How Anxiety Affects Your Blood Pressure (And Other Effects of Anxiety On Your Body)
Why does anxiety raise your blood pressure or make your tummy hurt? Every symptom of anxiety actually serves a clear biological purpose.
ANXIETY & THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
When something happens that triggers anxiety, a part of your nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system is activated.
You’d think that being called “sympathetic” that it’d be a nice experience to have this system activated, but it’s not.
The sympathetic nervous system is otherwise known as your fight-or flight response and gets activated when it thinks you’re in danger.
HOW THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM HELPS
It’s actually really helpful. Imagine you’re checking your makeup in the rear-view mirror and suddenly get aggressively honked at. You (ok, me) feel a jolt of fear that makes you sit up straight and get your car in the correct lane. If that fight-or-flight response didn’t get activated, you’d just keep swerving all over the road.
HOW ANXIETY AFFECTS YOUR BODY
When the fight-or-flight system is activated, and our bodies respond in a predictable way. And this response is what causes the physical effects of anxiety. Here’s what happens:
Body’s Response | Anxiety Symptom | Purpose |
Stronger, faster heartbeat | Racing or pounding heart | Your heart starts working hard so it can deliver oxygen and other nutrients throughout your body, including to your muscles so you can fight or run away if needed. |
Body releases coagulants and lymphocytes | None really, just a fun fact | Coagulants help your blood clot so if you get cut or hurt you won’t bleed out. And lymphocytes are part of your immune system that start healing wounds, repairing tissue, and stopping infection once you get hurt. |
Spleen contracts | None really, just a fun fact | Sends extra red blood cells out to your body to carry more oxygen where it needs to go |
Liver releases stored sugar | Blood sugar increases | Takes energy to your muscles |
Blood flow is redirected | Pale, cold skin; cold chills | Blood is restricted to your fingers, toes, and skin because they’re not essential for fighting or fleeing. Plus, if there’s less blood there and you get a finger or toe cut off in a fight or get cut on a bush you’re running through, you’re less likely to bleed out.
The blood that’s taken away from your extremities is redirected to the muscles that help you fight and run – your thighs, biceps, heart, etc. |
Blood flow to your brain decreases | Dizziness, blurred vision, confusion, feeling like you’re in a dream, hot flushes | This sounds really bad but it’s actually harmless. It’s really just a tiny amount of blood that’s redirected from your brain to your essential muscles, but that small change is noticeable with dizziness, etc. |
Breathe faster | Feel out of breath, choking or smothering sensation | Your muscles need oxygen for fuel, so you breathe more to take in extra oxygen to fuel your muscles for fighting or fleeing. |
Sweat increases | Sweating | Your body sweats to keep itself cool. As the water evaporates off your skin, it has a cooling effect. This keeps your body from overheating when it’s working really hard. That way, you can keep running or fighting without getting heat exhaustion. Plus, when you’re sweaty, it’s harder for predators to grab you, so it’s easier to escape from danger. |
Pupils (the black part of your eye) widen | Blurred vision, sensitivity to bright lights, spots in your vision | The pupil is the part of the eye that lets light in. When the pupils widen, we can see more clearly…that’s why it’s easier to read with the lights on. When we’re in danger, we need to be able to scan our environment for threats or problems so we can stay away from them or respond to them. |
Decreased salivation | Dry mouth | Salivation helps us start breaking down food immediately when it enters our bodies. Your body considers this a non-essential service, so it’s gonna reduce the energy it puts toward salivating and redirect that energy toward more essential services. |
Digestion inhibited | Nausea, stomachaches, diarrhea, general GI discomfort | When you’re in danger, your body doesn’t need to waste energy digesting that hamburger you just ate. It’ll get to that later, once you’re safe again. So that hamburger just sits in your stomach, half digested. That creates stomach discomfort, nausea, and other GI symptoms. The energy it would normally spend digesting the hamburger is redirected toward fighting or fleeing. |
Muscles get tense | Aches and pains, trembling, shaking | You know how when you’re trying to return something to a store…and the lady behind the counter tells you it’s not eligible for return…and you clench your teeth while you try not to smack her? That’s your fight-or-flight response. When we are preparing for a fight, our muscles tighten so we can fight – your fists, biceps, legs, back, jaw…basically your entire body tightens up to fight a predator and to make you harder to hurt. |
Brain releases natural painkillers | Increased pain tolerance | Your brain assumes that if your fight-or-flight system is activated that you’re probably about to get hurt. So it’ll go ahead and dump some painkillers out there so the pain won’t bother you so much until you can get to a safe place. |
*I was assisted in making this chart by Barlow, D. H., & Craske, M. G. (2007). Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic: Workbook. Oxford University Press, USA.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU'RE ANXIOUS FOR A LONG TIME
All of these effects take a lot of energy, even if you’re not actually in a fight or running away from danger.
This means that you’ll feel tired after your fight-or-flight system is activated…and if it’s activated often, then you might feel run down a lot of the time.
When your fight-or-flight system is activated often, then some long-term effects occur.
The changes to your heart and breathing over time can create high blood pressure.
The disruption to your digestion over time can create ulcers.
The increased energy being sent to your muscles over time can break down your muscles.
And the increased alertness to danger can actually accelerate brain degeneration in aging.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR BODY FROM THE EFFECTS OF ANXIETY
Even though your fight-or-flight system is a critical life-saving feature of your body, we want to limit unnecessary activations so you can protect your body in the long term.
Start by developing some great coping skills for anxiety, like with my personal favorite ways to manage anxiety without medication or my free course on how to reverse your anxious downward spiral.
And if you’re struggling, get a therapist in your area and take along my worksheet packet so you can maximize your therapy sessions.
So there you have it.
Fear and panic create abrupt changes throughout your body, and prolonged anxiety means these changes have long-term effects.
But anxiety doesn’t just affect your body…it also affects your brain. And next week, I’ll tell you exactly what anxiety looks like in your brain. Don’t miss it.
Talk to you soon,
Dr. Finch
P.S. Remember, this is education, not treatment. Always consult with a psychologist or therapist about your mental health to determine what information and interventions are best for you. See the disclaimer for more details.
Hayden C. Finch, PhD, is a practicing psychologist based in Des Moines, Iowa, and Little Rock, Arkansas, dedicated to helping you master your mental health.
