Is Anxiety Just ‘In your Head’?

An estimated one in seven Indians suffers from mental disorders of varying severity, with depression and anxiety being the commonest, according to a study conducted in 2017.

This number is likely to have increased due to the pandemic and consequent isolation and decline in social interactions. Mental health facilities like Hope Trust report anupswing of persons seeking mental health support for anxiety.

Many individuals have developed an immense fear of situations beyond their control throughout the pandemic. They now have difficulty getting on with ‘normal’ life as they did pre-COVID times.

Social distancing, experiencing the loss of loved ones and, in some cases, even grappling with the jaws of death themselves has had a significant impact on mental health. It has made people sensitive to the limitations of their social interactions resulting in increased nervousness over the unpredictability situations. They feel helpless over these sudden changes and onslaught of unfamiliar feelings stemming from conditions that were once entirely under their control.

With so many individuals reporting feeling anxious, it would be appropriate to say that anxiety is something real and tangible. Does it mean then that it is as same as a physical illness? Is it similar to physical sensations that we experience that we can sense occurring in our body?

Psychologists recognize anxiety as real

While clinicians recognize it as a real issue, you may often hear our friends and family say, “it’s all in your head” or “stop letting it take control of your emotions”. There are many instances when you hear such remarks after expressing that you are feeling anxious or when you inform them that you are seeing a therapist to deal with your anxiety.

It makes us wonder whether anxiety is something we can touch and feel or just a mental state?

A mental state is a state of your mind. It comprises diverse components like perception, experiences, and belief – a condition which you can only feel. You can form a mental state of the problems you are going through, how you think about them, cope with them, and experience them.

Anxiety starts in your head

What is anxiety? The dictionary describes anxiety as “an uncomfortable feeling of nervousness or worry about something happening or might happen in the future.” Anxiety is a normal physical and psychological response to stressful situations. Biologically speaking, anxiety is a play of our neurotransmitters, hormones and bodily sensations. Neurotransmitters are chemical ‘messengers in the brain’. They relay the information about being anxious and stressed in situations. So, they are technically all ‘in your head’. You can control your anxiety with coping techniques you can learn. While working on your anxiety, any form of logical thought process can be labelled as being self-sustaining.

When talking about hormones, they are the chemicals that relay the physical sensations you feel in your body, like palpitations, profuse sweating, tremors, etc. Hormones that play a significant role in causing anxiety are cortisol, adrenaline and serotonin. They cause reactions to stressful situations and send signals to our bodies to react differently.

Similarly, the physical sensations are the ones that make them much more natural and tangible than it is just a state of our mind. Physical feelings like precipitation, palpitations, tremors, etc., are some of the many physical sensations we feel when we are anxious.

Physically, when we feel anxious, there are a lot of sensations that we feel. It is different for different people. Some might feel their hands trembling and sweaty palms. Others might feel immensely fearful of certain aspects that are not under their control.

Neurotransmitters and hormones are something we cannot see. They are just biological proofs that they are present in our bodies. For example, we know that the messages between the neuron connections are relayed with the help of neurotransmitters. Similarly, we know that hormones like growth hormones are the ones which facilitate the growth of our body. Although, the physical sensations that happen to us when we are feeling anxious are all-natural and affect our daily routine.

Get help

Anxiety is indeed something that has begun in our head, with all the thoughts and over-analyzing of situations, then manifests itself in physical symptoms.

Others have rightly said that you have built up the anxiety in your head, but that’s simply oversimplifying it.

If it were that easy to control the thoughts and feelings developed in our minds, we would all be superhumans with excellent control over our thoughts and emotions.

We need to understand that a mental health issue is genuine for the person going through it. Rather than being judgmental, we can be mindful of their state and maybe be a helping hand to them. And if you are having an issue, don’t be shy – reach out for professional support. It really helps!

If you are experiencing stress or anxiety, call +91 9000850001 or click here for an online/ in-person appointment with an expert.