As this week is Mental Health Awareness Week, I wanted to talk to you about Menopause & Anxiety.

More than 1 in 4 people experience anxiety during peri-menopause and menopause many of which may not have experienced it before.

I hear many clients say they are not usually anxious people and cannot understand why this is happening to them, or they tell me they feel like they are ‘going mad’.

Anxiety is something that is hard wired into us to keep us safe from danger and when we feel it, there is a release of the stress hormone cortisol into our systems which creates a fight or flight response.
Anxiety is a normal and often healthy emotion except when it starts to impact your daily life.

This often happens during peri-menopause and menopause.

How does anxiety feel?

We can all feel anxiety in a variety of different ways, from fidgeting and nail biting to emotional outbursts, feeling tense & jittery, heart palpitations and negative thought patterns, to name but a few.

How does this relate to menopause?

The fluctuations in our hormones can impact our mood and over 50% of people who experience peri-menopause and menopause experience some kind of mood related symptoms which include anxiety and feelings of depression.

Often during this phase of life we are also under lots of other kinds of pressure, such as taking care of our children, partners, maybe looking after ageing parents, as well as managing careers, households and everything else that goes along with it.

This means that we can often experience prolonged periods of anxiety or stress which can impact our health in many other ways such as our immune system.

what can we do about it?

Coaching or Counselling
Talking to a trained professional can help you learn strategies to manage your anxiety and get back in control

Get regular exercise
Any kind of exercise from mild to high impact is great for releasing mood stabilising hormones and releasing the build up of our stress hormones. Of course it also helps our body remain healthy and strong which is super important too during this phase of life.

Getting a good nights sleep
This can sometimes be easier said than done when you are anxious as our sleep hormone. melatonin can also be affected during menopause, however a good nights sleep is really important to help you manage anxiety. Try finding a good bedtime routine to help your body and mind relax for example.

Manage stress
Finding strategies that work for you to manage your stress will help calm anxiety as well as alleviate a number of other menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and brain fog.

It’s important to remember that we all cope with stress & anxiety in different ways, so find the healthy coping strategies that work for you, Strategies that fit in well with your lifestyle, bring you joy, help you relax or make you feel more confident and happy.