Can Anxiety Cause Shaking?

Can Anxiety Cause Shaking?

Question

For the last three weeks, I've started shaking. This is unusual for me. I'm wondering if my anxiety could be causing this shaking?

Answer

Yes! Anxiety can cause shaking, including what seems like uncontrollable shaking.

Being anxious activates the stress response. Stress responses stress the body. When the body becomes stressed, and especially overly stressed, it can exhibit symptoms of stress. Shaking, trembling, vibrating, and tremoring are common symptoms of stress, including that caused by being anxious.

It’s common to experience shaking when nervous or anxious. Many people experience this type of shaking.

It’s also common to experience shaking when the body is overly stressed, such as from being too anxious and/or from stressful circumstances. For example, if you’ve been under a lot of stress lately, that can surely cause a shaking feeling. If you’ve been worry a lot lately, that can also cause shaking.

Fortunately, anxiety and stress caused shaking isn’t serious. This type of shaking generally disappears when your anxiousness and stress subside. It can, however, take some time for the body to recover from stress. So, if your shaking is persisting, that just means your body still has some stress recovery work yet to complete.

So again, can anxiety cause shaking? Yes. Anxiety can cause shaking. Shaking is a very common symptom of the stress caused by being anxious.

For more information about how anxiety can cause shaking, see our “Shaking anxiety symptoms” here.

For a more detailed explanation about the stress response, anxiety sensations and symptoms, why anxiety sensations and symptoms can persist, common barriers to recovery and symptom elimination, and more recovery strategies and tips, see Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 18, 21, and 23 in the Recovery Support area of our website