8 Things You Can Do When Feeling Paralyzed by Anxiety
author: Ann Krajewski, PsyD
TAKEAWAY
Feeling paralyzed by anxiety can feel debilitating. It can hold you back from living your life in many ways. In this post, I will talk about potential reasons you feel paralyzed. I will also share ways you can try to manage when you feel frozen.
table of contents
What are symptoms related to feeling paralyzed with anxiety?
Why am I feeling paralyzed by anxiety?
What ways can emotional paralysis impact me?
What can I do when I’m paralyzed with anxiety and fear?
How can therapy help me when I often feel paralyzed by fear and anxiety?
It is the end of the weekend and you have a bad case of the Sunday scaries.
You are sitting on the couch stressed by all the things you have to do this week. Your mind keeps replaying all the things you have failed to do over the weekend.
You begin to beat yourself up for not being more productive. Your fear of failure of the future things you need to do skyrockets. You feel frozen. You can’t get out of bed. You feel like you can’t move because all you can think about are your failures and the ways you don't measure up.
All you want to do is be able to enjoy your last bit of freedom and relaxation. You want to go for a walk, bake cookies, or go to that workout class. But instead you feel crippled by anxiety. You scroll your phone or put on a tv show to try and avoid your thoughts. The next thing you know, it's 5 pm and you feel like you wasted your day.
This is one example of what it can feel like to be paralyzed by anxiety.
If you struggle with anxiety, there may be times where you feel paralyzed to the point it is hard to do anything. This may increase your sense of frustration at yourself. You know there are so many things you need to get done but can’t help but feel stuck in place. It feels like you can’t move. Or you feel like crawling into a hole and hiding from the world. Your thoughts are telling you all that you need to do and why, but you can’t get off the couch.
All you know is that you want this to stop. It is keeping you from doing things that are important to you but you aren’t sure where to start.
Hi, I’m Dr. Ann Krajewski, a Therapist in VA, DC and WA. In this post, I’ll talk about what it feels like to be paralyzed with anxiety, potential reasons you struggle with paralyzing anxiety, what to do about it, and how therapy can help.
Symptoms Related to Feeling Paralyzed with Anxiety
While feeling paralyzed can be seen on a spectrum, here are some common symptoms you may experience if you feel emotionally paralyzed, as well as how they show up physically.
symptoms around feeling emotionally paralyzed by anxiety and fear are:
Feelings of dread or apprehension
Racing anxious thoughts
Believing the worst is going to happen
Avoiding situations that cause fear
Feeling irritable or frustrated
Social withdrawal
Panic attacks (symptoms can also be seen in physical symptoms)
Feeling everyday tasks are overwhelming
Symptoms around feeling physically paralyzed by anxiety:
Nausea
Upset Stomach
Headaches
Lightheadedness
Insomnia
Fatigue
Muscle Tension
Racing or Pounding Heart
Restlessness
Muscle Twitching
Sweating
Shortness of Breath
Panic Attacks
Why are you feeling paralyzing anxiety?
Feeling paralyzed by anxiety can be caused by several factors and is not from one thing. Some potential reasons you might be feeling frozen could be any of the following.
Trauma or Anxiety Disorders
Having an Anxiety or Trauma disorder can increase the chances of you feeling paralyzed anxiety, as your anxiety and fear responses are higher.
Having an Anxiety or Trauma disorder can increase the chances of you feeling paralyzed anxiety, as your anxiety and fear responses are higher. If you have a family history of anxiety or have experienced traumatic events, your symptoms could fall under a disorder. While a disorder does not really tell you why you are feeling paralyzed, some people find it helpful to have a larger label to help them understand what is going on for them. If you are interested in a diagnosis, I would suggest seeking healthcare providers in your area to determine if you meet criteria for mental health diagnosis. Some potential diagnosis include:
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Adjustment Disorder
Panic Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Perfectionism
Perfectionism causes you to feel a pressure to be perfect. You become very hard on yourself when you haven't met your high standards. People often think that perfectionism is only when you are a overachiever that is constantly working towards their goals. However, some people who struggle with perfectionism may actually struggle with the opposite. They feel paralyzed by their perfectionism. Oftentimes people may label this as procrastination. They get overwhelmed and crippled by fear of not achieving the perfection that they want and then are paralyzed by this anxiety and fear.
Inner Critic
Having a strong inner critic often goes along with perfectionism. This is where you have a part of yourself that is never happy with anything you do. That part of you is constantly finding ways in which you don’t measure up and never letting you forget about it.
This voice can become so loud that it is suffocating. Most of the time this part of you believes that beating yourself up will help you achieve your goals and will keep you safe. But at the end of the day all it is doing is perpetuating internal pain. So the anger towards yourself can actually make you more fearful and paralyzed.
Sympathetic Nervous System (Fear Response)
When your mind and body detect danger, it activates your sympathetic nervous system, which the way your body reacts to danger. It activates all of your body's systems in order to be prepared to protect itself from this danger. This could be through fighting the danger, fleeing, or by freezing. Others also say there is a fourth response – fawning, which is similar to pleasing people.
When it comes to feeling paralyzed by anxiety and fear, this could be your body's flight or freeze response. A frozen state would be when you feel the fear and you feel heavy, struggle to move, hold your breath, or even feel a sense of dread. A flight response is often seen as physically leaving but I think it can also include avoidance behavior or even emotionally fleeing (i.e., you flee into scrolling TikTok for hours rather than addressing the fear).
Oftentimes people think of physical danger when they think of fear responses. You are being chased by a dog, or someone is physically attacking you. BUT there are other fearful events that can cause this effect as well.
For example, social rejection is experienced in the brain the same way that physical pain is felt in the brain. So, if you are feeling paralyzed by anxiety when it comes to trying to make new friends, it could be because your brain detects this as a danger and is trying to protect you by freezing or avoiding. Or you have been avoiding applying for that new job because your inner critic is telling you that you will be rejected.
The way we think about our environment has a huge impact on our fear response.
ADHD
ADHD impacts your executive functioning, which involves our ability to get things done. So if someone has ADHD and has a task they need to do, they may feel an overwhelming sense of paralysis around starting, organizing or following through on a task.
Ways Emotional Paralysis Can Impact You
In Relationships
Feeling paralyzed by stress, anxiety, and fear can have a real impact on your day to day life. It can impact your ability to make and keep friends, because you might feel paralyzed when reaching out, or keeping up with friendships. You might think about making new friends, or you might think about reaching out to hang out, but when you do, you feel paralyzed and can’t seem to send that text. Or can’t seem to say hello to that person. You might also feel this in romantic relationships as well.
At Work
If you have ever stared at your computer looking at the task you need to complete but can’t seem to get yourself to do it, you know that it can really impact your ability to work. You might put things off until the last possible moment, which means your work quality might be lower than you are actually capable of. Or you might have to ask for extensions, which might frustrate your coworkers.
Self-Care
You could struggle with taking care of yourself. You might lay in bed all day instead of doing the things that actually will help you feel rejuvenated.
Keeps You From Reaching Your Goals
Your goal might be to travel the world, or get that promotion, or be married. But when you actually think of doing those things, you freeze up and can’t seem to do them. This means you aren’t able to move in the direction you are wanting.
What to do when you’re paralyzed with anxiety and fear
Since feeling paralyzed with fear and anxiety is both a bodily and mental response, trying to find ways to take care of these two aspects can help you get unstuck.
I want to note that figuring out tools to help manage your symptoms can require a trial and error approach. Sometimes tools need some practice and so they won’t help right away. Giving yourself time to learn and practice can help. Also, sometimes tools aren’t enough and that can be a sign to reach out for professional support.
01. Mindfullness Meditation
Mindfulness is all about awareness and acceptance. It is about being reconnected to the present moment. Mindfulness is often practiced in meditation sessions where you are focusing on your breath and how it feels in your body. When thoughts or feelings pop up – you recognize them and then shift back to your breathing.
While one practices how to be mindful through these medications, the point is to be able to be mindful throughout your day. The goal is to be able to observe your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in the spiral. So starting a mindfulness meditation practice can help you get connected with the present moment when the sense of paralyzing anxiety sets in.
Instead of getting caught up in the thoughts and feelings that are causing you to feel crippled and frozen, you can practice noticing them, letting them go, and refocusing on the present moment. The present moment you are in is often not the scary place that your mind is trying to take you. Learning to reconnect to the present moment can help calm your brain and body down.
Here are some great videos to watch that help describe mindfulness:
02. Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation is an exercise that guides you through tightening and releasing muscles with the intent to reduce stress and increase awareness of your body. Here is a guided meditation if you would like to give this exercise a try.
Grounding Techniques
When you experience anxiety (particularly if it is chronic) your attention is often times on your thoughts around what could happen and not on what is actually happening in the present moment. Grounding techniques can be a helpful way to redirect your mind to the present moment so you can let your mind (and body) know that you are okay and to deactivate that fear response. Grounding is the basis for mindfulness and progressive muscle relaxation but this is an article that offers 30 grounding exercises you can use right now.
03. Soothing Your Inner Child
Similar to meditation, self-soothing practices can help calm your mind and body down. I think approaching self-soothing through a lens of inner child work can be helpful.
When you feel really paralyzed by fear and anxiety, imagine your inner child. This part of you is often the part that is feeling vulnerable and terrified of being rejected, failing, or being hurt in some way. Once you are able to imagine this part of you, the next step is to try and find ways to take care of or soothe this inner child.
When a child is scared, you wouldn’t yell and verbally beat up that child would you? So why would you do that to yourself? Maybe you had parents who did verbally abuse you or talked very critically whenever you felt scared and went to them for support. This is probably where you learned to talk to yourself that way.
So learning to reparent your inner child by responding in a more compassionate and soothing way can be a wonderful step towards learning to take care of yourself when emotions are high.
Some ways you can soothe yourself if feeling paralyzed by anxiety:
Deep Breathing
Stretching
Drinking Warm Tea
Taking a Warm Bath
Burn a Candle or Use an Oil Diffuser
Go Out for a Walk
Self-Holding (Similar to trying to hug yourself or rubbing your arm to help provide some soothing touch to yourself)
Put a blanket in the dryer and then wrap it around yourself
Play soothing music
Dance to some music you really enjoy
04. Mind/Body – Yoga, Walking, Dancing
Physically moving your body when you feel paralyzed can be great to help regulate your body. I think yoga, walking or dancing are wonderful ways to try and manage when you feel paralyzed. It can boost your mood and release physical tension that is built up in your body. Yoga can be a great way to practice meditation as well. There are so many free resources on YouTube that you can check out.
05. Mind/Body – Yoga, Walking, Dancing
Physically moving your body when you feel paralyzed can be great to help regulate your body. I think yoga, walking or dancing are wonderful ways to try and manage when you feel paralyzed. It can boost your mood and release physical tension that is built up in your body. Yoga can be a great way to practice meditation as well. There are so many free resources on YouTube that you can check out.
06. Understand What Your Thoughts Are and Challenging Them
When you are starting to notice that you feel paralyzed, it can be helpful to journal your thoughts on paper so you can understand what is coming up for you. Maybe you have an upcoming presentation at work and all you can think about is how your boss hates you and that you can never do anything right.
Being able to look at these thoughts can help you begin to challenge them. Does your boss really hate you? What makes you think that? Could you be wrong? Could there be another way to interpret the situation? Could you and your presentation have value to offer even if it isn’t perfect? Asking yourself questions to try and challenge the fearful thoughts can be helpful.
07. 2 Minute Rule/ Small Steps
When feeling paralyzed by an activity, something that can be helpful is setting a timer for 2 minutes and getting yourself to do that activity for just that two minutes. Oftentimes when you get yourself to at least start the activity you are paralyzed by can help you get unstuck. Also breaking something into small steps can help reduce the anxiety and fear in your mind. So instead of seeing your messy house as a whole, only focus on one area, like the kitchen counter.
08. Mantras
Mantras are a great way to help when you feel paralyzed. Finding a mantra you can repeat to yourself to help calm yourself down is a helpful way to try and get unstuck. For example, if you notice you are starting to feel paralyzed about going to the grocery store out of social anxiety, repeating to yourself “I am safe in this present moment. My value is not based off what others think of me.”
How can therapy help when you regularly feel paralyzed by fear and anxiety?
Therapy can help you work through a variety of issues, including feeling paralyzed by anxiety. If you are trying to manage your paralyzing anxiety on your own but it doesn't seem to work, it may be time to reach out to a licensed therapist. Oftentimes, debilitating anxiety that causes you to feel paralyzed is caused from a deeper issue that therapy can help you resolve.
I often encourage people to reach out for help before your concern progresses into something more difficult to manage. Some people may want to reach out earlier than later, while others reach out after they have exhausted all the self-help tools they can find.
Seeking professional help can be hard and people often feel that their problems aren't big enough to ask for help - this being particularly true with those who are experiencing anxiety. This isn't true and you deserve to find support that helps you through the issues you are experiencing.
Some types of therapy that could help you through feeling paralyzed with anxiety and fear are:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - CBT looks at the automatic thoughts you have and how they impact your behavior. They utilize a variety of tools to help you become aware of your automatic thoughts and then to figure out how to challenge these thoughts so you can begin to experience different feelings and behaviors. This could help you challenge the thoughts that cause you to feel paralyzed in the first place.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) ACT is aimed at helping you accept your thoughts and feelings rather than trying to fight them. ACT utilizes a variety of tools that are often based in mindfulness. This modal could help you learn to accept and let go of struggling with your inner critic and perfectionism so that you do not get stuck in the emotional paralysis.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) DBT is another modal that is based in mindfulness. DBT wants to hold the tension between accepting oneself as you are and needing to change unhelpful behaviors or feelings. DBT has four pillars: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. This modal could help you find tools and skills to help regulate the emotions and thoughts that cause you to feel frozen.
Psychodynamic Therapy – Psychodynamic therapy is all about understanding how the past is impacting your current circumstances. It’s goal is to unpack unconscious and conscious dynamics that cause you to feel stuck. It is less structured than the other modalities described above. This type of therapy could help you heal and grow from the deeper emotional wounds that reinforce the thoughts and feelings that cause you to feel paralyzed from fear and anxiety.
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) – EFT is based in attachment theory and the understanding that your emotions are a powerful tool in navigating the world. EFT can help you understand your emotions and learn what they are communicating to you, so that you can use emotions as helpful data rather than something to avoid.
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) - ERP is a behavioral therapy that is the leading treatment for disorders like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Panic Disorder. It is about helping people gradually be exposed to their triggers in a safe environment where then they begin to have a different response to this trigger. This could be a great option for you if your paralyzing anxiety stems from one of these disorders.
find your inner peace
Feeling paralyzed with anxiety and fear can have a big impact on your life. It can keep you from living life in a meaningful and fulfilling way. This doesn’t have to be your story. Finding ways to take care of your anxiety and fear is a helpful first step. If you are live in Virginia, Washington DC, or Washington State and would like to learn ways therapy can help you overcome feeling paralyzed by anxiety, reach out to me today.
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