Burning Itching Itchy Skin Anxiety Symptoms

Causes: Why Anxiety Causes Burning And Itchy Skin Symptoms

1. Anxiety-Activated Stress Response

Anxious behavior, such as worry, activates the stress response, which secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream, where they travel to specific locations to immediately prepare the body for emergency action – to fight or flee. This instinctual survival reaction is often referred to as the Fight Or Flight Response.[1][2]

Visit the “Stress Response” article for the many ways it can affect the body and how we feel.

Some of these emergency response changes include:

• Quickly converts the body’s energy reserves into “fuel” (blood sugar) to provide an instant boost of energy.
• Increases heart rate, respiration, and metabolism due to the boost in energy.
• Stimulates the nervous system to be more sensitive and reactive to stimuli.
• Heightens senses, including sense of touch, so that our sensitivity and reactivity to danger are increased.
• Shunts blood away from the skin and to other parts of the body more important for survival.
• Tightens muscles so they are more resilient to harm.
• Suppresses the immune system so that most of the body’s resources are used for emergency action.
• Increases perspiration to keep the body cool and expel toxins.

To name a few.

Any combination of the above actions can create burning and itchy skin sensations. For instance:

Stress hormones coursing through the body

Stress responses cause a burst of stress hormones that flow through the body. Since stress hormones are powerful stimulants, the stimulating effect at the sensory level can be experienced as a burning and itchy skin sensation as the body prepares for immediate action.

Blood shunted away from the skin

During a stress response, blood is shunted away from the skin to be used in parts of the body more vital to survival and so we don’t bleed to death if the skin is cut during fighting or fleeing.

Immediately shunting blood away from the skin can create many types of skin sensations, such as burning and itching.

Heightened sense of touch

Stress responses also increase most of the body’s senses to be more sensitive and reactive to danger. Our sense of touch is one of the increased senses.

An increased sense of touch can cause skin sensations anywhere on or in the body when a stress response has been activated.

Increased nervous system activity

Stress responses also increase nervous system activity. Increased nervous system activity can heighten communication between the body’s sense organs and the brain, making our senses, including touch, seem super sensitive, heightened, and “exaggerated.”

The sensation of touch can also be heightened and interpreted as “burning” or “itching” skin sensations.

Increased muscle tension

Tight muscles, which can also tighten joints, can make areas of skin feel unusually tight.

Again, any of the above changes can cause “skin sensations” such as those associated with this symptom.

Increased perspiration

Increased perspiration to cool the body can cause a “burning” and “itchy” feeling. It can also cause dry skin if stress responses are activated too often.

As long as the stress response is active, we can experience acute skin sensations, including burning and itching.

The higher the degree of stress response, the more pronounced the sensations.

2. Hyperstimulation

Just as an active stress response can cause burning and itchy skin symptoms, so, too, can the chronic activation of the stress response.

For instance, when stress responses occur too frequently, such as from overly anxious behavior, such as worry, the body can remain in a state of semi-stress-response-readiness, which we call “stress-response hyperstimulation” since stress hormones are powerful stimulants.

Hyperstimulation is also often referred to as “hyperarousal,” “HPA axis dysfunction,” or “nervous system dysregulation.”[3][4][5]

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

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

Hypersensitive and reactive nervous system

Chronic activation of the stress response can make the nervous system hypersensitive and reactive, causing it to behave erratically. An erratically behaving nervous system can send and receive erratic nerve impulses to and from the brain, causing odd sensory sensations, such as burning and itching skin.[4][6]

Moreover, because hyperstimulation can cause an increase in the electrical activity in parts of the brain, nervous system neurons can fire even more erratically when the body and nervous system become hyperstimulated.[7]

For example, nerve endings in the dermis can send the sensation of burning when nothing has burned the skin. They can also send itchy sensations when the skin isn’t dry or flaky.

Shunted blood and suppressed immune system

Stress responses cause blood to flow away from the skin and to other parts of the body more necessary for survival. It also suppresses the immune system. A chronic change in blood flow and immune function can increase skin irritations, rashes, and infections, resulting in burning and itching skin.

Inflammation and histamine sensitivity

Hyperstimulation can also cause chronic inflammation and histamine sensitivity, affecting the skin and causing burning and itching sensations.

Any combination of the above can cause skin symptoms, such as burning and itching.

While an active stress response can cause acute burning and itchy skin symptoms, hyperstimulation can cause chronic burning and itchy skin symptoms.

Anxiety and hyperstimulation are well-documented reasons for the development of skin symptoms.[8][9][10][11]

3. 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

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