5 Signs Anxiety Is Becoming More Than Everyday Stress

Stress and worry are normal feelings in our lives. Whether it’s stress from work, school, relationships, or home life, we all know how stress can feel. It’s the strain on your neck when you aren’t sure you studied enough for the test; it’s the pit in your stomach before your first date. We may often find ourselves worrying about anything and everything, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t shake the stress away.

Anxiety has a way of sneaking up on us, making stress into a constant weight sitting on our chests. You can feel it in the way you breathe, or maybe it’s a lingering headache that doesn’t seem to fade, no matter how hard you try. Anxiety is your brain's response to stressful, unfamiliar, or dangerous situations. It is a function that is usually useful, as it prepares you for or warns you about situations that could be overwhelming or harmful. However, sometimes the constant stressors of life can lead your brain to send signals that everything is dangerous, even when it is not.

Some signs that it may be more than stress:

1. You Feel It in Your Chest

Just thinking about what you have to do tomorrow makes your heart feel like it's beating out of your chest. Your palms are sweating, and it becomes difficult to breathe. This is because your body is perceiving danger. When faced with perceived danger, your autonomic nervous system is activated and sends out the stress response, also known as “fight-or-flight”, causing a ripple effect throughout your body. The first stop on this ripple effect is your chest.

In your chest, anxiety can cause:

• A rapid or irregular heart rate 

• High blood pressure

• Difficulty breathing

• Tensing of chest muscles

In a stressful moment, you may feel all of these symptoms at once, which can be signs of an anxiety attack. Anxiety attacks can build up over a short period and be triggered by sudden, emotional situations. Although these symptoms may feel concerning, anxiety attacks are rarely ever dangerous. Deep breathing, meditation, and other calming techniques can help these symptoms dissipate, and seeking support for anxiety can lower the frequency of these symptoms overall. 

If you experience sudden pain in your chest that is persistent and radiates to your jaw, shoulder, or back, you should seek immediate medical care.

2. Unreliable Sleep

It is three o’clock in the morning, and you still haven’t been able to sleep. You feel restless and irritated; you are exhausted, and you keep replaying the day before over and over in your head. Sleep anxiety is a common companion to regular anxiety symptoms. Those who experience sleep anxiety may have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep due to constant stress, or may even have anxiety about sleep as a whole, afraid that they won’t get enough sleep or have nightmares.

Common effects of sleep anxiety include:

• Restlessness

• Sweating

• Nightmares

• Irritability

For sleep anxiety, finding comfort in your sleep space is crucial. Your chosen sleep space should be dark and cool, and you should significantly reduce screen time and other stimulating activities an hour before falling asleep. Listening to a sound machine, practicing breathing exercises, and covering up with a weighted blanket can increase comfort and a sense of security before bed.

3. Unexplained Pain Everywhere

Anxiety can cause pain in locations throughout your body that you may not expect. Your muscles can feel like they are squeezing, and your legs can feel heavy and sore. This is because of your body’s stress response. Sometimes, when you are feeling a lot of anxiety, your stress response will send a signal to your body that there might be danger. This causes your muscles to tighten and tense in preparation. After the initial feeling of danger passes, your muscles relax, but you may be left with sudden, unexplained aches.

Some common pains are:

• Muscle aches and pains

• Tenderness in the stomach

• Headaches

• Spots on your body that feel bruised

After experiencing these pains, you might find it helpful to relieve stress through relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, massage therapy, calming music, and a warm bath. Alternatively, you might find relief from these pains by doing a short exercise, going for a walk, or practicing yoga. 

4. Feeling Burnt Out

Between work and home life, you may feel like you are being pulled in too many directions. At one point, you felt like you could do anything; now there are so many things you need to do that you've started refusing to do any of them. The feeling you get when you are faced with so much stress that you shut down – that’s burnout. Burnout is your body's way of offering protection after a prolonged fight-or-flight response. It can be caused by constantly taking on too much at once and not giving yourself time to recover.

Some signs of burnout include:

• Constantly feeling tired

• Neglecting the things you need

• Feeling apathetic or angry

• Constant headaches or stomachaches

If you are experiencing burnout symptoms, focusing on your health is the first step. Burnout develops gradually, and it can become difficult to care for yourself after a period of time. Setting boundaries in both work and home life, such as saying “no”, following a daily schedule, and disconnecting from your phone, can significantly reduce feelings of burnout. In addition, finding things that make you happy and devoting time to them will create space for you to step away from stress and improve your quality of life.

5. Unpredictable Mood Changes

Recently, your mood has been unstable. One moment, you are full of joy, and the next, you are full of anger. You feel yourself crying uncontrollably for no reason at all. You may wonder what is happening; you may not feel like yourself. Anxiety can cause rapid mood changes that feel unmanageable. This is because anxiety heightens the body's senses, making everything feel more sensitive than normal. 

Some of these mood changes may include:

• A cycle of irritability, frustration, and euphoria

• Emotions that come in waves

• Emotions that seem erratic

• Feeling unstable

Relaxation techniques are crucial to decreasing unpredictable mood changes. You may feel more relaxed after sitting in a bath, spending time with your pet, or listening to calming music. It may also be beneficial to do light exercises like walking, swimming, or yoga. Prioritizing your time by spending it with good friends and loved ones, and unplugging from technology, can reduce rapid mood changes.

What Comes Next: Taking Care of You

For both stress and anxiety, finding time to take care of yourself is the most beneficial treatment you can have. If everything feels heavy and you aren’t sure how to find anxiety relief, anxiety support is a good option. You’re never alone, and you don’t have to carry daily anxiety to be productive. 

For women especially, anxiety can be easy to dismiss because so much of daily life revolves around caring for others, staying organized, and holding everything together. It can start to feel normal to push your own needs aside, even when your mind and body are telling you something is off. Making space for rest, support, and honest self-check-ins is not selfish. It is part of protecting your well-being and giving yourself the same care you so often give to everyone else.

If you’re looking for one-on-one therapy, contact us here at Grow Through Life Counseling or if you’re looking for a higher level of care such as residential, A Mission for Michael is a good local resource.