John Glanvill • Anxiety Specialist & Researcher • Anxiety • OCD • Bipolar • ADHD • Energy • Online Treatment Course • Sensible Spirituality

Demystifying the Symptoms of Anxiety

Symptoms Of Anxiety

The symptoms of anxiety are just normal (or exhausted) natural bodily responses that occur at the wrong time, at the wrong intensity and for the wrong duration. Stop seeing them as proof that you can or can’t do something! They are scary, but they won’t actually hurt you.

Put simply

All emotions and symptoms of anxiety are just natural chemicals being released by your body by mistake or in response to your fearful thinking or erroneously calibrated brain – all of which can be adjusted if you are shown what to do (and do it!)

Consider this

Panic attack = racing heart, shaking, sweating, butterflies in the stomach, face flushing (Is this good or bad?)

First kiss = racing heart, shaking, sweating, butterflies in stomach, face flushing (Is this good or bad?)

Roller coaster ride = racing heart, shaking, sweating, butterflies in stomach, face flushing (Is this good or bad?)

The body can only ever give you one set of (unconscious) emotional responses (it is a bit of a one-trick pony); they are always the same, whether you choose to label them (consciously) as good or bad; well, that is up to you!

The main symptoms of anxiety

These are the main symptoms of anxiety, emotions and bodily reactions that people experience when going through bouts of anxiety or having a panic attack. Each individual’s experience does differ and usually, you only get 3 – 5 of these symptoms. If you do get lots of them, then, congratulations, you a brilliant at being anxious! Remember, though, they are only a chemical reaction, and they are an unconscious response to a perceived danger, and they will not kill you. You are just getting the wrong signal at the wrong intensity and at the wrong time; at any other time, these responses would be natural.

Thumping racing heart and fear of a heart attack

When we get anxious, the release of adrenalin agitates the sympathetic nervous system, which signals our heart to beat faster, thus providing more oxygen and nutrients to our muscles ready for any reaction we may need in response to the presenting danger – if that danger is a rabid dog, then it is pretty useful, if the “perceived” danger is going on an aeroplane, then it is not so useful. The heart rate sores from around 70 beats per minute up to 130 or more bpm in a matter of a few seconds (and it is supposed to do that!)

One of the symptoms of anxiety that particularly scares men is the way that the heart feels like it is thumping against your chest, well, it is supposed to, because it is forcing a greater mass of blood through the heart at each pump, the resultant force required causes each squirt of blood to bang into the valves of the heart, just like slamming a door shut rather than closing it gently.

If you then couple this fast thumping feeling with some tightness across the chest as the adrenalin in your body stiffens the muscles across your chest, you can see how it can be misconstrued as something bad. It’s not bad, it is just happening at the wrong time, that’s all.

When we get a bit anxious and panicky and the heart starts beating faster, it is often the response of the experiencer to unknowingly switch to a shallower breathing pattern (a bit like when a person is sobbing and can’t quite catch her breath).

When we breathe in this unnatural manner, we tend to breathe in lots of oxygen; however, we breathe out the carbon dioxide in our lungs. This means we have lots of oxygen ready to pass through our lungs into the bloodstream ready to feed our muscles, but it can’t get through the lining of the lungs as carbon dioxide is required to aid that process.

That is why some people breathe into a paper bag (I am not recommending it) so the carbon dioxide can be re-inhaled back into the lungs. A far better response is to focus on keeping your breathing steady and not letting it get out of control, in fact, focussing on your breath can be a useful distraction at times of anxiety.

When adrenalin and all the anxiety hormones are released into the bloodstream and are moving around the body, they indiscriminately come into contact with muscle fibre, and when adrenalin finds a fibrous mass, it causes it to constrict temporarily, then it relaxes again.

That is what nervous shaking is all about: muscles around your body (especially in the arms and legs) are being switched on, then off, then on, then off – making us shake; the more the adrenalin we have released, the more violently we will shake.

All of our internal organs are connected to our Unconscious Nervous System (Autonomic Nervous System) and, as well as, doing what our organs do, they also play a large role in the generation of our emotions.

If you consider it, we experience all of our emotions between our lower abdomen and our upper chest (I don’t experience emotions in my ears or my fingers), so our emotions are generated by adrenalin being released over the surface of our organs and as they contract, and then relax, we feel these movements and call them emotions.

The most viscerally observable of these is when the outer lining of the stomach is agitated, which we call “Butterflies in my Stomach.” If we get more and more anxious or distressed, the adrenalin increases, thus intensifying this activity until it becomes a knotted stomach, and we may feel nauseous or a cramp-like discomfort.

As detailed in the explanation above about butterflies in your stomach, the same thing happens to your bowel and colon and this agitation disrupts the contents causing more than normal levels of gas to be released. That is why IBS sufferers may get so bloated and flatulent at the same time, because IBS is a stress response, the pH of the stomach becomes a little more acidic, and as waste passes into the bowel, the bowel doesn’t like that acidity, therefore it releases it own alkaline juices to neutralise and rebalance the environment of the bowel. This extra liquid, plus the agitation is what may manifest as diarrhoea.

But that is only half the problem because many people who have IBS believe that the problem “IBS” is this unknown disease that is attacking them, when really their bodies are only naturally responding to stress and anxiety, and that is where they need to focus on getting the biggest change.

(Note: In some instances where the gut flora has been disrupted or changed via too many antibiotics, it may take a long time to come back to normality – this is not an anxiety issue).

In addition, once a person has IBS their mind has a field day worrying about everything: what they eat, where they go (in case there is no bathroom), flying and driving may become problems, as does socialising far from home – all because of the fear of what might happen – which makes them anxious, and around they go again.

For some people, when anxiety strikes, they may become a little light-headed or experience bouts of dizziness; this stems from a couple of sources.

Firstly, when the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated (fight or flight), blood is sent to the larger muscle groups to fuel them ready for action, and this often leaves a little less blood available to flow around the brain, causing some light-headed or woozy feelings.

If a person gets too fearful, blood is pulled back from the front of the brain back into the mid-brain – this means logic and reason become impaired, and the person tends to lash out, run off, freeze or melt down. 

In other people, when their blood becomes saturated with stress and anxiety hormones, it may disrupt the brain’s ability to operate clearly, much like putting poor-quality fuel in your car may make the engine misfire.

In times of anxiety and stress the stomach tends to stop processing food as blood gets redirected to muscles in the arms and legs, and as the digestion system slows down, so does saliva production.

This can be most easily observed when a nervous person stands up to speak to an audience; often, they go to speak, find they have a dry mouth and then need to cough or take a sip of water.

In a few unlucky individuals, the reverse happens and they get a wet mouth, similar to the feeling just before vomiting, and this can be very distressing as they fear they vomit in inappropriate situations (although it never actually happens.) This is known as emetophobia and often leads to agoraphobia if not addressed promptly.

In a few anxious individuals blushing and a red blotchy flushing of the neck and face may occur as the adrenalin released in the body seems to mess up the calibration of the flow of blood to the face.

Normally, this is used to cool the blood by bringing it close to the surface when you are hot; however, when you are feeling anxious, this may trip the signal, and you may begin to blush.

In and of itself, it is not an issue; however, many people become very conscious of the blushing and, in their mind, begin more stories of what others might think, and they become uncomfortable because they can’t hide this symptom of anxiety.

It often stops them from doing things that make them the centre of attention, including job interviews and dates.

Our tear ducts are plumbed into our central nervous system and were originally used to irrigate and clear our eyes during times of conflict or escape, they still work that way and it is a really useful way for us to function.

However, when we experience anxiety or panic, the same messages are sent to our tear ducts to release the tears to keep our vision irrigated, yet we don’t really need it; perhaps someone is shouting at us rather than us running through the undergrowth with twigs and leaves brushing over our faces as we try to escape from some aggressor.

Like so many of the symptoms of panic, stress and anxiety, the fear of it happening (in public) may cause you to modify your behaviour, and then, when you feel silly about that behaviour, your ego needs a cover-up story so you don’t feel silly any more.

For example, I can’t go for that job interview because I am afraid I might burst into tears, becomes, “Well, I can’t really do that job.” or “That type of work doesn’t really suit me.”

For some people, when anxiety strikes, their vision may become a little blurred or they may find it hard to focus clearly; basically, this is the adrenalin in their body stiffening the dainty muscles around the eyes and thus limiting their dexterous ability to quickly focus in and out.

This may alarm the individual, especially if they are driving and may add to the “circumstantial” evidence that the anxiety is true, i.e. “When I drive on a motorway, it scares me, especially as I can’t focus clearly.”

The body’s sweat glands are linked to the autonomic nervous system, and when anxious, the body has the propensity to sweat as a way of pre-cooling itself before the need to fight or run away.

So it is quite natural to sweat when nervous, commonly from the underarms, hands, forehead, top lip and your back.

Like so many other unwanted symptoms of anxiety this one can often become a source of embarrassment, which may result in learned behaviours to limit the exposure to stimuli that may make you anxious and, therefore sweaty.

As you learn to stay calm during times of stress and anxiety (become more calm with the symptoms of anxiety) from following the program, you’ll find that the sweat response will significantly diminish.

As your digestion slows down during anxious times the production of saliva reduces and many people experience a dry mouth when they feel anxious. In addition, for some people, it feels like their throat is being restricted in some way so breathing and swallowing becomes difficult and this can feel very scary. (It feels like a lump in the throat.)

Located on the back of the throat is a muscle called the globus, and it can be prone to the effects of adrenalin which may make it swell up and stiffen, thus constricting the air/food passageway. Although this is rarely life-threatening it is still a very scary and worrying symptom of anxiety, so much so that it is often referred to as globus hystericus.

Many anxiety sufferers get painful migraine-like headaches following on from times of stress and panic attacks; for many of these people, this can be explained by the effects of adrenalin on the fine and dainty muscles around the eyes.

When the person becomes anxious, the adrenalin tightens, then relaxes the muscles repeatedly, and this strains and tires them.

Following the anxious episode, these small muscles then ache, and your legs might ache the day after doing some strenuous sport.

By closing your eyes or relaxing in a dark room, the ‘migraine’ passes because you are not using those muscles to look/focus, and therefore they recover quickly. The headache is quite a frontal one that covers one or both eyes and areas of the forehead.

Nearly all people get some sort of tension or stiffness in their neck and shoulders when they are a little stressed (especially people who are suffering from generalised anxiety disorder.)

Once adrenalin and all the anxiety hormones are swimming around in your body, not all of them get used or burnt off and those that remain seem to congregate within the large muscles of the neck and shoulders, causing them to tense.

Many people go for a massage to release tension, and the massage softens those areas. In fact, what is happening is the massage is pushing the hormones back into the bloodstream, so the muscles soften, only to tense up again 3 hours later!

When anxiety hijacks us and we experience the symptoms of anxiety, it is often hard to think straight or remember what techniques you have learned that help you to stay calm or to be in a position to listen to advice.

There are two factors that contribute to this numbing of your conscious thought processes; firstly, once your body is full of all the adrenalin and other anxiety hormones, it disrupts the quality of the ‘fuel’ that your brain is using (like putting diesel in a petrol car) so it doesn’t work optimally.

Secondly, as blood is redirected (fight or flight) to the muscles of your legs and arms, it may leave you feeling a little lightheaded.

Less common, however, very disconcerting are feelings of being disassociated from yourself or the world, as if, your head is higher up than it should be or your arms don’t feel like they are your own.

It feels like life is going on all around you, and you are somehow disconnected from it. Many people find this experience quite worrying, and they feel like they are losing their grip on reality.

The program goes into a lot more detail about the causes of these symptoms of anxiety, for now, lets say that it is a breakdown in the way that your brain collates all of the individual data coming from your five senses, the five data streams are giving the brain the right information, but the mind can’t quite reassemble all the sounds, smells, feelings etc together to form all the aspects of each experience.

This anxious symptom often passes quickly once the fear aspect is overcome.

For some, they can overcome this fear by considering they may be jumping from a body-based view to a Soul based view of themselves.

One of the big retained bodily reactions to the old fight or flight stress response is to restrict the flow of blood to the hands and feet.

In the past, this allowed us to desensitise our hands and feet when we were fighting predators running across rocky land so we did not (in that moment) feel any pain.

However, when this same numbing occurs when you feel anxious, it can feel quite disturbing (as if something is wrong with you), especially if you get this sensation when you are driving or operating machinery.

On both sides of our head we have a group of muscles called the temporalis, which is located just above the ears and for some people, their adrenalin seems to locate these muscles and its action on them causes them to tense up.

As these muscles tighten they compress the nerves between the muscle and the skull, and this may cause the feeling that your head is being squeezed or a stress-type headache.

In reality, nothing is wrong; it just feels uncomfortable.

Occasionally some people feel that they are going to be sick when anxiety strikes them; for example, a person might walk into a meeting a work and their stomach is churning, and they feel that they will vomit unless they leave immediately.

There are two aspects to this; firstly, the natural ‘danger warning’ signal from the unconscious nervous system to your stomach to tell you that danger is around (of course it is your boss rather than a lion) however, we are dealing with your unconscious mind not your rational, logical, conscious mind.

Secondly, there is a more psychological element to this. Because the logical conscious mind knows that you can’t just run away from your boss the simplistic animal logic of the unconscious mind comes up with a plan, if you think you will vomit, it is OK to run away.

Understanding the symptoms of anxiety is quite simple when you break it down to a fight between the unconscious trying to keep you safe and the conscious trying to understand what the unconscious is doing.

The symptoms of anxiety disorders are not the problem

All symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks can easily be explained and in my course I teach you all bout how to manage and change them.

For now, see them as a symptom of your anxiety, not the cause.

We need to drill down to what is causing your anxiety, and these symptoms will abate.

Understanding Anxiety Symptoms as Natural Responses Activated at Inappropriate Times

Anxiety symptoms, while often distressing, are deeply rooted in our biology and have evolved to keep us safe. These responses, part of the body’s natural defense system, are not inherently harmful or unnatural. They become problematic when they are activated in situations that do not pose a real threat, creating the overwhelming feelings associated with anxiety disorders.

The “fight, flight, or freeze” response is a survival mechanism that has protected humans for thousands of years. This response prepares the body to react quickly to danger, such as a predator or an immediate threat. When triggered, it causes a cascade of physiological changes: the heart rate speeds up to deliver more blood to the muscles, breathing becomes faster to increase oxygen intake, and the brain focuses sharply on the perceived danger. These changes are incredibly effective in life-threatening situations, enabling swift reactions that improve survival chances.

In today’s world, however, these responses are often triggered unnecessarily. Modern life rarely presents physical dangers like those faced by our ancestors, but the brain can misinterpret stressors—like a looming deadline, public speaking, or social pressure—as threats. This misfiring of the body’s alarm system results in anxiety symptoms occurring at inappropriate times, creating discomfort and distress.

Take sweating as an example. In a life-threatening situation, sweating helps regulate body temperature during physical exertion. Yet, when it happens in non-threatening situations, such as during a meeting or a conversation, it can feel unnecessary and embarrassing. Similarly, a racing heart and rapid breathing, which are meant to prepare the body for quick action, become uncomfortable when experienced during everyday stressors.

Other physical symptoms, like trembling, muscle tension, or digestive discomfort, also have their roots in survival. Muscle tension readies the body to move quickly if needed, while digestive changes occur because the body prioritises survival over digestion during a threat. While these reactions are helpful in real danger, they can cause discomfort when triggered by mundane challenges.

The mental effects of anxiety, such as overthinking, heightened alertness, and difficulty focusing, also originate from survival mechanisms. The brain becomes hyper-focused on the potential threat, which is useful in dangerous situations. But when the perceived threat is imaginary or exaggerated—like worrying about making a mistake or fearing judgment—these responses can spiral into excessive worry and fear.

Recognising that these symptoms are natural and designed to protect us can shift our perspective. It helps to reframe anxiety as an overactive defence system rather than a personal flaw. This understanding can reduce self-criticism and foster a more compassionate approach to managing anxiety.

Treatment approaches like cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness techniques effectively recalibrate these responses. Practices such as deep breathing, grounding exercises, and regular physical activity can help regulate the body’s alarm system, reducing the intensity and frequency of inappropriate triggers.

Ultimately, anxiety symptoms are not a sign of malfunction but rather the body doing its best to protect us. The challenge lies in helping the body and mind recognize when these responses are truly necessary and when they are not. By understanding and addressing these natural mechanisms, we can manage anxiety more effectively and reclaim control over our lives.