Chronic Worry: What Are Its 3 Effects On Your Health And How To Deal With It?

Chronic worry or anxiety is a very prevalent psychological dynamic these days. She is almost always marked by stress and pressure.

This is another component of anxiety. It is a symptom which, without being pathological in most cases, causes considerable physical and emotional exhaustion for the person who suffers from it on a daily basis.

We are like in a mental storm, we see bottomless pits that we fall into every day. And we keep thinking about things that never happened or that are just part of our past.

These situations, where the mind is doomed to suffering or obsessing over certain things, clearly weakens our productivity. And, therefore, affect our quality of life.

It is also important to take into account that worry as a means of solving problems is obviously not at all effective.

What is the reason for all this? When we worry too much, negativity and helplessness arise. So we stop being useful for ourselves by not focusing on more effective strategies.

In addition, we must not overlook an essential detail: chronic concern has a high cost for our health.

Let’s see some of its effects below, along with tips for dealing with it through more effective strategies.

1. Muscle tension due to chronic excessive worry

You have experienced it from time to time. At the end of the day, you eventually notice that the muscles in your neck and jaw are much stiffer. They are so tense they are painful.

• Most of the time, you are unaware of the large number of biological reactions triggered by excessive worry. As we have already pointed out, this is another face of anxiety.
• When you worry too much throughout the day, your brain starts releasing cortisol into the blood. That is to say, the stress hormone.
  The classic effect of cortisol is to prepare the body for flight or fight.

In response, the brain sends much of your energy and blood to the muscles to help you resist.

These processes generate muscle and joint tension as well as headaches, stomach aches, dizziness …

What can you do to reduce muscle tension?

We know that the cause of this muscle tension and overload is excessive worrying. A good strategy to start with would therefore be to work on these obsessive and intrusive thoughts.

However, to reduce the impact of the side effects of anxiety, worry and the daily burden of stress, you can definitely put these tips into practice:

• Short duration but high intensity physical exercises. It is necessary to release the energy, to channel it, to tire the body to calm the spirit.
• You will choose the exercises that best match your personal characteristics. Take into account, for example, that if you have a contracture, you have to take it easy.
• Crunches, treadmill walking, or even dance, zumba or whatever, can be outlets.

2. Chronic worry and fatigue

This happens in the vast majority of cases: mental storms, twists and turns of your worries, and that anxiety you can’t handle ends up taking an impact on your body.

It is the mind that consumes all your energy, it is the mind that eats away at your mind. It even robs you of the desire to take on much of your daily responsibilities.

Little by little, you become trapped in this vicious and exhausting cycle caused by chronic worry, but also by permanent physical fatigue.

What can you do to reduce the impact of fatigue on chronic worry?

One positive way to tackle excessive worries is to apply what are known as “programmed worries”. Here’s what it is :

• Set a time throughout the day to devote yourself to finding a solution to your problems.
• When a disturbing thought arises, you will say to yourself: “This is not the time to come now, I will think about it when I finish my current work”.
• Every concern must be of use to something, to finding a solution. If there is no solution to a problem, it does not make sense to spend time on it.
• Likewise, it is important that you never go to bed with your “programmed worries” in mind. That is to say, you must fall asleep with your mind free from all your concerns .

3. Chronic worry weakens the immune system

• In fact, the real problem arises when worry sets in your daily life to occupy your every thought.
• If, moreover, these ruminations and internal reflections are still negative, this has a direct impact on your health.
• This not only increases the level of cortisol in the blood, but also triggers the production of adrenaline.
• Your whole organism is on “high alert” because the brain interprets that there is a risk of danger to which it must react.
• All biological resources and energy go to the muscles and the brain. As a result, other systems such as your immune system are completely neglected.

You are therefore no longer able to react as effectively to viruses and bacteria. You become more susceptible to infections, colds, allergies.

What can you do to protect your immune system?

Find the solution to the worry you are feeling today. Don’t let the snowball get bigger. Don’t procrastinate and push back until tomorrow on what could be resolved today.

• When you are suffering from stress and anxiety, try to take care of your diet with fresh and natural products. Above all, avoid precooked or processed foods rich in saturated fat.
• Maintain your social life. Sharing your concerns with other people and making new friends will allow you to weaken the focus on your anxieties. So, what obsesses you or that you always see in a negative way will be less important, less serious in your eyes.
• Exercise in a natural environment for at least half an hour a day. Get oxygenated, activate your circulation, relax your muscles, free your mind.

In conclusion, as we have seen, chronic concerns can be approached in a number of ways.

Find the strategies that work best for you and start channeling your anxiety into a better quality of life without chronic worry.