Anxiety is a health burden that many people suffer from that can affect multiple areas of life. A common characteristic of anxiety is the focus that’s put on negative life-events, which often impacts social and professional environments. While in these instances, anxiety can get in the way, it can be useful in detecting and avoiding danger. The symptoms can vary widely and impact a range of someone’s cognitive performance. Cognition is the ability to process information and figure out how to apply it.

Sensory Processing

The nervous system is an amazing super highway that speeds through your body delivering signals and messages of all types, and it is the basis for cognition. But when you’re suffering from anxiety, it’s possible to have difficulty detecting and processing environmental input or stimuli like sounds and subtle visual cues. Your autonomic nervous system controls things like your breathing, sexual function, and heart rate. When anxiety strikes, it often impairs the autonomic nervous system leaving you with a disturbance of these functions and resulting in an inability to cognitively process sensory information. Valium is a prescription drug that can help, but it can be addictive. If you’re looking for help with addiction to Valium, there are alternative methods and medications that may be helpful.

Attention and Focus

When anxiety has a grip on your sensory processing, it can be hard to focus on anything else. Unwanted intrusive thoughts and feelings can take over, impairing your ability to pay attention to tasks, interactions, and the environment. This is complex because it stems from bottom-up sensory processing issues as well as top-down attention control problems. When anxiety is causing you to lose your focus, it helps to distract yourself with a task like the laundry, watering houseplants, or engaging with a fidget toy. This can help bring you back into yourself and give you the ability to place your attention where you need it to be.

Memory

Your memory involves the encoding, storing, and retrieving of information. Anxiety interrupts this process by causing disruptions in both your mood and cognitive abilities. The excess production of cortisol that is often seen in those with anxiety disorders increases the risk of cognitive decline and developing conditions like Alzheimer’s. Likewise, the quality of sleep is also affected by the excess cortisol which means that the brain is not able to properly encode and store information and thereby affecting the memory.

Decision-Making

The ability to make decisions is also affected. The anxiety will cause you to make choices based on fear, apprehension, and avoidance. Anxiety will also make you more error prone in your decision-making because you’re not clear-headed. You may find yourself overthinking things, or not considering enough. Oftentimes, you’ll find yourself overthinking the little decisions and being so overwhelmed by the bigger decisions that you don’t put much thought into the outcome. Your desire to leave the anxious feeling behind pushes you into faulty decision-making at times.

Anxiety disorders can disrupt your cognition on multiple levels. If you find that you’re struggling with an anxiety disorder, please seek help from a licensed therapist. They can help you regain control and create healthy habits and strategies for managing your condition.