Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List
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Symptoms of Anxiety
The main symptom of anxiety disorder is persistent worrying, which can stop you from getting on with your life and normal daily activities. You may worry about a lot of different things at once, and feel anxious even when there’s no particular reason to worry. You can’t stop or control these feelings.
You will often have the following symptoms:
- restlessness and difficulty relaxing,
- feeling very tired much of the time,
- finding it difficult to concentrate on any one task and tendency for your mind to ‘go blank’,
- feeling irritable most of the time, muscle tension, sometimes leading to muscle pains.
The tension can also make you feel shaky, and restless sleep - you may have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Anxiety disorder can also cause physical symptoms.
These include:
- headaches
- pains in your joints,
- feeling breathless,
- palpitations (when you can feel your heart beating too fast),
- tightness or pain in your chest,
- dry mouth,
- sweating,
- flushing,
- nausea,
- stomach pains, and
- diarrhoea.
Your GP may not diagnose GAD from your physical symptoms alone. It’s important to tell your GP about all of your symptoms, including any ongoing worries you have, to help your GP make an accurate diagnosis.
