Flu Like Symptoms and Anxiety

Causes: Why can anxiety cause flu like symptoms?

There are many reasons why anxiety can make you feel ill and sick even though you don’t have the flu or a medical condition causing it. Four common reasons include:

1. Stress response

Anxious behavior activates the stress response. The stress response secretes stress hormones, which are powerful stimulants, into the bloodstream where they travel to targeted spots to bring about specific physiological, psychological, and emotional changes that enhance the body’s ability to deal with a threat—to either fight or flee.

This survival reaction is often referred to as the fight or flight response, the emergency response, the fight, flight, or freeze response (some people freeze when they are afraid like a “deer caught in headlights”), or the fight, flight, freeze, or faint response (since some people faint when they are afraid).[1][2]

Visit our “Stress Response” article for more information about the many changes it causes.

Some of the stress response changes include:

• Quickly converts the body’s energy reserves into “fuel” (blood sugar) so that we have an instant boost of energy.
• Increases heart rate, respiration, and metabolism to accommodate the boost in energy.
• Stimulates the body into action.
• Stimulates the nervous system, increasing nervous system activity.
• Changes brain function so that our attention is solely focused on the threat and away from distractions.
• Heightens most of the body’s senses.
• Shunts blood to parts of the body vital to survival, such as the brain, arms, legs, and vital organs, and away from parts less vital for survival, such as the stomach, digestive system, and skin.

To name a few.

The higher the degree of the stress response, the more dramatic the changes.

Many changes caused by the stress response can make a person feel ill, such as muscle aches and pains, lightheadedness, queasy stomach, hot and cold sweats, and a general “uncomfortable” and malaise feeling.

Often, the sick feeling isn’t related to any one symptom, but an overall feeling like there is something physically wrong, but you can’t describe it or put your finger on what’s wrong.

While important for survival, all the changes caused by the stress response can make the body feel ill, especially when the stress responses are in the moderate to high degree range.

2. Stress taxes the body’s resources harder than normal.

Consequently, chronic stress (which we call hyperstimulation), such as from overly apprehensive behavior, can cause the body to become rundown and feel ill.

Feeling sick yet not having the flu or a cold is a common indication of chronic stress (hyperstimulation).

3. Stress suppresses the body’s immune system.

The stress response suppresses the body’s immune system so that most of the body’s resources are available to fight or flee. Once the threat has passed and the body recovers from the effects of the stress response, the immune system returns to normal functioning.

However, a chronically suppressed immune system, such as from hyperstimulation caused by the overactivation of the stress response, can make the body more vulnerable to biological intruders.[3]

As the degree of stress increases, the body’s ability to fend off intruders, such as flu bugs (viruses) and infection (bacteria), diminishes. As long as stress remains elevated, the body can struggle with health issues.

These health issues can cause a person to feel ill, sick, or sickly even though the person doesn’t have the full-blown flu.

Chronic stress hampers the body’s ability to keep itself healthy. Therefore, it can cause persistent symptoms, including those that make a person feel ill.

4. Hyperstimulation can make a person feel sick.

Hyperstimulation can cause all the changes of an active stress response even though a stress response hasn’t been activated.

Moreover, hyperstimulation can tax the body’s systems, organs, and glands, creating even more symptoms.

Consequently, hyperstimulation can make a person feel sick and ill even though they don’t have a cold or the flu [4][5][6].

Furthermore, hyperstimulation dramatically affects the nervous system, which is primarily made up of neurons – cells that have an electrochemical property (electricity and chemicals).

As the degree of hyperstimulation increases, it can profoundly affect nervous system activity, including making neurons more excitable. An increase in neuron excitability can cause many unusual symptoms, sensations, and feelings, such as making a person feel sick and ill even though there isn’t a real medical cause.

Many anxious and hyperstimulated people experience an “ill” and “sick” feeling even though they don’t have a cold or the flu.

Visit our “Hyperstimulation” article for more information about the many ways hyperstimulation can affect how we feel.

5. Other Factors

Other factors can create stress and cause anxiety-like symptoms, as well as aggravate existing anxiety symptoms, including:

• Medication
• Recreational drugs
• Stimulants
• Sleep deprivation
• Fatigue
• Hyper and hypoventilation
• Low blood sugar
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Dehydration
• Hormone changes
• Pain

Select the relevant link for more information.