What does Anxiety look like? Well to start let’s quickly define anxiety in a bit of a nut shell. There are 11 different “types” of anxiety and related disorders and each anxiety disorder has a list of commonly occurring symptoms clustered into 4 areas:

Physical responses
Thoughts
Emotions
Behaviours

Anxiety CANADA anxietycanada.com

Now we can get into what anxiety looks like. It takes many forms in each person, it can be obvious or a a bit more hidden (even though the person experiencing the anxiety feels like it’s blatantly obvious).

For me personally anxiety presents itself in various forms within my body or on my body. My heart ❤️ can beat out of my chest, I can have a rash that starts on my chest and works its way up, my hands can sweat, and I can feel like there is buzz in my body telling me something is wrong and that I need to run. But this is only naming a few bodily reactions when I experience anxiety.

In this post I want to show what anxiety looks like for me through Art and give you a glimpse into how Art Therapy can provide many tools for expression by using art materials. I also want to open the dialogue to you and get you to share what anxiety looks like for you : what’s the shape? Colour ? Texture ? Where in your body do you feel it?

Anxiety can take so many forms and presents itself differently with each person. It can be obvious or not . In this image one side shows the hot skin rash/ burning feeling, this is something that can happen to me when my anxiety is high for no particular reason or it could be a situation I am in . The other side of the image shows the same thing but you can’t see it, the anxiety isn’t obvious it’s not showing on the outside but internally A LOT is happening. This too can happen with me I might not be visually showing my anxiety but internally alarm bells 🚨 can be going off.

So I will pass a few questions off to you, do you relate to this? Can your anxiety present itself on your skin? Or how does it manifest?

Anxiety has so many different forms. In this image the focus is on past events and even certain phrases that were said personally or by someone else. For myself , I definitely struggle with this. I sometimes feel like my anxiety is tapping on my shoulder and saying “hey remember that time you said this or this happened or when this person said this”. It can be really overwhelming! And what I try to do is redirect my thoughts 💭, for example:

ok I hear you but that was then and this is now
chances are no one remembers
I stop 🛑 and say “OK I hear you” take a few deep breaths and say “How about some tea?”
Other times it’s as simple as telling my anxiety in that moment to simply “#%*! Off!” 😂 and go make some tea or take a walk?

Do you experience this? These are just things I do for myself, do what works best for you ❤️

This image is about overthinking, something that is definitely part of my anxiety. My mind can honestly go on overdrive. A personal experience is going to a funeral visitation, and then worrying if I said the right thing or acted appropriately. And this can come up immediately after and all the way into the future.

When this happens I feel very much like this image, hot cheeks, warm ears and quite honestly it does feel like smoke is coming out of my ears. Do you relate to overthinking? Let me know and if you want share how you care for yourself in that moment.

This image is one that I am very familiar with in regards to my anxiety. It’s a feeling of not being able to mentally see forward. Any tasks that need to be done the day of are sometimes unmanageable and tasks in the future are also unmanageable and even can’t be thought of because it feels like my brain and body will just malfunction.

So, in those moments I try and follow these few tips:

Remember to breathe. I like to follow a breathing exercise called the 4-7-8
I make a cup of tea ☕️. I kid you not this works for me, it’s warm and comfortable. And I take a a seat somewhere with a window and try to just remain in the moment.
I reach out to someone in my family (mom or sister or a friend) . Talking things out with someone gets the thoughts out of your head and into the open. As well another person hears them and can help sort them out.
I give myself small tasks to do, something manageable that keeps me in the moment . Essentially 1 step at a time .

As well it’s always good to know what your triggers are and to have your tools handy to take care of yourself in moments like this .

What does anxiety look like?