Anyone with anxiety can tell you that this condition doesn't just exist in your brain. Sure, there are mental and emotional symptoms, but anxiety can also affect your body physically by causing muscle tension, high heart rate, headaches, digestive issues, dizziness . . . the list goes on. Therapist Courtney Tracy, LCSW, PsyD, experiences severe anxiety herself (in her own words, "really f*cking severe" anxiety), and as she recently shared on TikTok, she's still working on addressing the physical aspect of it. "My body is the last part of myself I'm trying to teach that it doesn't need to be so anxious," she explained in a comment.
For Dr. Tracy, that means implementing four key strategies, which she explained in a concise, helpful TikTok in February.
As much as anxiety can feel like a mental health condition, it's physically taxing, too. Acknowledging and addressing all the ways anxiety can affect you, one by one, can help you feel more centered and in tune with yourself. Take Dr. Tracy's advice: a short break and some food and water is a good place to start.