Why anxiety shows up in your body first — what to try first, when you cannot concentrate on anything else

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Here is what tends to work, in the order that helps most.

When concentration is gone, work with what is left.

If you only do one thing from this page, do the first point below. It is first because it removes the most friction for the least effort.

Checking your body for symptoms increases your sensitivity to them. This is why health anxiety tends to escalate.

Your heart rate rises, breathing speeds up and blood moves to your muscles. That is why your hands go cold and your chest feels tight.

The symptoms are uncomfortable but not dangerous. Chest tightness from anxiety does not damage the heart.

The physical symptoms come from the same system that gets you out of the way of a car. It is fast, physical and not very smart.

Because the system is physical, physical things work on it: slow exhales, cold water, walking, moving your shoulders.

The symptoms usually peak within ten minutes and then fall, even if nothing is done. Knowing that the peak is short helps more than it sounds.

That is a question for a doctor, and one worth asking once. After it has been checked, treating new sensations as anxiety is usually correct.

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