Anxiety is not only a feeling of nervousness or unease. It can involve pronounced physical symptoms, persistent worry, and changes in how you think and act. For many people, anxiety becomes something they monitor constantly. Over time, this can lead to a separate but related problem: becoming anxious about anxiety itself.
This experience is more common than many people realize. The fear of symptoms, the anticipation of feeling anxious, and the urge to prevent anxiety at all costs can all contribute to a cycle where anxiety begins to feed on itself.
How Anxiety Turns Back on Itself
There are many reasons a person may develop anxiety, including life stress, genetics, health factors, or past experiences. But once anxiety is present, the way a person responds to it plays an important role in whether it escalates.
When someone starts to fear their own anxiety symptoms, they may begin to:
- Constantly scan their body and thoughts for early signs of anxiety
- Worry about when the next episode will happen
- Avoid situations “just in case” anxiety shows up
- Judge themselves harshly for feeling anxious at all
This is anxiety about anxiety. The original symptoms are still there, but now there is an added layer of fear focused on the experience of anxiety itself.
Panic disorder is one clear example. A person who has had panic attacks may become so afraid of having another one that the fear alone triggers additional attacks. They become highly tuned in to every heartbeat, breath, or physical sensation, concerned that any change might signal the start of another panic episode.
But this pattern occurs in other types of anxiety as well. Social anxiety, health anxiety, and generalized anxiety can all involve cycles where worry about the presence or return of anxiety becomes its own source of distress.
Why Mindfulness and Awareness Matter
Many therapists encourage people to pay attention to what is happening when anxiety arises. This is not about overanalyzing every sensation, but about noticing what you are reacting to.
Mindfulness-based approaches often focus on questions like:
- What am I afraid will happen right now?
- Am I reacting to a situation, or to the possibility of feeling anxious?
- Am I trying to stop anxiety from ever occurring, rather than learning to tolerate it?
By recognizing that you may be reacting to the fear of anxiety rather than the situation itself can change how you respond. It shifts the goal from trying to eliminate every symptom to learning how to experience anxiety without adding another layer of fear on top of it.
Acceptance Versus Constant Prevention
Trying to completely prevent anxiety often has the opposite effect. When you tell yourself that anxiety must never show up, any small sign of discomfort becomes a threat. You may become hyper-focused on your symptoms, which makes them feel stronger and more disruptive.
A more helpful approach involves accepting that anxiety may be present while you work on treating it over time. Acceptance does not mean giving up or resigning yourself to feeling anxious forever. It means:
- Recognizing that symptoms may appear as part of the process
- Allowing those symptoms to exist without immediately fighting them
- Staying engaged in treatment and daily life even when discomfort arises
By accepting that anxiety may show up “for now,” you reduce the urgency around controlling every sensation. This often lowers the intensity of the symptoms themselves and allows treatment strategies – such as therapy, coping skills, or lifestyle changes – to be more effective.
Moving Toward More Effective Treatment
Anxiety is highly treatable, but treatment works best when you are not spending all of your energy trying to outrun or suppress symptoms. When you can acknowledge anxiety, understand when you are becoming anxious about being anxious, and stay focused on long-term change rather than short-term avoidance, it becomes easier to make progress.
If you are looking for a therapist with experience treating anxiety and related concerns, reach out to our team, today.
