Anxiety Symptoms - These ‘Odd’ Behaviours Could Indicate an Anxiety Disorder
- Written by her.net.au
Are you at risk of developing an anxiety disorder? Know the covert signs indicating you feel more than a little uneasy.
Melbourne has experienced a massive surge in anxiety disorders since the covid lockdowns. Psychologists in Melbourne are concerned the number is even greater than known due to poor education on the subtle, but equally serious, symptoms that prolonged anxious periods of financial stress, homeschooling while working from home and loss of employment can cause. Many psychologists specialising in anxiety disorders in Melbourne fear many women are soldiering on through unexplained symptoms, believing it to be hormones, menopause, or just how life is now.
Specialist OCD psychologists know all the obvious and hidden behaviours that anxiety disorders can manifest. Chances are you don't. Often, women as nurturers, with or without children, sacrifice their own mental self-care to tend to others. Years down the track from a crisis, they suddenly feel depleted or hypervigilant. Obvious and easily observable behaviours can be signs such as:
- OCD
- Addiction
- PTSD
- Social anxiety
- Anxiety attacks
- Heart palpitations and chest pains.
- Daily Respiratory distress and breathing difficulties
- Depression
- Agoraphobia
- Sleep disorders
Knowing obvious signs makes it easier to find the right psychologist. However, ‘ninja symptoms’ that seem to come out of nowhere or have other more convenient explanations can make it tricky.
Chronic Fatigue: Chronic stress caused by anxiety raises adrenaline and cortisol levels. Taking you from extreme hypervigilance to prolonged exhaustion.
Brain Fog: Fatigue, stress, and hypervigilance exhaust the brain, leading to memory issues and slow thought processes, commonly called brain fog.
Analysis Paralysis: It's all just too hard. If you are eating toast for tea every night because deciding what to eat is too hard, you may have anxiety.
Hair Thinning: Untreated anxiety disorders can compound into health issues leading to inflammation. Hair falls out, causing bald patches. Follicles swell, causing thin hair and high breakage.
Disassociation and Apathy: You either feel very little, nothing, or not in your body. Zoning out and the inability to concentrate are also part of this symptom. You are not calm. You are numb. You have no empathy, you are completely unbothered, and you don't care. This is not a superpower. It is a symptom.
Cortisol Belly: High cortisol levels can manifest in a thicker waist or protruding belly that doesn't shift with exercise.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Anxiety causes stomach cramps and disrupts gut and bowel function. Leading to constipation, spasms, diarrhea, or a combination of both. You might have endometriosis - you might also have anxiety.
Explosive Moods: The kids are loud, the TV is loud, the neighbours' breathing is loud. You explode as a result. Emotional dysregulation can be due to anxiety.
Get to the bottom of your ‘uneasy feelings.’ With anxiety, ignorance is not bliss. With the right psychologist Melbourne women can get help to navigate, manage, and recover.
