Anxiety Disorders in Adults

“Just as anxiety can feed on itself, so can courage.”

― John J. Ratey

Anxiety: When the Body Holds Fear

Anxiety is a deeply embodied experience. It can rise as an inner wave — tightening the breath, lifting the chest, bracing the shoulders — and shape our posture, movement, and sense of self. In small doses, anxiety is a natural and adaptive response, alerting us to potential challenges. But when it becomes chronic, it begins to live in the body as a pattern of tension, vigilance, and disconnection — affecting not only the mind, but also the fascia, breath cycle, and relational presence.

In many ways, worrying can be a positive force: it motivates us to address life’s difficulties. Yet when worry turns into persistent anxiety, interfering with daily functioning and wellbeing, it becomes a sign of deeper embodied dysregulation — often linked to unresolved stress, trauma, or early relational experiences.

Trauma and the Roots of Anxiety

Judith Blackstone writes in Trauma and the Unbound Body:

“Anxiety is also a direct result of trauma. If our childhood environment is particularly abusive or unpredictable, we may become chronically anxious and vigilant to our surroundings. Any memory of having been overpowered or in any way abused may produce an ongoing fear of the recurrence of that trauma.”

Anxiety is not just a mental state — it is also an imprint left in the body. When the early environment was unsafe or chaotic, the developing nervous system adapts by becoming hypervigilant. Over time, this vigilance can become embodied: the breath remains held in the upper chest, the heart races, the fascia and tissues brace in subtle or overt ways.

As Blackstone describes, anxiety tends to pull our awareness outward, scanning the environment for danger, while disconnecting us from the inner ground of the body. In this state, the breath becomes shallow, and we may lose contact with our internal sensations and core self.

As Blackstone describes, anxiety tends to pull our awareness outward, scanning the environment for danger, while disconnecting us from the inner ground of the body. In this state, the breath becomes shallow, and we may lose contact with our internal sensations and core self.

These patterns can be inherited as well: children often mirror their parents’ postures, breathing patterns, and subtle autonomic states. If the family atmosphere was filled with unspoken fear or tension, these qualities can be absorbed — becoming part of the person’s implicit memory and embodied relational patterns.

In our work at the Institute for Bodymind Integration, we pay close attention to these somatic imprints of anxiety — helping clients reconnect with the body’s inner space, restore grounded breathing, and release chronic holding patterns in the fascia and connective tissue.

How Anxiety Manifests in the Body and Life

Anxiety is not only felt in the mind — it shapes the body, breath, and behavior. Over time, anxiety can become an ingrained neurofascial pattern that affects how we move, relate, and feel ourselves.

Here are some common manifestations of chronic anxiety:

🔸 Body-Based Symptoms

• Short, shallow breathing (upper chest or throat)
• Pounding or racing heart
• Muscle tension, trembling, cold hands or feet
• Sensations of pressure or constriction in chest, throat, or abdomen
• Restless body or fidgeting
• Fatigue from chronic tension

🔸 Emotional and Cognitive Symptoms

• Racing thoughts, inability to focus
• Catastrophic thinking (“What if…?” patterns)
• Irritability, inner agitation
• Persistent sense of dread or expecting the worst
• Fear of losing control or dying
• Hypervigilance, startle response

🔸 Behavioral and Relational Symptoms

• Avoidance of social situations or challenges
• Withdrawal or isolation
• Difficulty initiating or sustaining relationships
• Sleep disturbances (difficulty falling asleep, restless sleep, waking early)
• Changes in appetite
• Compulsive behaviors or rituals to manage fear

In our body-centered approach, we also recognize more subtle signs:

• Breath “pulled upward” or held in the throat
• Disconnection from the lower body
• Fascia presenting as tense, rigid, or “buzzing” in certain segments
• Chronic holding in the diaphragm or pelvic floor
• Facial masking or frozen expressions

Becoming aware of these embodied patterns is the first step toward restoring ease, flow, and grounded presence.

Recognizing Different Patterns of Anxiety

While all forms of anxiety share core bodymind features — such as hyperarousal, dysregulated breath, and fascial holding — they can express in different ways, depending on individual history, temperament, and relational environment.

Here are some of the most common anxiety-related patterns seen in adults:

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder :
  • Intrusive, repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and compulsive behaviors aimed at reducing anxiety.
  • Often involves a pattern of mental overcontrol paired with underlying unresolved fear in the body.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder :
  • Persistent, excessive worry about various aspects of life (health, finances, relationships).
  • Accompanied by restlessness, tension, and difficulty concentrating.
  • The body may hold a constant background state of vigilance, with shallow breath and chronic muscular contraction.
• Panic disorder :
  • Episodes of sudden, intense fear (panic attacks), often accompanied by racing heart, breathlessness, dizziness, and a sense of impending doom.
  • These episodes typically involve rapid sympathetic arousal and a sharp upward shift in breath and energy.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder :
  • Anxiety rooted in past trauma, with symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, emotional numbing, and avoidance.
  • The body may oscillate between high sympathetic arousal and shutdown/dissociation, with fascia often displaying rigid or fragmented patterns (as seen in Neurofascial Encoding™).
• Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia) :
  • Fear and avoidance of social situations due to intense self-consciousness, fear of judgment, or shame.
  • The body often expresses rigid posture, collapsed chest, or held throat, and chronic tension in the face and jaw.

Other related conditions:

• Specific phobias (e.g. fear of flying, spiders)
• Agoraphobia
• Anxiety related to medical conditions or substance use

In practice, many individuals experience mixed patterns — for example, generalized anxiety with panic episodes, or PTSD with obsessive tendencies. Our integrative approach addresses the whole person, beyond diagnostic categories: we work with the embodied roots of anxiety to restore deeper regulation, resilience, and relational openness.

Why Treating Anxiety Matters

When anxiety remains unaddressed, its effects tend to spread through the body, emotions, and relationships — often reinforcing itself over time. Chronic anxiety can:

• Disrupt social connections and intimacy
• Contribute to depressive states or emotional flattening
• Impair concentration, learning, and creativity
• Undermine self-confidence and life participation
• Lead to somatic symptoms (digestive issues, fatigue, tension headaches, pain)
• Increase vulnerability to substance use or maladaptive coping patterns
• Deepen fascial holding and autonomic dysregulation, creating long-term embodied patterns of contraction

At the Institute for Bodymind Integration, we view anxiety not just as a symptom to manage, but as an opportunity to heal its embodied roots. Our approach integrates:

• Biopsychosocial understanding of the person’s whole context
• Somatic and fascial awareness, addressing how anxiety lives in the tissues and breath
• Relational work, supporting the restoration of safe connection and trust
• Energetic breath and body integration, to free the natural flow of aliveness
• Psychological and spiritual dimensions, honoring the deeper meanings beneath anxiety

If you recognize these patterns in yourself — or in someone close to you — it is valuable to seek support. Through an integrative and compassionate process, it is possible to transform anxiety from a rigid pattern into a more fluid and resilient state of being.

Therapeutic Pathways Toward Transformation

Anxiety is not only a pattern of thought — it is a pattern of breath, fascia, energy, and relational presence. Effective healing therefore engages both body and mind, helping to dissolve the embodied roots of anxiety and restore core aliveness.

Our integrative therapeutic approach includes:

🔹 Individual Somatic Psychotherapy

Through an embodied and relational process, we help you explore the origins of anxiety and how it lives in your body. You will learn to recognize and shift:

• Breath patterns (such as held, shallow, or fragmented breath)
• Fascial restrictions and protective postures
• Underlying emotional dynamics (fear, shame, helplessness)
• Internalized relational imprints

As anxiety transforms, clients often rediscover grounded presence, expanded breath, and a greater sense of trust in life.

🔹 Body Awareness, Breath Integration, and Fascial Work

Informed by the Core Strokes™ method, we use touch, movement, and guided awareness to help release chronic holding patterns in the connective tissue and support the restoration of the Energetic Breath Cycle™. This work specifically addresses:

• The upward displacement often seen in anxiety
• The fragmentation of breath and energy
• Disconnection from the lower body and ground

Through this process, clients learn to inhabit the body more fully, allowing anxiety to soften and energetic flow to return.

🔹 Relational and Group Work

In safe group settings, clients have the opportunity to:

• Explore social and relational dynamics that may trigger anxiety
• Practice grounded presence in contact with others
• Receive support and feedback in a structured, embodied environment

This work helps restore a felt sense of safety in relational space, which is often deeply affected by chronic anxiety patterns.

Summary Principle:

“In our work, anxiety is not treated as an isolated disorder, but as a pattern of bodymind organization that can be transformed. Through breath, fascia, relational presence, and embodied awareness, we help clients reclaim their natural rhythm of pulsation, flow, and grounded vitality.”

In Summary: Anxiety as an Embodied Pattern

Anxiety is not simply a mental illness or a set of symptoms — it is a whole-body pattern of dysregulation that touches breath, fascia, energy, emotion, and relationship.

At its core, chronic anxiety reflects a state in which the natural rhythm of pulsation — expansion and relaxation — becomes disrupted. The body holds fear long after the actual danger is gone. Breath remains high and shallow, connective tissues tighten, the nervous system stays poised for threat, and the relational field contracts.

While diagnostic categories (such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive tendencies, Post-Traumatic Stress, Specific Phobias, and others) can help describe different patterns, our work goes beyond these labels to address the deeply embodied roots of anxiety.

In the Core Strokes™ approach, we help individuals:

• Free the breath and fascia from chronic holding
• Restore grounded energetic flow
• Rebuild relational safety and embodied presence
• Integrate developmental and trauma-based imprints that underlie anxiety
• Reclaim joyful participation in life

Anxiety is not a fixed destiny. With attuned somatic work, it is possible to unwind the body’s memory of fear and return to a more resilient, open, and grounded state of being.