Anxiety Symptoms in Women Who are Middle Aged

Anxiety affects people of both genders and of all ages, including children and adults. How it presents, however, is different at various life stages and dependent on gender.

For example, research has shown that for children and teens, anxiety is usually experienced in the form of excessive worrying and phobias. PTSD affects people in young adulthood more frequently than other ages, while generalized anxiety and panic disorders affect more people in mid-to-late adulthood.

Women experience anxiety twice as much as men, although men still experience anxiety, of course. Men, however, tend to be less open about their experiences of anxiety and are often overlooked when it comes to treatment.

When it comes to anxiety disorders such as Generalized Anxiety, Panic Disorder, PTSD, Phobias and Social Anxiety, women experience these significantly more frequently than men.

What does anxiety look like in women who are aged between 30 and 50? Could it be that there are symptoms that you’ve overlooked?

Anxiety Symptoms in Women Ages 30 to 50

Women in the mid stage of their life do tend to experience particular kinds of anxiety. These include panic attacks, GAD and PTSD. There are a number of potential reasons for this. For example, some research has shown that hormonal changes as a result of pre-menopause and menopause might be the cause of the prevalence of these kinds of anxiety.

Between the ages of 30 and 50, women also experience the highest demands in social and familial terms. There are huge social pressures on them, such as an expectation that they’ll be able to juggle multiple roles, such as mother, wife, career woman, friend, etc.

The pressure of such demands can lead to a lot of negative thinking, which is often at the root of anxiety. A woman might, for instance, find herself thinking, “Helen has the same things to deal with as I do, and she always looks like she has it all together – so should I.”

Because women have often experienced sexual or physical abuse/violence, this may explain a propensity towards anxiety and PTSD symptoms. These are just some examples of possible explanations for anxiety in women in the mid stages of life. Below is a breakdown of symptoms of different types of anxiety. You may be surprised by some of them, as they are often overlooked.

Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Excessive anxiety and/or worry regarding a wide range of issues, topics, situations, and events.
• The level of worry is very difficult to control.

The anxiety and worry cause a minimum of three of these cognitive or physical symptoms:

• Restlessness
• Feeling wound up or on edge
• Easily tired
• Irritability
• Tension in muscles
• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Restless, unsatisfying sleep
• Trouble concentrating
• Mind going blank

When you consistently experience a minimum of 3 of these signs on a majority of days for six months, you’re highly likely to be diagnosed as having Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Symptoms Frequently Missed

Difficulty Concentrating

While people are usually aware that worrying a lot is a symptom of anxiety, physical and cognitive symptoms are less easily spotted. They can be dismissed, overlooked or even considered “normal.” One of the most frequently overlooked of these is a difficulty in focusing or maintaining concentration. This is a really quite disruptive and frustrating symptom that has a considerable effect on productivity.

In some cases, the difficulty concentrating is caused by worrying thoughts, but in other cases, it’s more of a general inability to focus. Both are signs that you’re experiencing anxiety.

Trouble Sleeping

Difficulties in sleeping are a common problem, particularly for women and mothers. With multiple demands on their time, women get used to reduced levels of sleep. That’s why sleep disturbances are another aspect of generalized anxiety disorder that often gets overlooked.

Differentiating sleep difficulties caused by anxiety and other kinds of sleep difficulties can be complicated. However, signs that anxiety is the cause include sleep being disturbed by thoughts and nightmares, being unable to drop off to sleep because of thoughts running through your mind or just lying awake despite being exhausted.

Symptoms of Panic Disorder

Recurrent panic attacks involving at least four of these symptoms:

• Palpitations
• Pounding heart
• Trembling
• Finding it hard to breathe
• Feeling like you’re choking
• Chest pain
• Nausea or stomach upset
• Dizziness
• Chills or sweats
• Numbness or tingling
• Derealization and depersonalization
• Fearing losing control
• Fearing that you’re going mad
• Fearing death

A month or more of persistent anxiety about having more panic attacks, and experiencing behavioral changes associated with avoiding having another panic attack.

Panic attacks tend to be short-lived but are still very distressing. The symptoms can be mistaken for symptoms of heart disorders and breathing problems, meaning that panic disorder isn’t diagnosed as frequently as it probably should be.

Frequently Missed Symptoms

Identifying Physical Symptoms as Anxiety

The actual symptoms of a panic attack are hard to miss since they’re really noticeable and frightening. However, recognizing them as anxiety can be more difficult. For example, when you experience tightness in your chest you could worry that you’re experiencing some heart problems without considering that it’s actually caused by anxiety.

Fear of Having More Panic Attacks

Another symptom that is frequently missed is a consistent fear of having more panic attacks once you’ve had one. Despite the fact that it’s often missed as a symptom, this fear is one of the defining features of panic disorder.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

Having been exposed to various kinds of violence, injury, trauma or death in a variety of ways:

• Direct exposure
• Being a witness to trauma
• Indirect exposure to trauma (first responders and medics)

Re-experiencing or re-living the event in the following ways:

• Nightmares
• Flashbacks
• Intrusive thoughts
• Emotional distress triggered by reminders
• Avoidance of thoughts and reminders of the experience, as well as the feelings associated with it.
• Negative thoughts and feelings such as:
• Negative beliefs about yourself and/or the world
• Self-blame
• Being unable to remember key details
• Loss of interest in life/things that used to seem important
• Feelings of isolation
• Finding it difficult to experience positive feelings/emotions

While not all of these symptoms have to be experienced for a diagnosis of PTSD, they have to have persisted for at least one month.

Symptoms Frequently Missed

Self-Blame

Women are known to take responsibility for things for which they are not to blame in various areas of life. It’s potentially one of the reasons they are more prone to anxiety. When it comes to PTSD, however, self-blame as a symptom following exposure to trauma leads women to try to minimize their symptoms. That, in turn, means that they are less likely to recognize that what they’re experiencing is PTSD.

Getting the Help You Need

If you are a woman in your thirties, forties, or fifties and you’re experiencing the symptoms of anxiety that are commonly missed in women, know that it is possible to experience relief and recovery from your symptoms. There’s no need to feel like you’re alone in your struggle.

Deciding to engage in counseling can be a really daunting decision to have to make, especially when you already have symptoms of anxiety to deal with. However, an experienced counselor can really help in understanding the roots of your symptoms, as well as guide you in deciding which symptoms to focus on for recovery. A counselor can also give you a series of tools to help you manage your symptoms and experience a better quality of life.