According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 301 million in 2019 were affected by anxiety disorders, including all sexes and ages. The WHO notes it’s normal for people to feel anxiety sometimes; in fact, it can save your life when you’re in danger. However, constant anxiety can impair your life. Those who experience anxiety disorder deal with a plethora of different symptoms like trouble concentrating, heart palpitations, difficulty sleeping, feeling restless, and trembling. It’s also common for anxiety sufferers to experience panic attacks, tingling and numbness, nerve pain, and a sense of doom or danger, which affects sleep and daily activities, according to Medline Plus.
Constriction of the blood vessels, which reduces the blood flow when your flight-or-fight response is activated, causes you to feel the tingling; it coincides with tense muscles, increased heart rate, and feeling cold, states Medical News Today. Unlike nerve damage, tingling from anxiety can create a feeling that can strike anywhere in the body. For example, you might feel numbness in your arms or legs or a crawling sensation in your arms that moves through your whole body. Many people can also experience hyperventilation, dizziness, and shortness of breath, which makes it impossible to get to sleep.
Getting to sleep might require you to complete calming techniques and meditation before calling it a night. A combination of medication, like antidepressants, and psychotherapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy, are used to help anxiety sufferers to manage their symptoms.