What Does Anxiety Disorder Feel Like?

Anxiety disorder is more than just feeling stressed or worried. It's a mental health condition characterized by excessive, dominating apprehension that dramatically interferes with daily life. Unlike normal stress that subsides after a challenge, anxiety disorder creates a continuous cycle of worry that is overwhelming and debilitating. It hijacks the quality of one’s life.

Individuals with anxiety may experience irrational fears, intrusive thoughts, or panic attacks that disrupt their ability to function in work, relationships, and daily activities.

The Drake Institute understands the complexity of treating anxiety disorders, and how every patient has their own unique history or circumstances. For over 40 years, we have offered non-invasive, drug-free treatment designed to address the needs of patients suffering from anxiety.

What Anxiety Disorder Feels Like

Anxiety isn’t just stress. It’s an uncomfortable or dominating sense of dread that can creep in at any time, often without warning. It can feel like something bad is about to happen, even when there’s no real reason for concern. This constant unease can make it difficult to relax, focus, or feel at peace. You can be in a constant state of hypervigilance, when in reality, you’re safe.

The Mental & Emotional Experience

With anxiety, the mind becomes trapped in a cycle of worry, with fears and intrusive thoughts jumping from one to another. The more you try to control these thoughts, the more they seem to persist, often creating a sense of helplessness and hopelessness.

People with anxiety disorders may find even daily tasks to be overwhelming. You can lose your sense of priorities as well, and become much less effective in your daily life. While you are in a state of hypervigilance and worried about your survival, you may lose your sense of other priorities that will fall by the wayside. Priorities like work and relationships become secondary to trying to manage your anxiety and/or fear.

This constant state of heightened stress can lead to irritability, as well as emotional or physical exhaustion. Again, it literally hijacks your brain and dominates your life experience.

Over time, anxiety strips the joy from once-beloved activities and people often find themselves withdrawing as their emotional state becomes dominated and consumed with the effects of anxiety.

The Physical Sensations of Anxiety

Anxiety transforms the body into a state of constant alert, triggering a fight-or-flight response even when no real threat exists. The brain floods the system with stress hormones like adrenaline, creating a physiological storm that leaves individuals feeling perpetually on edge. Heart rates increase, blood pressure goes up, muscles tense, the digestive system can dysregulate, the immune system becomes suppressed, and the entire body can become hyperaroused. This chronic state can open the door to developing a myriad of illnesses.

For some, anxiety escalates into panic attacks with sudden, intense episodes that can feel terrifyingly real. Chest pain grips like a vice, breathing becomes difficult, and dizziness may also occur. Many describe these moments as feeling as if they could die. It’s the most terrifying emotional experience a person can ever have. More than 40 years ago, the Drake Institute discovered a successful treatment that some patients even describe as a “cure” for panic attacks. Using biofeedback, a patient can reverse the feeling of panic or heightened anxiety.

People with anxiety often describe feeling trapped within their own bodies, unable to find calm no matter how hard they try. Some experience restless energy, unable to sit still, while others struggle with exhaustion from the constant internal tension. Whether it's trembling hands, a churning stomach, or muscles locked in perpetual tightness, the physical experience of anxiety can be overwhelming, making even the simplest moments feel like an uphill battle against an invisible opponent.

What Is Anxiety Disorder?

There are several types of anxiety disorders, each with unique characteristics and symptoms:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Persistent worry without an obvious trigger.
• Panic Disorder: Sudden, intense episodes of fear with physical symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, or dizziness.
• Social Anxiety Disorder: Extreme fear of social interactions and potential judgement.
• Specific Phobias: Intense fear of particular objects or situations where you actually are safe.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Intrusive thoughts coupled with repetitive behaviors, often performed to alleviate anxiety.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Anxiety triggered by past traumatic experiences.

Understanding these different types of anxiety disorders can help individuals and healthcare providers recognize symptoms and determine the most effective treatment options.

Common Symptoms Of Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety is not a one-size-fits-all experience. It manifests differently for each individual, ranging from constant low-level worry to intense, sudden panic attacks. However, there are common threads that connect these experiences.

• Mental and Emotional Symptoms
• Physical Symptoms

While the way anxiety presents itself may be unique to each person, recognizing these universal symptoms can help individuals understand what they’re going through and seek the best treatment. No matter how anxiety feels for someone, it’s important to remember that help is available and recovery is possible.

Mental & Emotional Symptoms

• Excessive fear or worry
• Irritability
• Panic attacks
• Difficulty concentrating or mental "fog"
• Feeling restless or on edge
• Racing thoughts
• Overanalyzing or intrusive thoughts
• Sense of impending doom
• Difficulty controlling anxious thoughts
• Increased sensitivity to stress

Physical Symptoms

• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Muscle tension
• High blood pressure
• Shortness of breath or hyperventilation
• Difficulty sleeping (insomnia or restless sleep)
• Bruxism (teeth grinding or jaw clenching)
• Dizziness or light-headedness
• Heart palpitations or rapid heartbeat
• Digestive and gastrointestinal dysfunction (nausea, diarrhea, or stomach pain)
• Somatic symptoms like sweating, chills, or trembling

While some people may experience only a few of these symptoms, others may struggle with many at once. Recognizing these signs can help individuals seek appropriate care to treat their anxiety.

Why Understanding Anxiety Symptoms Is Important

Recognizing the symptoms of anxiety disorder is crucial for seeking proper treatment and support. Many people dismiss their anxiety as simple stress or overthinking, leading them to struggle in silence. However, untreated anxiety can worsen over time, affecting both mental and physical health.

By understanding how anxiety manifests—both emotionally and physically—individuals can take proactive steps toward improving their condition. It’s important to identify symptoms as early as possible so you can get relief and reclaim your quality of life. Seeking the right care can significantly improve your life and restore your sense of well-being.

H2 – The Neuroscience Behind Anxiety Symptoms

Anxiety symptoms typically result from dysregulation in specific brain networks. When these neural circuits become overactive or dysregulated, they cause the physical and psychological symptoms associated with anxiety disorders.

Brainwave patterns play a crucial role in anxiety symptoms. People with anxiety typically have excessive beta brainwaves associated with racing thoughts, mental restlessness, and hypervigilance, and fewer alpha waves linked to relaxation.

Advanced diagnostic technology like qEEG brain mapping can identify specific brainwave dysregulated networks and biomarkers linked to anxiety. In addition, brain map-guided neurofeedback treatment trains the brain to develop healthier, more functional patterns. Neurostimulation techniques can also help regulate overactive brain regions, providing targeted relief from anxiety symptoms. These neurologically-based treatments address the root cause of anxiety rather than just managing symptoms, offering hope for lasting improvement and recovery.

H2 – Drake Institute’s Non-Drug Treatment For Anxiety

Conventional treatment for anxiety disorders usually includes psychotherapy and medication. However, for over 40 years, the Drake Institute has successfully treated anxiety and stress disorders using advanced, non-drug technologies including biofeedback, qEEG brain mapping, brain map-guided neurofeedback, and neurostimulation.

Here’s how our treatment works:

First, we use Biofeedback instrumentation to measure physiologic indicators of anxiety, including muscle tension, hand temperature, skin conductance response, brainwave activity, and heart rate variability.

Next, we develop a personalized treatment program designed to help the patient reduce tension levels to normal. Our treatment provides real-time visual and/or auditory feedback to teach you how to reduce abnormal tension levels to a healthier physiologic balance.

While traditional relaxation techniques like meditation may help you feel calmer, they cannot confirm whether or not you’re reaching the stable and deep levels of psychophysical relaxation that optimize healing. Our clinical biofeedback treatment can help patients confirm that they are consistently reaching deeper levels of relaxation needed to break up stress patterns that can lead to symptoms and illness. By developing self-regulation ability and skills, our patients become empowered in achieving lasting improvement in how one’s body and mind responds to stress.

Unlike medication, which only works while you're taking it, our treatment helps you develop lifelong skills you can use to reduce anxiety via self-regulation techniques. In short, we will teach you to shift out of “fight or flight” mode naturally so that you can maintain better emotional balance and prevent anxiety from taking you over again and disrupting your autonomic nervous system.

H2 – After Biofeedback, We Then Use Brain Map-Guided Neurofeedback

Once we’ve analyzed your brainwave patterns through qEEG brain mapping, we can then enable you to train the brain towards healthier, optimal balance and functioning via brain map-guided neurofeedback treatment.

Neurofeedback is a non-invasive, drug-free treatment that uses real-time feedback to help your brain learn  healthier, more optimal brain functioning through self-regulation. During a session, sensors monitor your brainwaves and display them on a computer screen with auditory and visual feedback so you can learn to produce healthier brainwave patterns.

Over time, neurofeedback can help:

• Calm an overactive stress response.
• Improve sleep and restore mental clarity.
• Enhance focus, mood regulation, and emotional flexibility.
• Promote long-term improvement by stabilizing optimal brain functioning.

Contact The Drake Institute Today!

Our comprehensive non-drug treatment helps address the psychophysiologic reactions that produce anxiety, allowing you to reduce or resolve symptoms without medication.

If you or a loved one are experiencing anxiety, please call us at 1-800-700-4233 or fill out our free consultation form to get started.