Not The Usual Suspects: Aspects Of Everyday Life That Affect Anxiety

There are numerous reasons why you might be feeling anxious. While it might be anxiety-provoking in itself for you to begin thinking about the reasons for your anxiety, the bonus in doing so is that you might be able to make some quick changes in your lifestyle in order to have some immediate effects upon your anxiety. Even if you are not able to make any lifestyle changes at this time, just being able to recognize aspects of your life that exacerbate your symptoms or mimic anxiety can actually help to change how you interpret your symptoms (in other words, it might make your symptoms feel less intimidating or out of the blue). In turn, you may find a decrease your anxiety. See below to find out if any of the following might describe you:

1) Caffeine intake or energy drinks. Perhaps caffeine helps you stay awake throughout the day... but did you know that drinking a lot of caffeine can exacerbate your anxiety? Even drinking a little bit of caffeine can make your anxiety worse if you are sensitive to caffeine or drink it on an empty stomach. Consider monitoring and lowering your caffeine intake. Be sure to not only count your cups of coffee, but also caffeinated teas and energy drinks (which can contain caffeine and other stimulants). If you are a heavy caffeine drinker, you might need to gradually decrease your intake in order to offset your reliance upon it.

2) Low blood sugar. Be sure to eat regularly. Going without eating for long periods of time or skipping meals can cause you to have low blood sugar. In turn, this can mimic some symptoms of anxiety. Some people find that they feel nauseous. Others describe feeling light-headed or even feeling shaky. You might even have difficulty concentrating. All of these symptoms can feel like physical symptoms of anxiety and may lead you to believe that you are feeling anxious, despite the fact that the symptoms are actually caused by low blood sugar. Be sure to eat regularly.

3) Medications. Many kinds of medications can make you feel anxious. Check the list of side-effects on your medications. Medications can cause you to feel anxious when you are just beginning to take them (while you body gets used to the medication), when you've been taking them for a while (when the medication is fully in your system), or even when you've stopped taking them (as you body adjusts to not having the medication in your system). As a side note, even anti-anxiety medications can sometimes have side effects that mimic anxiety symptoms.

4) Lack of sleep. Getting very little sleep may make you prone to feeling anxious. Not only can the lack of sleep mimic symptoms of anxiety, but your zapped energy might also decrease your ability to use your usual resources in coping with your anxiety. We all suffer from lack of sleep at some point or another, and it's not that you need to prevent every sleepless night. Rather, just having the awareness of the source of the anxiety can help you feel less anxious!

This is only a short list of everyday aspects of life that might exacerbate or even cause you to feel anxious. The key is to be conscious of these aspects, as the awareness will help you to better understand your body, and thus, help you to feel less anxious.

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