Ever since I started paying more attention to how my body feels (instead of how I THINK it should feel), I’ve noticed some patterns. Sometimes the same feeling comes up over and over again, in different situations and with different causal factors.
One of these is anxiety: that hot, jumpy, scattery feeling.
Most of the time, we get anxious for perfectly reasonable things, like an upcoming performance in front of a crowd, a difficult conversation, you know the drill. Anxiety is a hot topic right now.
But I’ve noticed that there are anxiety “imposters”—things that make my body FEEL LIKE it’s anxious, even when there’s no REASON for that anxiety in my brain. When I’m like this, I’m also much more predisposed to actually get anxious about something, probably because the feeling is already there.
Impostors for Anxiety include:
Lack of Sleep
This is a huge one for me. If I sleep poorly, or don’t sleep long enough, I feel it. My body is instantly inflamed (major indicator: puffy gums, bleary eyes, overactive guts) and any little irritant will provoke me.
Eating Too Much Sugar
Sugar is not my friend. Carbs of any kind are not my friend, but highly-refined plant-based carbs are especially insidious. The fun part about sugar is there’s often a delayed consequence—never right away.
Drinking the Wrong Kind of Alcohol
My body handles alcohol okay—as long as it’s a clear, distilled spirit like gin or vodka. If I move away from that, to a fortified spirit like brandy or even wine, I’m in trouble. Like with sugar, if I drink wine, about 24 hours later I’ll basically have a panic attack.
Forgetting to Do Something Important
You know when there was something you were going to do, and you know you haven’t done it yet, but you really WANTED to do it, and it’s grating on your conscience? Yeah, that. Maybe it counts as Official Anxiety™ but honestly it’s banished more by using a planner and keeping promises to yourself.
As I’ve learned to manage my body and my Crohn’s Disease, I’ve learned that the physical conditions that come about because of these causes aren’t “real” anxiety, even though they feel like it. That allows me some freedom to choose how I react even when I’m bogged down by feelings of anxiety, instead of thinking that the anxious feeling is permanent.
If there’s anything you’d add to this list—tell us in the comments below!