Did You Know That Dehydration Can Mimic Anxiety?

Imagine a garden hose with not enough water. Pressure drops, the spray weakens. What do you do to keep the flow? You open the tap and you squeeze the nozzle.

👉Your body copies that physics.

When body water dips, pressure sensors in your arteries report low pressure. What happens? Adrenaline tightens the blood vessels, like squeezing the nozzle, to raise pressure. The heart speeds up, like opening the tap, to keep blood reaching the brain. Same signals as anxiety show up: racing heart, jittery focus, shallow breathing.

Sometimes what you call anxiety is a thirsty nervous system.

What helps:

• Morning ritual: drink 400 to 600 millilitres water on waking
• Before stress moments: sip 300 to 500 millilitres before meetings or workouts
• Add electrolytes when you sweat a lot or eat very low carb
• Urine check: aim for a pale straw color most of the day
• Try a reset: water plus two minutes of slow nasal breathing

What harms:

• Chugging liters at once
• Relying only on thirst cues
• Stacking caffeine on an empty stomach when underhydrated
• Ignoring dizziness after standing quickly. Sit down and hydrate first

Hydration might not fix all forms of anxiety, but before you call it your personality, hydrate first. Then see who you are