Why Do I Have Anxiety Symptoms When I’m Not Anxious?

Recently I received the question ‘why do i have anxiety symptoms when i don’t feel anxious?’ Let’s dive in.

Having anxiety symptoms when you don’t feel anxious is a common anxiety disorder experience that many anxiety disorder sufferers have. There are many reasons for why anxiety can cause symptoms when you don’t feel anxious. Knowing these reasons can help you understand anxiety disorder more completely and help you get rid of your anxiety symptoms for good.

However, before we begin I recommend discussing all new changing persistent and returning symptoms with your doctor as some medical conditions and medications can cause anxiety-like symptoms.

If you’ve done that and your doctor has attributed your symptoms solely to anxiety or stress you can be confident there isn’t a medical or medication cause. If your symptoms have been solely attributed to anxiety or stress there are several reasons why we can have anxiety symptoms when we don’t feel anxious.

Before we get to those reasons, what are anxiety symptoms?

Anxious behavior such as worry activates the stress response. The stress response secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream where they travel to specific locations in order to bring about specific physiological, psychological, and emotional changes that give the body an emergency boost of energy and resources to help us when we believe we could be in danger.

This survival reaction is often referred to as one of the following:

• Stress response
• Fight or flight response
• Fight flight or freeze response
• Fight flight freeze or faint response (since some people faint when they are afraid)

Since these survival changes push the body beyond its balance point, stress responses stress the body and a body that becomes stressed can exhibit symptoms of stress. As such, anxiety stresses the body therefore anxiety symptoms are symptoms of stress.

They are called anxiety symptoms because anxious behavior is the main source of the stress that stresses the body, and a body that’s under stress can produce symptoms.

Here are a few main reasons for why you have these physiological reactions when not feeling anxious

1- You may not be aware that you are an anxious person

Many anxious people grow up thinking their behaviors are normal and haven’t caused problems in the past. They don’t think they’re actually anxious. Many anxious people first become aware that they have issues with anxiety when their unexplained physical symptoms alert them to a problem with anxiety.

Numerous times I’ve heard fellow anxiety warriors going through one of my programs say “I didn’t know I had issues with anxiety until i started having symptoms.”

This was the case for me for years. Having gone through a very traumatic childhood, the foundation for my anxiety disorder and hypersensitivity was laid very early on in my life. It wasn’t until my mid 20’s that my anxiety symptoms turned my focus to what negative feelings and labels I had ben repressing for so long.

2- Hyperstimulation. When stress responses occur infrequently the body can recover relatively quickly

However, when stress responses occur too frequently such as from overly apprehensive behavior the body can’t completely recover.

Incomplete recovery can leave the body in a state of semi-stress response readiness. Since stress hormones are stimulants a body that becomes hyperstimulated (which can lead to a dysregulated nervous system) can experience symptoms of an active stress response even though our stress response hasn’t been activated.

Again, anxiety symptoms are most certainly symptoms of chronic stress.

They are known as anxiety symptoms because overly apprehensive behavior is the main source of the stress that causes the body to become stressed, and symptomatic hyperstimulation is one of the most common reasons why you can have anxiety symptoms even when you don’t feel anxious.

An important part to this for you to know is that it can take a long time to recover from hyperstimulation.

Once the body becomes hyperstimulated it can take a long time to recover and much longer than most people realize. This is because the effects of stress can last a very long time. Current research has found that it can take up to four times longer to recover from the effects of stress than it did to become stressed.

So even though you might not feel anxious at that moment, you can have anxiety symptoms because your body is still recovering from hyperstimulation. As long as the body is in a hyper stimulated state it can exhibit symptoms of any type, number, intensity, duration, frequency, and at any time.

As long as the body is hyperstimulated or chronically stressed even to a slight degree it can exhibit symptoms. Once again, hyperstimulation is one of the main reasons you can have anxiety symptoms even though you don’t feel anxious at that time. 

3 – Your stress levels are elevated even though it feels normal

Since anxiety stresses the body, anxious people typically live stressful lives. In turn, the level of stress they feel can seem normal even though it is elevated above the normal range. Constantly living with elevated stress that feels normal is another common cause of symptoms even though you might not be feeling anxious at that moment .

4 – Other sources of stress may be causing your symptoms

The truth is, since anxiety symptoms are symptoms of stress other sources of stress could be causing your symptoms even though you don’t feel anxious. For example, rigorous physical exertion such as a hard physical workout or strenuous exercise stresses the body.

If you have worked hard or too long your body can produce symptoms of stress even though you may not feel anxious.

Persistent loud noises, frustrating circumstances, being too hot or cold, sleep deprivation, heavy cognitive load, being at an exciting event, chronic pain, studying for long hours, are all examples of stressors that stress the body.

That stress can create anxiety like symptoms long after the stressful situation or circumstances have ended. As such, even though you don’t feel anxious, other sources of stress could be contributing to hyperstimulation and its symptoms. 

5 – Many anxious people are unaware of the underlying factors

Anxiety is created by underlying factors which are those behaviors, situations, and circumstances that cause issues with anxiety.

These factors are often set up from a very early age. When a person behaves anxiously from an early age their overly anxious behavior and the stress it creates can seem normal as an adult. However, as long as the body is overly stressed even to a slight degree it can exhibit symptoms.

If you have anxiety symptoms your body is stressed even though you might think your behavior and stress are normal.

6 – Side effects of medication can mimic anxiety symptoms. many prescription and over-the-counter medications can cause anxiety like symptoms

Fore instance, many anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications can cause symptoms similar to anxiety such as:

• Headaches
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Dry eyes
• Dizziness
• Trembling
• Brain zaps, and more

If you suspect that your medication might be causing anxiety like side effects talk with your doctor and pharmacist about reducing the dosage, switching to a different medication, or discontinuing your medication if that’s an option for you.

7 – Other factors

Other factors can cause anxiety like symptoms including:

• Recreational drugs
• Stimulants
• Sleep deprivation
• Fatigue
• Hyperventilation and hypoventilation
• Low blood
• Sugar
• Nutrition deficiency
• Dehydration
• Hormone changes

“So what are a few ways I can begin to get rid of these anxiety symptoms” you may ask.

Surrender Sessions

Surrender sessions are meant to create a new relationship with your body and eliminate the need to be reactive to anxiety symptoms. When done regularly, surrender sessions will give you deeper clarity around your symptoms of anxiety, calm a dysregulated nervous system, and begin turning negative emotional states to positive ones. Please enjoy the guided surrender session below from The Anxiety Guy YouTube Channel…

Mapping Meditations

Mapping is a similar process to surrender sessions but with slight differences. With mapping we turn our conscious focus from one particular body part (or anxiety symptom) to another. Whereas in surrender session our focus is on completely letting go of the need to control what the body does. Both processes are powerful when done regularly, here’s a guided session you can begin with today.

Heal your hypersensitivity and hypertension

The video below will share with you direct ways to begin healing your hypersensitivity. This hypersensitivity healing process may take time, so it’s vital that you be patient and stay on top of the recommendations I give in the YouTube video below.

Emotional reframing

If you believe your repressed feelings and emotions are a result of holding onto perceptions from past experiences (especially childhood), emotional reframing will help. Emotional reframing is an imagery focused way of communicating directly with the subconscious mind to bring about not only proven psychological shifts, but very real physiological ones as well.

The guided session below from my YouTube channel is specifically for childhood trauma that you may begin today.

Affirmations

Affirmations are ancient rituals that have been known to heal all sorts of inner challenges. I recommend using the below affirmations while falling asleep at night. There is no need to consciously pay attention to the anxiety affirmations you are listening to, and in fact that is the best way I would recommend you use them.

With nightly use you will be re-programming your subconscious mind body away from irrational fear and healing your anxiety symptoms for good.

There are a few ways to begin healing your anxiety symptoms warriors. I hope this blog post was beneficial and if you’ve read up to this point I commend you. You’ve shown that you are ready to invest in your anxiety healing and no longer lead a life of coping with anxiety symptoms. I look forward to your anxiety success stories in the very near future. Until then, remember that you are more than anxiety, and I love you.

Please share a comment below on your biggest epiphany from this post on anxiety symptoms when not anxious