There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from an anxious mind. It’s the kind where your body feels wired even when you’re tired, your thoughts play on repeat, and any attempt to rest feels like arguing with a smoke alarm that won’t stop beeping. Anxiety isn’t just “thinking too much”. It’s a full-body response woven into your biology.
Many people who come to counselling describe the same pattern: “I know I’m not in danger, but my body won’t listen.”
And that makes perfect sense. Anxiety is not a personality flaw. It’s a physiological state.
This article walks you through what anxiety actually does to the body, why you can’t simply “calm down”, and how counselling helps you reclaim control.
The Nervous System: The Engine Behind Anxiety
Your nervous system is constantly scanning for threat — even when you’re not consciously aware of it.
It has two main branches:
1. The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
This is your “fight-or-flight” system. It speeds you up.
2. The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS)
This is your “rest-and-digest” system. It slows you down.
In anxiety, the SNS becomes dominant. It’s not that the PNS stops working — it simply gets overshadowed.
Think of it like trying to play calming music while someone else keeps turning up the alarm siren.
Why Your Brain Gets Stuck “On”
There are three major drivers:
1. The Amygdala Overfires
This small part of the brain is your internal smoke detector. When it becomes overly sensitive (because of trauma, stress, or genetics), it sends danger signals even when nothing is wrong.
2. The Prefrontal Cortex Gets Overwhelmed
This part handles logic, reasoning, decision-making. Under anxiety, it’s like trying to do your tax return in the middle of a rock concert — too much noise to think clearly.
3. The Body Joins In
Adrenaline rises. Heart rate increases. Muscles tense. Your breathing speeds up.
Your physiology becomes the proof your brain uses to confirm danger:
“If my heart is racing, something must be wrong.”
What People Commonly Feel
Clients often say:
- “I’m exhausted but jittery.”
- “I know it’s irrational but I can’t switch it off.”
- “My thoughts speed up at night.”
- “I worry about worrying.”
These aren’t character flaws. They are nervous system symptoms.
Why Anxiety Gets Worse at Night
When you finally lie still:
- There’s no distraction.
- The brain goes inward.
- The amygdala notes the quiet as “something to fill”.
- The cortisol rhythm can spike if sleep is inconsistent.
This is why lying in bed can feel like the worst time of day — your brain doesn’t have to process tasks, so it processes fear instead.
Counselling: How It Helps Your Nervous System Reset
Counselling isn’t about telling you to “relax”. It’s about:
1. Understanding the patterns that trigger your anxiety
Triggers can be emotional, relational, sensory, or situational.
2. Retraining the nervous system
Through grounding techniques, breathwork, pacing strategies, and emotional processing.
3. Challenging fear-based stories
Your nervous system reacts to what it believes, not what is true.
4. Rebuilding a sense of safety in the body
A regulated system thinks clearly. A dysregulated system only thinks protectively.
Small Everyday Practices That Help
• The 1–3–5 Breath Reset
1 deep inhale
3-second hold
5-second slow exhale
Repeat for 2 minutes — switches on the parasympathetic system.
• Name 5 Things You Can See
A fast way to interrupt spiralling thoughts.
• Cold Water on the Wrists
Triggers the “dive reflex”, signalling safety to the heart.
A Final Word
If anxiety has taken over your days (or your nights), you’re not doing anything wrong. Your nervous system has learned to feel unsafe, often through lived experiences, stress, or patterns that formed years ago.
Counselling helps you unlearn those patterns, strengthen regulation, and build a calmer inner baseline.
You are not broken. Your body is doing what it believes it needs to do to protect you — it just needs support to relearn peace.
If you’d like support
Hope Therapy & Counselling Services offers online and in-person sessions with a warm, experienced team.
You can book a free 15-minute consultation here:
https://www.hopefulminds.co.uk/free-consultation-with-hope-therapy/