Feeling nervous or on edge
Anxiety doesn’t always show up as panic. Often it’s a low-level tension humming in the background: shoulders raised, jaw tight, breathing a bit too shallow. You might feel keyed up without knowing why, as if your body is bracing for something that never quite arrives.
This often reflects a nervous system that has learned to stay alert. Prolonged stress, uncertainty, responsibility, or past experiences of threat can keep the body in a mild fight-or-flight state, even when nothing obvious is happening now.
Your body is doing what it evolved to do: scanning for danger and preparing to respond. The problem isn’t the response itself — it’s that the system hasn’t been given enough evidence that it can stand down.
Chronic baseline tension can lead to fatigue, disrupted sleep, and a sense of constant alertness that makes decision-making and focus more difficult.
If this feels familiar, it may be worth paying attention to — not to judge it, but to understand what it’s asking for.
In this short series, I unpack the seven common experiences of anxiety. These are patterns many people recognise in themselves — sometimes quietly, sometimes uncomfortably. If you see yourself in one or more of these, it may mean your nervous system has been working hard for a long time.
More in this series:
Feeling nervous or on edge
Constantly worrying
Worrying about different things
Trouble relaxing
Feeling restless
Easily annoyed or irritable
Feeling afraid
