Learn How Anxiety Symptoms Effect Your Mind and Body

If you have been wondering whether or not you are experiencing anxiety, chances are you have probably gone to the google doctor and typed in phrases such as “do I have anxiety” or “what are symptoms of anxiety disorder.”

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Everyone experiences anxiety to an extent and some people experience anxiety more frequently and more intensely. When this happens, the person may receive an anxiety diagnosis from a healthcare provider.

Experiencing anxiety has the ability to impact so many parts of your life including work, what you do for fun, friendships, and anxiety can even impact your relationships.

Struggling with anxiety can be really difficult. It can feel really uncomfortable. Often people may experience feeling some shame because of their anxiety.

In this blog, I’m sharing with you the most common symptoms of anxiety.

I am an online anxiety therapist in Wilmington, NC and work with women high achievers with anxiety. High achievers often also struggle with other challenges such as perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and burnout.

I am also dually licensed and provide online therapy in North Carolina and Maryland.

Ready to start anxiety therapy with me? Click the button below to schedule your free 15 minute consultation on the date and time of your choice.

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By the end of this you’ll know the top 5 most common anxiety symptoms.

5 Most Common Anxiety Symptoms

Anxiety is one of the top diagnosed mental health conditions and women are more often diagnosed.

There are a lot of symptoms of anxiety and in this blog, I am going to share with you the top 5 most common symptoms of anxiety my clients tell me they experience most frequently.

#1 Most Common Anxiety Symptom: Worrying on Overdrive

When you have an overactive anxious system, your thoughts can be on overdrive some days. You try your best to shut them down, avoid them, and quiet your mind but that doesn’t always work.

Your mind can be quick to take you down those rabbit holes and once you realized what has happened, it like…how do we get here?

And often this can easily create more negative and anxiety producing thoughts.

Give this a try - Journaling can be a really helpful tool to use for reflection when things are going on in your life and it can be really helpful tool to simply use as a way to put your thoughts down in black and white.

This can be helpful for 2 reasons. It allows you to see your thoughts as nothing more than words, taking away some of the power we often give our thoughts and secondly, it gets them out of our brain.

#2 Most Common Anxiety Symptom: Feeling Restless

So often anxiety attempts to be channeled in a physical way and then we get restlessness. Trying to keep your body calm when you have anxiety is no easy task. To be clear restlessness does not always equal productivity. Just because it can be challenging to keep still for long periods of time does not mean you are getting a lot done (see #4 and #5 below).

Restlessness can look like being fidgety, shifting around frequently, wiggling foot, skin picking or nail biting.

Give this a try - Purchase some inexpensive fidget toys to keep around your home or office.

#3 Most Common Anxiety Symptom: Irritability

Anxiety can have you feeling on edge and when this happens it is very easy to have an increase in feelings of irritability.

Sometimes the feeling of irritability is just there for no reason and other times you are able to identify the source or reasoning.

Give this a try - Try doing some breathing exercises or quick mindfulness practices. They may not make the feelings of frustration or irritation go away but these practices can help to ground you and allow you to make better choices to how you want to respond when experiencing these feelings.

#4 Most Common Anxiety Symptom: Difficulty Concentrating

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Your mind isn’t in the game and it’s difficult to focus and concentrate on what is important. This can be so frustrating and can create a domino effect for other challenges such as worrying and negative self-talk because you are struggling to get it together.

It makes sense why concentration is difficult when you have an overactive anxious system because your mind is having a bunch of thoughts and your body has difficulty calming down.

Give this a try - Practicing mindfulness exercises to help with grounding and bringing you back to the present moment. I suggest starting with the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise or 5 senses exercise.

#5 Most Common Anxiety Symptom: Difficulty Sleeping

Sleep is so important. People who struggle with anxiety often have trouble with sleeping. This may look like difficulty getting to sleep because of worries, staying asleep, or restless sleep.

Give this a try - Try creating a bedtime routine you can be consistent with implementing and add in some self-care or calming ideas too!

Begin Anxiety Counseling in Wilmington, NC at Calm Waters Counseling

Anxiety can cause a lot of issues and impact so many parts of your life. Know that there is help available to manage your anxiety.

Throughout this blog, you have heard me mention practicing mindfulness exercises several times and there are many benefits of using mindfulness for anxiety.

I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Wilmington, NC for anxiety treatment.

Learn more about ACT for anxiety in and how it can be helpful for you.

Mindfulness is an important part of ACT Therapy.

Get started in therapy at Calm Waters Counseling by following these 4 simple steps:

Laura Rippeon | Social Worker | Therapist | Wilmington NC therapist | therapist in Wilmington, NC | anxiety therapist in Wilmington, NC

Click the button below to schedule your free 15 minute consultation
Complete the brief questionnaire sent to your email before the consultation
Meet with your anxiety therapist
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therapy for High Achieving Anxious Women in WIlmington, NC at Calm Waters Counseling

Learn more about me and my Wilmington, NC online counseling practice.

Therapy services for high achieving women include:

Anxiety Therapy in Wilmington, NC

Treatment for Perfectionism in Maryland

Therapy for Imposter Syndrome in Wilmington, NC

Burnout Counseling in Wilmington, NC

Online Anxiety Therapy in Maryland

The use of online therapy for high achievers has risen over the past few years and not just because of COVID-19.

Online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is effective and offers a lot of benefits including flexibility, ability for consistency, and ease of use.

I am dually licensed in Maryland and North Carolina. What this means is, I am able to provide anxiety therapy in Maryland and anxiety therapy in North Carolina.