausea

A person also experiences nausea during a fit of anxiety. A person might feel unwell without any reason at all. It all generates in the mind as anxiety is essentially a mental illness. The response is physical as the body responses to whatever goes on in the mind.

5. Rapid breathing

Another sign of anxiety would be fast breathing. A person suffering from anxiety would have rapid breathing and would pant even without exhaustion. Rapid breathing is mainly caused due to the body’s requirement of more oxygen, as anxiety tells the body that it is suffocating, and needs to breathe in more oxygen.

6. Increased rate of heart beat

An increased rate of heart beat is another physiological response to anxiety. Heart beat increases as the body feels the need to pump more oxygenated blood into the system.