Anxiety is one of the most common mental disorders in the U.S, as it affects millions of people. It can be very scary, and can cripple people in a wide variety of social situations. Anxiety changes the way people think and act. However, the added stress or anxiety can affect your health in a lot of different ways. Gauging anxiety’s true effects on one’s health can be difficult, but it is blatantly obvious that anxiety has a negative effect on various aspects of someone’s health. So how exactly does anxiety affect one’s health, and how do those who suffer from anxiety limit these effects?
Depression
Unfortunately, those that are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder are much more likely to develop symptoms of depression and other mental illnesses. Anxiety can greatly limit your social interactions, causing you to feel isolated and alone. Your anxiety may make you afraid to branch out to try new things and meet new people. This can leave you feeling stuck and unable to find people and things that make you happy. This can be a breeding ground for depression and other mental illnesses, which only cause you to further isolate yourself from the outside world.
Being unable to overcome your anxiety in certain social situations can cause you to miss out on a lot of great opportunities and events. This can lead to a slippery slope, as the more you isolate yourself from these events and people, the more your mental health can suffer. That is why it is important to seek help in overcoming anxiety, because if you don’t, it can rob you of potential happiness and send you down a dark downward spiral.
Weight
Anxiety and other mental illnesses may have a direct correlation with being overweight and obese. The stress that comes with these illnesses may cause you to binge eat and adopt unhealthy habits in order to cope. These unhealthy habits will probably lead you to gaining more weight and becoming unhealthy. Unfortunately, this can become a very dangerous cycle.
Gaining weight could lead you to become even more sad and make your anxiety even worse. Weight gain may become another thing that you become anxious over, making your illness even worse than it was before. It is important to cope with stress and anxiety in healthy ways. You could try ordering a healthy snack subscription box, or try finding a new hobby or exercise to relieve stress. This can be a great help in the long run.
Insomnia
In addition to other damages to your health, anxiety can also cause various side effects that hamper your daily activities. One of the biggest side effects to anxiety is insomnia. Insomnia can greatly hamper your ability to complete your everyday tasks. Human beings need sleep to operate at full capacity, and without sleep humans begin making mistakes that could be disastrous or even harm others. For example, driving a vehicle on little to no sleep can be extremely dangerous for you and other people nearby.
In addition, lack of sleep can cause other side effects such as headaches, making it extremely difficult to get through your day. If your anxiety is making it impossible for you to sleep, then you may want to try something like breathing exercises to calm you down and enable your body to get some rest. If this fails, then you may want to turn to your last resort and ask your doctor to prescribe you something to help you sleep until you get your anxiety under control.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
