This is how stress and anxiety affect the body

Many people experience stress and anxiety.
Sandra af Winklerfeldt Hammarberg, specialist in general medicine, warns of ending up in the “evil spiral” and that it affects the body.
– People need to know about this, she says in Nyhetsmorgon.

Many people come to the doctor with physical problems, but the doctor can’t find anything wrong. Sometimes it can be about stress and anxiety that settled in the body.

Sandra af Winklerfeldt Hammarberg, specialist in general medicine, is a guest on Nyhetsmorgon and explains how the body is affected. She believes that the acute stress can involve, among other things, palpitations, shortness of breath and sweating, and the long-term stress can express itself through, among other things, stomach and sleep problems, headaches and muscle tension.

– If you feel that this comes like a bolt from the blue, it is of course very scary. Because then it’s like the body runs wild and invents something of its own and you have no control over it, she says.

Can end up in a vicious circle

She also warns against going around worrying about all the different symptoms of stress.

– What is a bit tricky about this is that if you worry about these things, you risk ending up in a vicious circle. If I have a tendency to worry then I have a greater risk of ending up in the “vicious spiral”, she says.

The call: Don’t listen to your body too much

Sandra af Winklerfeldt Hammarberg emphasizes knowledge about the subject and that stress and anxiety can create physical problems and that the healthcare system must be able to explain this.

– It can happen that I get more and more pain, harder to relax, harder to sleep and harder to take care of my stomach. People need to know about this, she says.

It’s not helpful to constantly walk around with constant stress and worry and it can be hard to get out of it, but there is help. Among other things, CBT can help.

– You shouldn’t listen too much to your body because then you can be afraid of everything that happens, says Sandra af Winklerfeldt Hammarberg.