Watch: Signs of anxiety

How can I recognise the signs of anxiety?

Jigsaw clinician Jen explains that when it comes to anxiety, people often focus on ‘signs’ and ‘symptoms’. But using those terms can make anxiety sound like a medical condition rather than something that everybody experiences at different times, a feeling that is there for a reason.

Importance of language

When we use terms like ‘signs’, ‘symptoms’ and ‘treatment’ for anxiety, it makes it sound like if we have anxiety there’s something broken in ourselves that we need to fix. In fact, anxiety is a lot more complex than that. Anxiety can be a coping mechanism for some people, it’s very rarely a straightforward sign or symptom that we need to treat.

If you’re feeling anxious very often to a point that it’s really affecting your wellbeing, you can look at ways to manage anxiety.

We need to look wider than that as well though. We need to look at what is it that’s going on around us, and what changes we need to make in our life. Ask what support is there that we can use? Who is influencing us? How can we make the best of the supports around us in order to help us to manage our anxiety?

Further reading

• Read our guide to managing anxiety and practical exercises to try
• Watch more from Jen on how to manage anxiety