Help! I’m Trapped in My Thoughts: Taming Anxiety in Menopause

While most people know that menopause triggers physical symptoms like irregular menstruation and hot flashes, fewer are prepared for emotional changes. Anxiety is one such symptom, which can manifest as feelings of tension, nervousness, panic, and worry. As many as 51% of women 40-55 years old report anxiety symptoms.

So why is anxiety so common in midlife? Several changing factors around midlife make anxiety more likely to occur.

Hormonal Changes

The fluctuation of hormones estrogen and progesterone can contribute to feelings of anxiety or depression. While it’s easy to blame hormones for mood swings and anxiety, they’re probably not the only culprit.

You’re Prone to Anxiety

Hormonal changes are more likely to trigger anxiety if you’re already prone to it. A range of factors from genetics to past experiences influences your susceptibility to anxiety. While you can’t change these risk factors, you can help yourself be ready with strategies to meet any menopause-related changes.

Those who are managing anxiety prior to menopause may not feel a dramatic change from their baseline. However, those who haven’t dealt with it before could be surprised by anxious feelings for the first time. It’s all the more reason to have resources like Midday ready if you need them.

Midlife-Related Anxiety

It might be the experience of midlife—not be menopause itself—that triggers anxiety. Shifting roles and stresses related to relationships, parenting, work, body image, aging and more can be a major contributor to higher levels of anxiety during midlife. You may also be more prone to feeling anxious if you’re struggling to get enough sleep.

Panic Attacks and Menopause

Some women with more intense anxiety may experience panic attacks or develop a panic disorder. Panic attacks are short episodes of intense fear and a sense of detachment with accompanying physical symptoms.

They come out of nowhere, and usually last around 10 minutes. Someone is given a diagnosis of panic disorder if they experience them regularly.

It’s not uncommon to have your first panic attack during menopause or perimenopause. Symptoms of a panic attack include:

• “Racing” heart
• Feeling dizzy or weak
• Shaking
• Tingling or numbness in the hands/fingers
• Feeling sweaty or having chills
• Nausea
• Intense feeling of terror

If you have any doubt about whether you are experiencing an anxiety attack or a medical emergency, make sure to get urgent medical attention. Once you have ruled out other causes, you can start to recognize the telltale signs of an anxiety attack in your body and implement a plan if another one occurs.

Five Thought-Stopping Techniques

It’s possible to stop anxiety in its tracks and, over time, learn how to decrease your episodes of feeling anxious. Try these techniques to help tame your thoughts in anxious moments.

1. Separate yourself from your thoughts

You are not your thoughts. In fact, you can give them a name different from yours. When those negative, unproductive thoughts enter, think, “oh, there goes Susan again.” If you can view your mind as external rather than internal, you create more space between you and your thoughts.

2. Think of your thoughts as a bully

If your thoughts were a bully picking on you, how you would react? Take their power away by telling yourself that anxious thoughts don’t bother you. Or, try telling them to stop. In your head or out loud, try shouting “Stop!” or “Enough!” Make it clear that you—not your anxious thoughts—are in control.

3. Stay in the moment

Anxiety takes you out of the present and fixes your thoughts on the past or future. Fight anxiety by choosing to be mindful. Focus on your five senses. What do you see around you? Hear? Feel, taste and smell? Wiggle your fingers and toes. Take a deep, slow breath and observe how it moves through your body.

4. Paced breathing

You can practice controlling your breathing to reduce anxiety in almost any situation. Paced breathing helps you stay in the present and calm your nervous system to relax your body and mind. Visit the Wellness section from the Discover screen in the Midday app to find guided exercises for paced breathing and other mindfulness techniques.

5. Scan your body

A body scan is another simple technique that can help you ground yourself in your body, relieve uncomfortable physical sensations and reduce anxiety. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Starting with your feet, tense the muscles and then let the tension go. Work your way up your body to your face. Our wellness programs, found under the Discover screen in the Midday app, include a guided body scan exercise.

6. Immersive meditation. Guided meditation can be a powerful way to break the cycle of anxious and worried thoughts. Midday’s Wellness library offers immersive meditations like Let Go that you can turn on in a challenging moment to help you find peace in moments of anxiety.

When to Seek Help

Reach out to a mental health professional if your anxious thoughts are consuming you and impacting your day-to-day functioning in relationships or at work. Additional treatment options, including talk therapy and prescription medications, are available to treat anxiety during menopause and perimenopause.