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Worry is an emotion or feeling. As humans, worrying is normal. However, when it becomes excessive it leads to anxiety and can take a toll on physical health.
Worrying is the feeling of uneasiness or feeling concern overly over a particular situation. When this becomes excessing, it makes the brain and body to work hard anticipating on what could happen.
Unfortunately, being caught in the middle of excessing worrying may cause anxiety or even worse a panic. Eventually, chronic worrying can affect one’s daily life significantly resulting in loss of appetite, sleep disorders, unproductivity at work, relationships and among many others.
Moreover, the majority of chronic worriers are taken with anxiety and seeking relief through harmful habits and lifestyles like alcohol consumption, overeating, smoking and even using drugs.
The Physical Symptoms of Worrying
Over the long run, chronic worrying can take a toll on health. Among the physical health symptoms linking to worrying include;
- Sweating
- Shortness and rapid breathing
- Irritability
- Nervousness
- Muscle aches and tensions
- Rapid heartbeat
- Lack of focus or concentration
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Dry mouth
- Difficulty swallowing
- Dizziness
These symptoms are apparent of a fight or flight response of the body’s nervous system. Chronic worrying causes many abnormal hormonal changes resulting in these symptoms.
In other words, chronic worrying leads to anxiety and eventually stress. Unfortunately, the long-term effect due to these symptoms can lead to more serious health conditions such as;
- Compromising the body’s immune system
- Short-term memory loss
- Digestive disorders
- Muscle tensions
- Heart-related problems
Handling Chronic Worrying
With all these scary side effects of chronic worrying, you might be asking if there are ways to control it?
The short answer is YES. There are natural ways you can do in order to put worrying under control.
One of the simplest and most natural ways is having regular exercise. A Yale study finds that exercise increases the level of happiness. Most people think that money will make them happier but this study proves the opposite.
It is also helpful to have a regular activity outdoors like walking, running, cycling or simply enjoying sun exposure. Sunlight is the best source of vitamin D.
In studies, researchers say low vitamin D level is linked to depression and anxiety1 2 3.
Another simple but has a profound effect on putting worry under control is mindfulness.
Of course, maintaining proper nutrition is just as essential as exercise, if not more crucial. Hence, take a close look at your diet. Make sure you are eating nourishing foods.
One particular diet experts recommend to fight depression is the DASH diet. It is a diet derived from a more popular lifestyle eating of the Mediterranean people.
Another thing to remember if you have chronic worrying is to avoid coffee consumption. While coffee has many health benefits including brain health, you may want to stay away from it if it triggers nervousness on you.
What If The Worrying Persist?
Regardless of the effort, you put to control worrying and still no progress, it would be a good idea to seek help.
Consult a professional therapist in your area regarding your condition. Your therapist may recommend doing meditation. It is an ancient practice similar to mindfulness, but there is a slight difference.
Consulting a professional allows you to be guided into a relaxation process, which is difficult to achieve for most people. Guided relaxation and meditation are so soothing and the benefits are almost apparent.
However, the practice needs to be consistent in order for the worry to be under control completely.
Final Thoughts
As we have learned, seemingly harmless worrying can result in serious health conditions over the long run. It is especially true when worrying becomes chronic.
Moreover, if not address during the early stages, it can lead to loneliness, which has not just become an epidemic but deadly as smoking.
Hence, be conscious of your worrying and what you worried for? There is higher chance the things you are worrying won’t likely to happen.
Hence, the practice of mindfulness or meditation is essential as this helps to achieve mental clarity. Additionally, proper nutrition and exercise play significant roles in achieving happiness, mental clarity and be able to handle and keep worries under control.
Of course, reading helpful books regarding the subject of worrying can be beneficial. One book author, David A. Carbonell wrote a book on how to transform worries into advantages in his book “The Worry Trick.“
Lastly, there is a classic book out there by Dale Carnegie that tells you how to stop worrying and start living.
It’s a long book, but it’s worth reading. I like to listen to the audiobook version of it.
I can just put in on my smartphone, or in a car and listen to it. It is worth listening over and over.