Leg shaking and anxiety: What’s the link?

Key takeaways

• Anxiety can trigger the release of hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, leading to physical symptoms such as leg shaking and trembling as part of the body’s fight-or-flight response.
• Techniques like yoga, mindfulness, and breathing exercises can help manage anxiety-related leg shaking by promoting relaxation and reducing overall stress levels.
• In addition to lifestyle changes, various treatments, including medications and therapy, are available to address the underlying anxiety and reduce physical symptoms like leg shaking.

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Overview

Anxiety can cause restlessness — both emotionally and physically.

When you’re anxious, you may experience tremors and shaking in different parts of your body, such as your hands and legs. Leg shaking when you have anxiety may be due to the action of some hormones that are released from your brain when you experience stress and anxiety.

What causes leg shaking in anxiety?

Anxiety disorders are common mental health conditions that affect about 40 million adults in the United States. When you’re anxious and stressed, your body releases the fight-or-flight hormones adrenaline and cortisol. The body releases these hormones when it perceives a threat and prepares to fight or flee.

Because of this, your heart pumps more blood to your muscles, your breathing quickens, your blood pressure rises, and you become more alert. 

The hormone adrenaline makes your muscles contract more rapidly, which can lead to trembling and shaking. An increase in cortisol due to stress can lead to balance issues, according to a 2018 study.

This study found that people experiencing stress and anxiety had their cortisol levels increase 9 times and reported symptoms such as shaking, muscle spasms, and numbness in their toes and fingers. People also said they experienced swaying while walking, standing, and sitting. 

Other physical symptoms of anxiety include:

• fast heartbeat
• dizziness
• tiredness
• muscle aches and tension
• excessive sweating
• headaches 
• stomach pain
• insomnia
• weakness

But persistent high levels of cortisol and adrenaline due to anxiety can lead to adverse health effects, including:

• increase in blood pressure
• blood vessel damage
• increased risk of cardiovascular disease 
• insulin resistance
• weight gain
• irritability 
• concentration difficulties 

How to manage anxiety-related leg shaking

You can use several techniques to reduce and stop anxiety shaking and tremors, whether it’s in your legs, hands, or other parts of your body. The common denominator among these techniques is stress reduction and relaxation. These techniques include:

• Yoga: Yoga helps you relax mentally and physically by releasing tension and alleviating muscle knots in your body. Studies show that yoga is an effective way to reduce stress by lowering levels of cortisol. 
• Mindfulness: Mindfulness and meditation may help reduce stress and anxiety. The goal of mindfulness meditation is to achieve a calm mental state. There are several ways to practice mindfulness, from mantra meditation to spiritual meditation.
• Breathing exercises: Breathing techniques can also help reduce symptoms of anxiety and stress. According to a 2022 study, breathing techniques, such as deep breaths into the diaphragm, result in a decrease in symptoms of stress and anxiety. A 2023 study found that breathwork had positive effects on stress and overall mental health. 
• Progressive muscle relaxation: Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique that involves tensing and relaxing different muscle groups. A 2019 study shows that this practice helps relieve symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. 

Other treatments for anxiety

To address shaking and trembling due to anxiety and stress, you can go to the root cause and look into the different treatment options for anxiety. These include medications, therapy, and lifestyle strategies. 

• Medications: Medications to treat anxiety include:
  • beta-blockers prevent adrenaline from affecting the heart and could stop symptoms like shaking. These include propranolol (Inderal), acebutolol (Sectral), and bisoprolol (Zebeta).
  • tricyclic antidepressants include clomipramine (Anafranil), imipramine (Tofranil), nortriptyline (Pamelor), protriptyline (Vivactil), and trimipramine (Surmontil). You can take these in the form of a capsule, tablet, or liquid.
  • selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) such as sertraline (Zoloft) and duloxetine (Cymbalta).
  • benzodiazepines that include diazepam (Valium) and lorazepam (Ativan).

• Therapy: Therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other talk therapies can help people with anxiety learn how to identify the triggers of stress and anxiety, as well as harmful thought patterns. These therapies can help you change those patterns and modulate your response to triggers.
• Lifestyle strategies: Lifestyle factors play an important role in helping you reduce and prevent anxiety and stress. These strategies range from your diet and physical activity to sleep hygiene.

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Preventing anxiety leg shaking

You can prevent and manage anxiety-related leg shaking and tremors by addressing the root cause. The treatment options mentioned above can help you cope with symptoms of anxiety and stress.

Some lifestyle strategies can help you manage symptoms of anxiety and reduce stress. This will, in turn, reduce and prevent shaking and trembling when you’re feeling anxious. Some of these strategies include:

• exercising about 150 minutes a week
• eating a balanced diet
• reducing caffeine intake
• doing activities and practices that are proven to reduce stress, such as yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises
• practicing good sleep hygiene, which includes sleeping between 7 and 9 hours, avoiding screen time before bed, and keeping a regular sleeping schedule

Summary

When you’re stressed and anxious, you may experience physical symptoms like trembling and shaking, whether in your legs, hands, arms, or other parts of your body.

You experience anxiety shaking because anxiety is your body’s reaction to stress. Stress causes your body to be in a fight-or-flight mode.

During this state, your body releases the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, which cause your muscles to be tense, your breath to quicken, and your blood to rush. All of these processes can lead to shaking and trembling.

You can address these symptoms by practicing techniques like yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation to reduce stress. Treatment options for anxiety include medications, therapy, and lifestyle factors.

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