Anxiety disorders don’t suddenly appear. You may experience early warning signs that feel like everyday habits or personality traits before you even consider visiting a therapist.
“Subtler signs are often overlooked because they can appear functional or socially acceptable,” says Liz Ross, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder of the Coping Resource Center in Houston. Anxiety disorder symptoms are frequently misattributed to stress, personality traits, aging, or just “being busy,” Dr. Ross adds.
1. Excessive Worrying
Worrying is a part of life, but excessive worry about everyday issues or repeated feelings of panic may signal an anxiety disorder.
- Anxiety shows up frequently throughout the day, rather than just once in a while.
- The intensity feels harder to manage or more uncomfortable than before.
- Distress lingers even after the stressor has passed and continues over time.
- Daily life starts to feel harder, impacting factors like sleep, focus, work, and relationships.
- You spend a meaningful amount of energy thinking about anxiety, monitoring it, or trying to avoid triggers.
“Excessive worrying is very common across most anxiety disorders, and is especially central in generalized anxiety disorder,” Ross says. “It can also be present in social anxiety, health anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.”
2. Sleep Difficulties
Over two-thirds of Americans report losing sleep due to anxiety. Sleep and anxiety can be part of a vicious cycle in which anxiety makes it harder to sleep, and lack of sleep worsens anxiety.
“Racing thoughts and accumulated physical tension prevent the brain from settling into restorative sleep,” Dr. Kissen says. “Like driving 100 miles an hour and slamming on the brakes, the system struggles to slow down smoothly.”
Difficulty falling or staying asleep for three nights per week or more for three or more months, along with feeling sleepy during the day, may indicate clinical insomnia and warrants a conversation with a healthcare provider.
3. Difficulty Concentrating
Anxiety disorders are linked to negative effects on cognition, including attention and memory.
“An anxious brain is preoccupied with monitoring threats,” Dr. Ross says. “This can impair focus, memory, and task completion and is frequently mistaken for attention or motivation problems.”
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) does the opposite of the SNS, managing the body’s rest-and-digest response. For those with anxiety and chronic stress, the SNS can become overactive and strained.
Difficulty concentrating may be a sign of anxiety when it’s associated with excessive worry more days than not for six or more months, plus other symptoms like irritability and disturbed sleep.
4. Irritability or Mood Changes
Anxiety doesn’t always feel like fear. “Chronic [sympathetic] nervous system activation can lower frustration tolerance, leading to irritability, impatience, or emotional reactivity,” Ross says.
Anxiety commonly causes hyperarousal, which is when your SNS is “on” more often than it should be. That means you’re often in fight-or-flight mode, despite not being in danger.
“This leaves little room for joy, patience, or positive emotional engagement,” Kissen says.
Similar to difficulty concentrating, mood changes may be a sign of an anxiety disorder when associated with excessive worry more days than not for six or more months, plus other symptoms like fatigue and disturbed sleep.
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