Why Understanding Body Mechanics During Episodes of Anxiety, Stress and Panic is Important

Understanding your body mechanics when anxious or stressed can help to calm your reaction by normalizing what you are feeling, thereby lowering your overall anxiety and time spent in fight-or-flight.

The Fight-or-Flight response is our automatic survival system that kicks in when our brain believes we may be in danger. Unfortunately, our brains are designed to overreact and can kick into fight-or-flight from a simple worry, a startle, a bodily sensation or just about any internal or external trigger that our brain interprets as dangerous. 

Common body sensations and symptoms during episodes of anxiety, stress and panic include:

• Rapid breathing or hyperventilation
• Breathlessness or air hunger
• Rapid heartbeat and palpitations
• Chest pressure and chest pain
• Dizziness and lightheadedness
• Blurred vision and dark spots
• Derealization and depersonalization
• Numbness and tingling
• Hot flashes and cold sweats
• Lump in throat and globus sensation
• Muscle tension, shaking and trembling

By understanding body mechanics during times of stress and anxiety, you have the opportunity to avoid fearful misinterpretations that may add to your worry. Once you understand the function of the bodily sensation or symptom, you are less likely to catastrophize or use unhelpful strategies like avoidance, safety behaviors, seeking reassurance and compulsive body symptom checking that all prolong episodes of health anxiety, stress and panic.