Something I have been asked a lot in therapy sessions late is this - "I feel unstoppable physical sensations when I am anxious & this has gotten worse during the pandemic. Why does this happen?"

Here is a primer for comprehension—

Anxiety & fear are both part of our emotional landscape. Neither constitutes a pathology. Anxiety has its own uses in survival. The chief difference is that fear is when you are grasping with a known or certain threat & anxiety is usually an unknown or certain threat.

Therefore, confronting a fear can, in most cases, be a more direct, tangible process whereas anxiety-inducing stressors can be more shadowy or repressed leading to ongoing aftershocks from time to time. Over a period in time, anxiety can turn into a generalised response to fear.

While there are some (debatable?) biological/neuroschemical markers for anxiety, a lot of it is due to psychosocial causation. If you grew up in a family where attachment & trust were patterned on insecurity & self-doubt, it is likely that you feel anxious about relationships.

Repeated anxiety --> worrying. It shows up as physical signs including palpitations, sweating, the feeling of a knot tightening in your stomach, your ears getting warmer among a host of other bodily discomforts. It is cyclical. Worrying, ironically, becomes a coping mechanism.