Your emotional brain is overactive. When the brain's emotional centers and fear centers are overactive, it can be associated with depression and anxiety. If you have this common brain pattern, you may stay busy as a way to distract yourself from your anxious thoughts and feelings of hopelessness.
If you often find it difficult to relax, you might benefit from talking with a therapist. Talk therapy can be a space to discuss and process stressful feelings and events. Therapy can also help you learn healthy ways to cope with stress.
Everyone gets anxious sometimes, but if your worries and fears are so constant that they interfere with your ability to function and relax, you may have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). GAD is a common anxiety disorder that involves constant and chronic worrying, nervousness, and tension.
The most common reasons for having a hard time relaxing were a hectic job, dealing with anxiety, having too many things to do, and feeling relied upon. 46 percent of those surveyed stated that they had trouble relaxing during specific times dedicated to rest, like a vacation or the weekend.
Muscle tension is almost a reflex reaction to stress—the body's way of guarding against injury and pain. With sudden onset stress, the muscles tense up all at once, and then release their tension when the stress passes. Chronic stress causes the muscles in the body to be in a more or less constant state of guardedness.
In many cases, feeling tense is due to putting too much pressure on ourselves and overexerting our brain – causing us to feel overwhelmed and exhausted. You may feel like you cannot relax, or you have forgotten how it feels to be calm. This mental stress can cause our body to tense.
Other common reasons for overwhelm are life changes that take time to process, such as going away to school, breakups or divorce, a new and challenging position at work, and bereavement. And of course we all have our limits over what we can and can't manage, time and energy wise.
Why can't I concentrate and focus? Loss of focus can happen for many reasons. They include mental and physical health problems, stress, the use of some medications, and a lack of sleep or and inadequate diet.
The phenomenon, known as relaxation-induced anxiety, happens when people become anxious as a result of being relaxed. While it sounds contradictory, activities such as exercise, listening to music, or taking a vacation trigger anxious feelings.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is commonly mistaken as specific to children, but it also affects adults. ADHD and anxiety often go hand-in-hand. Research indicates that nearly half of adults with ADHD also have an anxiety disorder. A hallmark of both is the inability to relax.
Psychomotor agitation is a feeling of anxious restlessness that can lead to unintended movements. A person may experience muscle tension, an increase in heartbeat, or physical tremors. They may also tap their fingers, speak faster, or be unable to sit still.
Your emotional brain is overactive.
When the brain's emotional centers and fear centers are overactive, it can be associated with depression and anxiety. If you have this common brain pattern, you may stay busy as a way to distract yourself from your anxious thoughts and feelings of hopelessness.
Psychological conditions that can interfere with concentration include anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder (alternating periods of depression and elevated mood), emotional trauma, and stress. Depending upon the cause, concentration difficulties may resolve with appropriate treatment.
Persistently elevated stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline, are the cause of the brain fog that plagues individuals with anxiety disorder. This stress response has an adverse effect on cognitive functions, such as anxiety and inability to focus and short-term memory functioning.
Get active. Virtually any form of physical activity can act as a stress reliever. Even if you're not an athlete or you're out of shape, exercise can still be a good stress reliever. Physical activity can pump up your feel-good endorphins and other natural neural chemicals that enhance your sense of well-being.
Stress and fatigue can contribute to sensory processing issues. When your brain is stressed and exhausted, it is less capable of processing multiple sensory stimuli. It may become more easily overloaded.
The causes of being too uptight can vary from person to person. Some reasons may be due to 'stressors'. These range from a high workload to relationship problems. Co-occurring mental health difficulties (e.g., depression, social anxiety) may also cause tension.
Your stomach can feel like it's rumbling and you may even feel nauseated. Feeling sick may be a sign that you've fallen ill, but it can also be a sign of anxiety. While feeling sick may be the only physical symptom of anxiety, there are often others including breathlessness, dizziness and fatigue.