Alyssa Stoney
Abstract
This paper is a persuasive paper analyzing the physical effects of anxiety on a person. Its purpose
is to persuade people to realize that anxiety does not only have mental effects on a person, but
also physical. It is something that needs to be recognized by many and the stereotypes of anxiety
need to go away. Research shows that anxiety does in fact affect a person physically and can
I wake up in the morning with a pit in my stomach. I fear the unknown. I fear interaction.
I fear embarrassment. For me, anxiety is more than just a worry in my mind. For me, anxiety is
nauseousness, sweaty palms, blurred vision, a racing heart. This is the case for many other
people who struggle with anxiety too. But, people don’t understand this. They think it’s just a
thought in the mind that can go away, this is not the case. Anxiety is an illness that begins in the
brain but then spreads to the rest of the body and weakens other systems. Research shows that
One side effect of anxiety on the body is its ability to impair the body’s immune system
and its ability to fight off germs and infections. When a body starts to feel anxious, it releases
adrenaline and cortisol in response to the anxiety. These responses are the body’s way of fighting
the anxiety or fleeing from it. However, this can be harmful as “cortisol prevents the release of
substances that cause inflammation, and it turns off aspects of the immune system that fight
infections, impairing the body's natural immune response” (Leonard, p.13). People who have
chronic anxiety may be more inclined to getting an infection or sickness because of the amount
of cortisol released. People do not realize this and when they think about anxiety they just think
it is a mental illness that causes people to worry. Because anxiety weakens the immune system, it
Anxiety also affects a person’s digestive and gastrointestinal systems. Irritable Bowel
Syndrome is a common disease that people battle with, although it is not life threatening the ANXIETY CAUSES PHYSICAL EFFECTS
symptoms can be chronic and difficult to tolerate. A study in New Zealand “found an association
between high anxiety levels and the development of IBS following a bowel infection” (“Anxiety
and Physical Illness”, 2008, p. 7). For people who are previously diagnosed with chronic
respiratory disorders, those who also have anxiety have been found to have increased
hospitalization due to extreme distress in the lungs when having a panic attack (p.9). Correlations
have been found between anxiety and heart attacks. “In the Nurses' Health Study, women with
the highest levels of phobic anxiety were 59% more likely to have a heart attack” (p.10). Saying
this, those who have anxiety have to be cautious and have that extra worry of having a heart
attack over something that they can’t control. If they were to have a panic attack, there is a high
chance of a heart attack happening from it. Anxiety worsens the symptoms and effects of
previously diagnosed diseases and disorders and endangers the person who is battling both. ANXIETY CAUSES PHYSICAL EFFECTS
References
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