What happens to your body and why… 

The stress you experience when you have anxiety is actually a mechanism that has enabled the survival of us humans for thousands of years.  Whenever you perceive a “danger” or “threat”, a message goes from your brain to your body in a millisecond, and your stress response automatically kicks in.  It’s known as the “flight, figh, freeze or fawn*” syndrome. It’s your body’s way of handling what it perceives as a “threat”.  It’s been built up over many years and becomes a automatic reaction, even if the ‘threat’ is no long real. 

 And when that happens some of your bodily functions, those that are not essential to saving your life, are switched off.  These include your digestion, salivation, immune response, sex drive and even intelligence.  Your survival instinct takes over, instantly.  This can happen even if it is only an imagining danger or threat! 

 Back in the days when we lived in caves we were always on the alert for that sabre toothed tiger, or any other threat to our wellbeing.  The instant we sensed danger the brain would signal a survival message to the body – get out of danger (flight) tackle danger head on (fight) or stay very still (or play dead) and hope the danger will pass /not notice us (freeze). 

Think of your body as a “chemical factory”, and at the first sign of danger or threat, your body produces adrenalin to prepare you to deal with the situation. You don’t even have to think about it. It’s a completely automatic response.

You may notice your heart pounding (palpitations) as it increases pumping blood and oxygen into the muscles around your body (blood pressure increases) and your breathing suddenly more rapid, to enable you to fight or flee in a hurry.  Functions essential for short term survival are switched on, functions essential for long term survival are switched off. If the fear, panic, or alertness continues for too long, more than a few minutes or so, and the life saving chemical changes in the body and the appropriate behaviour is not put into action, your body begin to produce a different hormone, cortisol. 

This hormone causes you to continue breathing at a faster rate than normal, and your heart to continue palpitating.  As well as that your blood pressure will remain high, your immune system will continue to be shut down and/or not functioning efficiently.  All of this can soon cause you to feel exhausted. 

 Usually the anxiety is a temporary state which passes when there is no longer a threat. But too much adrenalin or cortisol over an extended period of time, has a very negative effect on your body, your mind, and can severely impact on your life. 

 Too much adrenalin can cause rapid heart beat (palpitations ) high blood pressure, anxiety, excessive sweating, restless nights and insomnia, nerve damage. 

 And too much cortisol can bring about weight gain, skin infections, weak muscles, chronic back ache, brittle bones, irregular  menstrual cycle or none at all, a decrease in fertility, libido, and impotence, anxiety, irritability, frequent headaches, chronic fatigue and even depression.

* Flight includes running or fleeing the situation, fight is to become aggressive, and freeze is to literally become incapable of moving or making a choice. The fawn response involves immediately moving to try to please a person to avoid any conflict.  (The latter can develop from abuse). 

Source:  Psychology Today article