While anxiety is best known for its mental symptoms, such as nervous thoughts and worries, it's the physical symptoms that often cause people the most distress. The nausea, the muscle tension, the rapid heartbeat - these symptoms can be both frightening and distressing, with some symptoms genuinely causing a great deal of fear or discomfort that can drastically impact quality of life.
One of the symptoms that can be incredibly distressing is feeling hot from anxiety. Anxiety has the potential to drastically raise your body heat, almost as though you're sick, and depending on where you are, that rise in body heat can be significantly uncomfortable and cause a lot of frustration and misery.
The Rise in Body Heat
Your body heat rises as a result of your fight or flight system. The system itself is actually very useful. When you confront danger, you need your body to be ready to start fighting or to run away. Your brain processes that danger and releases adrenaline. That adrenaline then dilates your pupils to let in more light, pumps blood faster so that you can run or fight, and much more.
Adrenaline also increases your body heat by producing vasoconstrictions - the narrowing of the blood vessels to get more blood to your heart and muscles. Should you need to run away from danger, this mechanism would be useful for keeping you safe.
But when your fight/flight system is misfiring, that can lead to persistent anxiety, and persistent anxiety is a real problem.
You May Have a Malfunctioning Fight/Flight System
A rise in body temperature, also known as a "hot flash," is often a sign that you have an anxiety disorder. Normally your body heat should only rise when you're in a dangerous or stressful situation, and not simply out of the blue when nothing appears to be happening.
But when you suffer from anxiety, it indicates that you have a problem controlling this response. It may be caused by your body, stress or anxiety attacks. There are countless reasons why your fight or flight response could be misfiring, but if you have anxiety and are experiencing hot flashes, your fight or flight system may be to blame.
