You wake up feeling sick another day in a row and spend your day deep in doomsday thinking while you attempt to get on with your tasks.
You have stuff to do and don’t have the luxury of staying in bed all day, but everything feels so incredibly difficult when you have your thoughts clouding everything.
Even if you are able to stay in bed, you barely feel a moment’s peace as your thoughts run wild.
“Can anxiety really make me feel so physically ill?”
“Is it normal to feel so exhausted all the time, even when I do get sleep?”
“Is the doctor wrong?”
“Am I dying?”
And on and on it goes as fear consumes you more and more as you fall into the thoughts.
It’s incredibly hard not to when you are feeling actual physical anxiety symptoms.
I spent a very long time, years in fact, not able to wrap my head around the fact that anxiety could be so physical, that is until I learned about GAD.
Understanding generalized anxiety disorder definitely brought some level of comfort, but it didn’t mean the symptoms automatically disappeared.
The fatigue is one of those symptoms that linger all the time.
Dizziness was one symptom that never left me and always had me so confused, but fatigue was another one.
Sure, my sleep was pretty terrible, but even when I did manage to sleep, I was still so exhausted I could barely function.
With health anxiety and GAD my sleep tended to be broken up into two phases:
The first was my insomnia phase where I was completely wired all the time, even at bedtime, and I also couldn’t sleep due to constantly obsessing over my symptoms.
One of my worst phases was my lymph node phase, because I’d keep feeling them over and over. OCD goes hand in hand with health anxiety and the compulsions can make you feel like you are truly losing your mind.
Then, of course, if I didn’t sleep I’d feel worse the next day and I’d spend all day worrying about sleep, as well as my symptoms and so I’d not be able to sleep again that night.
The second phase I went through was more of a depression phase.
I was excited for bedtime, because I’d be able to sleep, and it was the only time I felt peace from my symptoms.
I oscillated between these two phases for years during my time with severe anxiety.
During the time when I was more depressed than scared, I’d wake up and feel immediate dread at the fact that a new day lay ahead.
I want to say something here before I go on…
So many people will tell you to “Just be grateful” and while gratitude is so important, when you are in the depths of paralyzing fear it’s hard to feel gratitude.
This does not make you a bad person.
Don’t let anyone who hasn’t suffered as you have/are make you ever feel like you are a bad person.
Don’t let guilt be another emotion you carry when you are already carrying so much.
Practice gratitude when you can, but most importantly take things moment by moment and honor what your body and mind needs as you go.
So can anxiety really make me feel sick then?
The very simple answer here is yes, absolutely yes.
We are taught about the common anxiety symptoms like a racing heart, sweating, shakiness and so on, but we aren’t taught how living in a chronic state of fight/flight can leave us feeling as if we are physically sick with a cold or flu or, at the very least, on the verge of it.
The sick symptoms of anxiety include:
- Hot/cold “fever” flashes and uncontrollable shaking
- Swollen lymph nodes (due to excess mucus from stress hormones or from constantly poking them due to health anxiety)
- Body aches/muscle pain
- Sweating
- Lightheadedness,fogginess and confusion
- Nausea and stomach pain
- Cough/throat irritation due to mucus/acid reflux
- Exhaustion
- Weak/heavy limbs
Let’s talk about inflammation
You may be wondering why anxiety makes you feel so freaking awful and it can all be traced back to inflammation in the body.
Inflammation is your immune system’s natural response to an injury, it’s designed to help protect and heal.
So now you may wonder what this has to do with anxiety.
A little inflammation, when it is needed, is totally okay and necessary for a healthy body.
But chronic stress can actually throw your body completely out of balance by flooding your body with stress hormones like cortisol on a regular basis.
A little cortisol is okay. It’s needed to help protect you in life-threatening situations and it’s necessary for some other things too, but I don’t want this to get boring.
When it’s flooding your system on the regular though, it can increase internal inflammation so your body stays in an inflamed state.
Inflammation can contribute to all sorts of mental/physical issues.
One of the main ways inflammation can affect you is by contributing to poor digestive health, which can then contribute to all sorts of issues from brain fog to fatigue to heightened feelings of stress and anxiety to bloating, joint pain, acne and headaches, the list goes on.
Tips to address inflammation
Finding ways to support your digestive system can go a long way in helping to reduce inflammation and I share some tips in this article with you.
I was such a skeptic, I really was, that is until I started prioritizing my health through my nutrition and movement and saw massive change happen within a relatively short period!
If you’d like to go deep into my story and understand where to start in terms of nutrition and supplemental support then I recommend my first book, Help! Why am I so Anxious?!
Gently move stress hormones out of your body through physical movement
Something that I always try to stress to people is that we are physical beings and that talk therapy is great, but only one part of managing anxiety.
If the anxiety is stuck in your body, doesn’t it make sense to move your body?
Therapy and journaling always helped me with the mental side of things and yeah, when our thoughts are calmer we can certainly feel calmer overall, but it wasn’t enough on its own for me.
Movement helps to encourage the release of pent up cortisol and adrenaline.
I know what you are going to say here and I totally get it:
“But I can’t exercise with my heart rate already so high and all of these physical symptoms!”
This is something many people don’t understand, me included when I was just figuring out this whole journey, and that is that ANY movement helps!
Even sitting on the floor and doing the most minimal movement, just gently stretching while focusing on the breath, can make such a big difference when practiced consistently.
It was around October 2015 when my insomnia was at its worst and I was withdrawing off meds that I discovered yoga and I have not looked back.
Anytime I need to feel peace I will immediately get on my mat.
If you’d like to try it out, but have no idea where to start then I created a yoga playlist for you with some of my favourite flows!
That fatigue though 😴
Let’s take a moment to acknowledge how damn tired anxiety makes us.
It’s the type of fatigue you can’t even put into words, you feel it in your bones.
People have described it to me as feeling like a vampire has sucked me dry or like they are wading through sludge.
I love asking our community how anxiety symptoms feel, because I always get such good responses that sum them up perfectly.
We don’t need to have been bitten by a vampire for that just to make perfect sense 😝
Seriously though, the fatigue is real and it’s not your regular fatigue when it’s caused by anxiety.
Health anxiety drove me crazy with this one, constantly pestering me like a devil on my shoulder saying “it’s not normal to be so tired!” and I’d feel my stomach drop in fear all day long.
I am telling you though, that anxiety does not only take a physical toll that causes extreme fatigue, it takes a massive mental and emotional toll too, as you feel like you can’t escape your thoughts and deal with heavy emotions day in and day out, as a result.
I’d break down and cry, so fed up of feeling so awful, but this would emotionally drain me further, and while it felt good to let it out through my tears, I’d feel even more exhausted and the vicious health anxiety cycle would continue.
3 Natural and Quick Tips to Manage Anxiety Fatigue
Whether you’re able to sleep or not, thanks to your anxiety, I know that exhaustion clings to you like a second skin and it’s hard to shake off.
It’s that grogginess we feel when we wake up in the morning, but it never fully evaporates, making it hard to do pretty much anything.
We rely on caffeine, well I did anyway, for many years, but it only provides a temporary boost before leaving us feeling sluggish and if you’re unlucky like I was, jittery and even more anxious when it wears off.
These are some tips I learned through trial and error over the years and I hope they will help you too!
Electrolytes
Electrolytes are salts and minerals needed by our bodies to function properly, and they provide a serious energy boost!
Forget those energy drinks filled with artificial ingredients and rely on natural electrolytes instead. Magnesium is a natural electrolyte. I also love magnesium for helping me sleep better, helping me manage depression and scary muscle twitches, and for helping me to feel calmer overall.
Coconut water is also an excellent source of natural electrolytes or try making your own electrolyte drink by adding a dash of maple syrup or honey to a bottle of water with the juice of a small lemon and a pinch of pink salt.
You could also try a powder that you can add to water.
Not only do electrolytes help with fatigue, I find that they help me with heart palpitations too!
Breath of fire
This is a kundalini yoga breathing technique that involves short, active exhales and passive inhales, it’s almost like you are panting through your nose.
It can provide an instant energy boost, immediate stress relief and better concentration.
It shouldn’t be practiced on the first few days of menstruation or if you are pregnant.
A morning kundalini ritual that I really enjoy, that includes breath of fire, is the Morning Kundalini for Energy and release by Krystal Aranyani.
The right kinds of supplements/snacks
Adaptogens help the body better manage stress and some, like Lion’s Mane, are especially helpful for providing an energy boost.
Ashwagandha can help with this too, I take it morning and night. For a full list of adaptogens as well as an in-depth explanation of exactly what they are and how they can help the body, you’ll find everything you need to know in my Anxiety A to Z Encyclopedia. You can also find links to my go-to daily supplements here.
Vitamin B12 is also known for its energy-boosting properties and it can help with low iron levels, as it helps the body produce red blood cells. Make sure you are purchasing the methylcobalamin form, rather than the cyanocobalamin form; a synthetically made version which means it has to undergo a process in your body to help convert it to its most bioavailable form, methylcobalamin.
Some energy-boosting foods include bananas, apples, dark chocolate, oatmeal, lentils, strawberries, pistachio nuts and almonds.
Try to also include more healthy fats such as coconut oil, salmon, avocado and walnuts. Also, a little apple cider vinegar in water or my favourite, in spearmint tea, can work wonders for a little pick me up. ACV is also great for all those scary and pesky throat symptoms.
I hope this article has found you right when you need it most and has brought you some comfort from the spiral you may currently be in.
As I always say, and I am sure you’re sick of hearing it, but it’s important…
The small daily habits really do make the biggest difference. I see so many people underestimating the power in consistency. Take it one day at a time and start small.
Sending you so much love and strength.
Hang in there and know you are always safe in this community <3
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