Women and Anxiety: Why It Shows Up Differently and What to Do About It
Anxiety in women often goes unrecognized
The picture most people have of anxiety is panic attacks and visible distress. But women's anxiety often looks quieter. More internal. More likely to look like perfectionism or people pleasing or overachievement or the inability to stop moving.
It also often gets dismissed. As being too sensitive. As overthinking. As hormonal. As just the way you are.
What women's anxiety actually looks like
The constant worry that hums underneath everything. The sense that something is about to go wrong even when nothing is wrong. The hypervigilance to other people's emotional states. The difficulty letting go of things that are out of your control even when you know they are out of your control.
The body symptoms that go unexplained. The tension headaches, the stomach issues, the fatigue that does not improve with sleep.
The performance of fine when you are very much not fine, because showing that you are struggling feels dangerous or weak or like too much to put on anyone.
Why women-centered therapy matters
Not because women need different skills to manage anxiety. But because the context matters.
Anxiety in women often has roots in the specific experiences of being a woman. The messages about how you are supposed to be. The societal pressures that are real and not imagined. The physiological factors that affect mood and stress. The relational patterns that developed in response to what safety looked like in your specific life.
Therapy that ignores that context misses a lot of what is actually going on.
Candace Lance is a Marriage and Family Therapy Intern (MFT-I) with Aspire Counseling Services supervised by Stefanie Petersen, LMFT. Candace is seeing new clients in Layton in Davis County, Utah and telehealth throughout Utah. If you are seeking mental health support, you can reach out to Candace and she can help direct you to the intake team for your initial appointment. If you are in crisis, please call or text 988. If this is an emergency, please call 911.
