Why anxiety makes your head feel weird

Anxiety doesn’t just live in your thoughts. It can make your actual head feel strange: tight, heavy, foggy, dizzy, or as if you’re not quite there. These feelings can be unsettling, and many people worry they’re a sign of something serious.

Most of the time, they’re a common and harmless part of anxiety. Here’s why they happen, and what helps.

Call 911 if you have a headache that comes on suddenly and is extremely painful, or head symptoms with weakness or numbness in your face or body, trouble speaking or walking, confusion, a seizure, loss of vision, or a high temperature with a stiff neck.

How anxiety can make your head feel

• Pressure or tightness, like a band around your head
• Heaviness, as if your head is hard to hold up
• Brain fog: trouble thinking clearly, concentrating or finding words
• Dizziness or light-headedness
• Feeling detached or unreal, as if you’re watching from a distance
• Tingling in your scalp or face
• A buzzing or full feeling, or more noticeable ringing in your ears
• Headaches

Why anxiety does this

Muscle tension

When you’re anxious, you tense the muscles in your jaw, neck, shoulders and scalp, often without realising. That can cause tightness, pressure and tension headaches.

Breathing too fast

Anxious breathing is often fast and shallow. Breathing faster than your body needs changes the balance of gases in your blood, which can cause dizziness, light-headedness, tingling and a strange, floaty feeling.

Adrenaline

The fight-or-flight response sharpens some senses and dulls others, and can make you feel wired, spacey or overwhelmed.

Poor sleep

Anxiety often disrupts sleep, and a tired brain feels foggy and heavy.

Paying close attention

When you’re worried about a head feeling, you focus on it, which makes it feel stronger and stranger. That worry then adds to the anxiety.

Feeling unreal

Some people feel detached or as if things aren’t real during strong anxiety. This is called depersonalization or derealization, and it’s explained in Depersonalization vs derealization.

What helps

• Breathe slowly, in through your nose for 4 and out for 6. This eases dizziness and light-headedness from fast breathing.
• Unclench. Relax your jaw, drop your shoulders and soften your forehead. Gentle neck stretches can help.
• Move. A short walk helps clear your head and uses up some of the adrenaline.
• Drink water and eat regularly. Dehydration and skipped meals make head symptoms worse.
• Take screen breaks, especially if you’ve been staring at a computer or phone.
• Look after your sleep.
• Gently shift your attention away from your head, onto what you’re doing or what’s around you.

How Breatheasy can help

Breatheasy can help ease the anxiety behind strange head feelings. Its guided breathing exercises pulse your phone as you breathe in, helping you slow down fast, shallow breathing, one of the biggest causes of dizziness and light-headedness. If the feelings turn into panic, tap “I’m feeling anxious” and Luma walks you through it, with grounding to bring you back to the present. Breatheasy is coming soon to iPhone and Android.

When to see a doctor

See a doctor if head symptoms are new, keep coming back, or are getting worse, or if headaches are regular. Get urgent advice if a headache is triggered or made worse by coughing, sneezing or bending, if you’re being sick with it, or if you have problems with your eyes or vision. And always call 911 for the warning signs at the top of this post.

If anxiety is behind your symptoms, our guide to anxiety and panic attacks explains what helps.

Sources

• Headaches, NHS
• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), NHS
• Panic disorder, NHS