When your nose is running, it's usually because your body is responding to some type of pathogen or worried that it may respond to a pathogen. Mucus is your body's way of trying to catch germs before they enter your nose, and remove them before they get you too sick. It's also released as a result of histamine - a reaction in the body caused by your immune response that is necessary to keep you healthy.

Anxiety is essentially long term stress, and long term stress can have an effect on your immune system. That's why some people with anxiety get a runny nose as a symptom. While it may not be one of the most important ones, it can be enough of an inconvenience that it causes you more distress than you're ready to deal with.

The Causes of a Runny Nose

Some anxiety symptoms make you feel sick, or fearful that something is terribly wrong with your health. A runny nose is not generally one of them. Anxiety does appear to cause a runny nose, but it's never going to be the only symptom or the most problematic one.

When your nose is running it's more of an irritant than an actual worry, but for those with anxiety every irritant makes life a little bit worse and can increase self-consciousness that creates more anxiety. So it's no wonder that people with anxiety care this much about how their nose feels. The question is: What causes this runny nose and what can be done to stop it?

Adrenal Fatigue and Cortisol

Your runny nose is really just allergies. Even if you didn't think you had allergies in the past, it's easily possible that you had very mild allergies that were otherwise unnoticeable. Most people are allergic to some types of pollen, dust, etc., and many more develop those allergies over time.

Cortisol - which is a stress hormone that has a tremendously damaging effect on the body - is actually useful when it comes to controlling allergies, because it has anti-inflammatory properties and inhibits the immune system.