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When I first started experiencing what I now recognize as my first anxiety symptoms, it had a very negative impact on pretty much every area of my life. My self esteem, my confidence, my ability to make decisions, my desire to “get up and go”, and especially my sleep patterns.

I used to keep regular journals - or entries in my diary – (I still do, in fact), and just the other day I found this one that I thought I’d share…

“I used to be positive about myself and had energy and ideas, but I lost all that since I started to go through a crisis with the business. Now I really have to push myself to do routine things because I feel so tired and dull. Even when I do get things done, I get no enjoyment from it and so everything feels like a chore. It doesn’t end there because I go home worrying about the business and about my performance. I can’t get these things out of my mind so I don’t even bother to try to be sociable any more. Sometimes I feel quite ill with it all and I haven’t slept properly in months. I can’t understand how I can push myself and not seem to get anywhere.”

Clearly, the changes brought about in the stress response are helpful in the short term because they prepare our bodies for physical action and focus our minds on the immediate problem. However, they evolved as an immediate and temporary response to stress which was switched off as soon as the danger passed.

Problems can arise if these reactions are not switched off, that is, if the stress response becomes chronic or excessive. If this happens, we pass our peak and performance begins to deteriorate.

The Bodily Changes

The bodily sensations now become more unpleasant. The muscular tension, so important for fight and flight, can develop into muscular discomfort throughout the body. This might be experienced as headaches; difficulty in swallowing; shoulder, neck and chest pain; stomach cramps; trembling and weak legs.

With prolonged or extreme stress, a person can become aware of the heart pounding and, as blood pressure rises, begin to experience light-headedness, blurred vision, ringing in the ears. As breathing rate increases one might feel dizzy, nauseous and short of breath. If the digestive system is affected by prolonged stress, sickness, diarrhea and stomach pain can result. Finally, sweating can become excessive and, although this is not harmful, it can cause embarrassment.

The Psychological Changes

The psychological reactions, if sustained, cause thinking to become far too focused on worrying so that a person always fears the worst, worrying that a problem is insoluble and generally thinking negatively. Such negative thinking can form a vicious cycle with the bodily changes during stress if physiological reactions trigger worries such as: pains in my chest. There’s something wrong with my heart!’ or ‘this feeling is unbearable and there’s nothing I can do about it.’ This will keep stress levels high and prolong the physical discomfort and, therefore, the worrying.

The emotional changes which can occur because of ongoing worry and anxiety are typically those of irritability, constant fearfulness and demoralization. When any of us is feeling like this we find it much more difficult to cope with stress, and when our coping resources are low the stress is much more likely to get on top of us.

The Behavioral Changes

The changes in behavior, if persistent, can also give rise to difficulties. Constant fidgeting and rushing around becomes exhausting, making one tired and less able to handle stress. Increased comfort eating, smoking or drinking can cause physical and mental problems and take a toll on one’s health and sense of well-being. The most common response to fear is running away, or avoiding the situation or object which triggers fear. However, the relief obtained from avoidance is often only temporary and leads to a loss of self-confidence so that the situation soon becomes even more difficult to face.

You can see that the response to stress can itself become distressing. This might be because the physical changes are alarming, or because the worrying and the emotional changes impair one’s ability to cope, or because a loss of self-confidence makes it difficult to face fears and overcome them. Whatever the reason, when the natural stress response causes more distress, a cycle has been created which is difficult to control.

This cycle, which maintains the stress response after it has been triggered, is the common factor in all forms of problem worry, fear and anxiety.

What Triggers the Stress Response?

The actual trigger for the stress response might be a real or an imagined threat. For example, a man with a snake phobia would experience distress on seeing a real snake or on coming across a picture of a snake. He would have the same response if he believed that he had seen a snake or if he believed that he was likely to come into contact with a snake in a zoo, for example. A woman who was fearful of public speaking would feel panicky as she stood to give a speech at a wedding, but she might feel just as afraid if she believed that she would be asked to stand up and speak without warning.

Whatever the trigger, the keys to persistent problems are the maintaining cycles of worry, fear and anxiety. I’ll explore these in an upcoming article.

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