Symptoms of anxiety disorders

Everyone’s experiences of anxiety disorders are different. Not everyone who has an anxiety disorder will experience the same symptoms. Anxiety can have both mental and physical symptoms. It can make it difficult to carry out daily tasks and can also often lead to depression.

Mental symptoms can include:

• Racing thoughts
• Uncontrollable over-thinking
• Trouble concentrating
• Feelings of dread, panic or ‘impending doom’
• Feeling irritable
• Heightened alertness
• Trouble sleeping
• Changes in appetite
• Wanting to escape from the situation you are in
• Dissociation (feeling like you aren’t connected to your own body, watching things happen around you without feeling it.)

Physical symptoms can include:

• Sweating
• Heavy and fast breathing
• Racing heartbeat
• Hot flushes and blushing
• Dry mouth
• Shaking
• Hair loss
• Extreme tiredness or lack of energy
• Headaches, dizziness and fainting
• Stomach aches, nausea and sickness