What affect does anxiety have on the body?
In order to answer this question, let’s begin at the beginning!
Our bodies are designed to handle some levels of stress. We have a sympathetic nervous system (often called the fight or flight system) which kicks in at times of stress. This enabled our ancestors to fight or run from a life-threatening scenario, such as a tiger chasing them.
When the mind perceives a life-threatening situation, the cerebral cortex triggers the sympathetic nervous system to kick in. This makes several changes in the body including increased heart rate, breathing rate, metabolism and blood pressure to enable to body to respond very quickly to the danger. The body also stops blood flow to areas not considered essential in this situation (such as the digestive system and the hands and feet), and sends it to the body’s larger muscles so that they are ready to fight or run.
Selye (1978) researched this reaction and found that whether problems were perceived or real, the same reaction would take place. The modern world places our bodies and minds under intense pressure which can be unremitting. This can create the perception of life threatening event when such things happen as a missed deadline or being late for a meeting.
If this stress continues for an extended period of time, the body begins to produce corticoids (adrenaline and nor epinephrine) which inhibit several of the body’s very important functions for maintaining health:
digestion - which is why sufferers of stress often have digestive issues
reproduction – ongoing stress is a key reason many struggle with fertility
growth and tissue repair
responses of the immune and inflammatory systems – explaining why people can get an allergic reaction to something they had previously been fine with and why autoimmune diseases such as cancer have ben closely linked to chronic stress
As you can imagine, the majority of systems in the body can be damaged by long term stress. If left unchecked, this can lead to a wide range of stress related illnesses, depression and severe anxiety.
The good news is that we can learn to turn the stress response off. We can get rid of the triggering beliefs which are sending panic messages to our nervous systems, we can learn breathing, muscle relaxation and mindful techniques which directly relax the whole nervous system. Powerful hypnosis recordings can help your body be calm and repair itself. We can learn to respond differently to events which affected us very strongly in the past.
If you would like help to kick start your recovery process, I can provide you with all the tools you need to feel back in control again and help your body heal. Just one session makes a dramatic difference. Get in touch to book a free phone consultation.