Sore Throat Due To Anxiety: Symptoms, Causes And Treatment

When determining whether the cause of a sore throat is anxiety or not, it is important rule out any medical pathology or serious physical alterations that explain the pain. Furthermore, the appearance of pain must be associated with the experience of stressful events or the accumulation of anxiety-inducing experiences for a long time.

How does anxiety affect the throat? The main symptomatology of a sore throat due to anxiety is associated with symptoms which we will show you below:

• Associated respiratory difficulties.
• Altered and labored breathing.
• Muscle tension.
• State of alert and hypervigilance.
• Irritability.
• Increased heart rate.
• Intrusive thoughts and/or rumination.
• Feeling of weakness or tiredness.
• Sleeping problems.
• Dizziness and tremors.
• Sweating.
• Panic attacks.
• Avoidance of specific situations that generate anxiety.

Stress can give rise to anxiety responses as a consequence of the brain areas it activates and the hormones and substances involved. In fact, it causes a decreased GR (glucocorticoid receptors) in hippocampal granule cells, a disinhibition of the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis and an increase in corticosteroids.

Thus, if we find ourselves in a situation with high levels of glucocorticoids, our body will lower the levels of the receptors to defend itself and prevent them from being activated. In this way, disinhibition occurs as a consequence of the decrease in the activity of corticosteroid receptors, the adrenal axis and an increase in corticosteroids, which increases the anxious response and produces physical damage in different areas of the brain and body.

In short, what is demonstrated is that high levels of anxiety and stress cause a decrease in the immune defenses of the human body. Therefore, being subjected to situations with these characteristics frequently makes us more prone to contracting viral or other diseases.

Anxiety even causes physical ailments to emerge that had been hidden until now. For all this, we see that sustained stress and anxiety can cause sore throats. For this reason, exam periods have been determined as a risk to the physical integrity of students. If you know someone who is going through it, in this article you will see how to help a person with anxiety.

Before starting treatment to remove a sore throat due to anxiety, on the one hand, it is very important to go to the doctor for an examination to ensure that the ailments are not associated with any medical condition. Furthermore, it is also necessary for determine if the use of any medication is necessary to treat sore throat, whether codeine, ibuprofen, paracetamol or others.

On the other hand, if pharmacological treatment is necessary, it must be accompanied by psychological monitoring. To do this, the patient must undergo a psychological clinical interview to determine the variables and factors that are maintaining the anxious symptomatology and the inputs that have caused it to lead to physical ailments.

In short, sore throat due to anxiety must be addressed with a multidisciplinary treatment in which the physical discomfort of this part of the body is treated, as well as the symptoms associated with anxiety through psychotherapy. Specifically, this will consist of putting into practice relaxation and stress management techniques in addition to addressing the cognitive alterations associated with sore throat.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Sore throat due to anxiety: symptoms, causes and treatment we recommend that you enter our Clinical Psychology category.