Anxiety is a common mental health struggle affecting millions worldwide, but for some, it manifests in unexpected ways—through anxiety shivers and chills. These surprising symptoms are especially common for those who suffer from phobias and panic attacks.1 Although they can be extremely unpleasant, by treating the underlying anxiety and understanding the causes, you can learn to reduce shivers, chills, and other anxiety symptoms.
Best-In-Class Therapists for Anxiety
Anxiety doesn’t have to continue to control your life. Get the support of a Jimini Health therapist. Join them for video sessions and a personalized continuous care plan, exclusively from Jimini. Combining the heart and experience of top therapists with the consistency of clinically-informed AI exercises has shown to be twice as effective as traditional counseling.
Starting at $200 per session (insurance not yet available). Next-day appointments available.
Can Anxiety Cause Chills & Shivers?
Physiological symptoms of anxiety can manifest in some unexpected ways, including experiencing anxiety chills and shivers. When people get anxious, they may feel shaky or suddenly feel very cold, which causes chills and shivering. These reactions are due to activity in the endocrine and circulatory systems during stressful situations.
When a person experiences anxiety, the body’s fight-or-flight response is activated to respond to the perceived threat. The body begins to release cortisol and adrenaline, which increases blood flow to the heart. As blood gets rerouted, it can cause the arms and legs to feel colder, causing anxiety shaking. Additionally, the heart rate increases, which can cause the body to sweat. When the sweat meets the cool air, the person may begin to get anxiety chills.
Characteristics of anxiety shivers include:
- Shaking in hands and fingers
- Trembling
- Tension in the body
- A tingling or “pins and needles” feeling in the hands
- Feeling very cold and shivering, then feeling hot and sweaty
- Experiencing a tremor or shaking in your voice
- Feeling unable to regulate your temperature
- Being unable to make your hands or fingers stop shaking
Anxiety Shivers & Chills Vs. Other Medical Conditions
While anxiety shivers and chills may occur during anxiety or panic attacks or in response to phobic triggers, it is important that other potential medical causes are ruled out as the cause. If you are experiencing anxiety shaking for the first time, consult a physician to rule out other conditions. Possible alternative causes include fever, sepsis, COVID-19, hyperthyroidism, essential tremors, and low blood sugar.
How to Cope With Anxiety Chills & Shivers
When you are experiencing anxiety shivers and chills, there are several techniques you can use to calm your anxiety. Once your anxiety reduces, you can steady your nerves and stop the anxiety shaking.
Here are nine ways to cope with anxiety chills and shivers:
- Grounding techniques: Grounding techniques are designed to help you focus on the present moment and gain a sense of control over your thoughts. There are a variety of grounding techniques for anxiety that include focusing on the surroundings, intentional movement, and body scans, among others.
- Deep and slow breathing: A quick and effective method to stop anxiety shivers and chills is through breathing exercises for anxiety. Breathing deeply effectively tells your nervous system to calm down. There are many deep breathing patterns that are effective, including the 4-7-8 breathing pattern and square breathing.
- Distracting the mind: Anxiety can escalate when your mind “runs away with you.” By distracting your mind from anxious thoughts, you are able to let go of thoughts about the anxiety triggers. Distracting the mind helps to stop rumination, calm the body down, and reduce anxiety shaking.
- Warming up the body: When adrenaline is surging, our body focuses our circulation to our core, so our extremities feel cold and that can contribute to anxiety chills. Warm drinks (not hot drinks) help calm the body and the nervous system. Warm tea is especially beneficial because the tea itself can help ease anxiety.
- Exercise: “Burning off” nervous energy with exercise can help minimize anxiety. Depending on where you are, you might do a few calisthenic exercises, like jumping jacks, to lower your anxiety or take care of some household chores that require effort, like vacuuming or mopping your floors. By burning off the nervous energy, you are helping your body return to a state of calm and stopping the anxiety shivers and chill.
- Guided imagery: A guided imagery meditation for anxiety involves using a script or recording that leads you through the creation of an image in your mind. By focusing on the special space you’re creating in your mind, you are able to calm your nervous system by letting go of anxiety-producing thoughts.
- Progressive muscle relaxation: Progressive muscle relaxation intentionally tenses and releases your muscles in a specific order from head to toe or toe to head. This enables you to focus on something unrelated to what is making you anxious.2 It can be especially useful in controlling physiological symptoms of anxiety, including anxiety shaking.
- Cooling down the body: Research has found that cold water immersion stimulates the dive response in humans, which can reduce feelings of anxiety.3 Try taking a cold shower or placing your face, hand, or foot in ice-cold water.
- Meditation: Meditation for anxiety helps a person control their thoughts and focus their mind. It draws a person inwards, helping the body move from reacting to the external environment to a place of focused intention. The body will then begin to calm down, and the anxiety shivers and chills will stop.
Options for Anxiety Treatment
Talk Therapy – Get help from a licensed therapist. Betterhelp offers online therapy starting at $60 per week and is FSA/HSA eligible by most providers. Free Assessment
Psychiatry for Anxiety – Looking for anxiety treatment that prioritizes you? Talkiatry can help. Find an in-network psychiatrist you can see online. Get started with our short assessment. Visit Talkiatry
When to Seek Professional Help
At times, anxiety is a natural and even a helpful response because it alerts us to possible threats.4 However, when anxiety symptoms are interfering with your normal daily routine, it may be time to seek professional help. There are many ways to find help for your anxiety.
For some people, using a mental health app like Sanvello can be effective. Apps require self-motivation and a commitment to consistent use. Others may prefer the support of a therapist, psychologist, or counselor to help with anxiety symptoms like anxiety shivers and chills.
You can seek out therapists who specialize in anxiety through an online therapist directory. An online directory allows you to search for therapists who take your insurance and who are within your area. Alternatively, you can ask your general practitioner for a referral. If you prefer to see a therapist remotely, an online therapy platform for anxiety may be the right choice for you.
Treatment for Anxiety Shivers & Chills
Seeking treatment to manage anxiety symptoms can make a significant difference in a person’s quality of life. Anxiety can be debilitating and keep people from enjoying their lives; by seeking treatment to manage symptoms, people are able to be more fully present and better cope with stressors. Shivers and chills are just two of the many anxiety symptoms that can be reduced through effective treatment.
Therapy
Anxiety is one of the most common disorders experienced in the US.5 Due to its prevalence, there are many therapies for anxiety developed to help people manage its symptoms. Even with the inclusion of medication, therapy is a vital part of treatment.3 Both supportive therapeutic discussions and psychoeducation are helpful in learning new ways to manage symptoms, including shivers and chills.
Common therapies for anxiety include:
- Somatic therapy: Somatic therapy focuses on the physical symptoms related to the anxiety trigger. Techniques for calming the mind and easing the discomfort are learned to help clients manage their sensations.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT for anxiety helps manage anxiety, which in turn can reduce the frequency of experiencing anxiety shivers and chills.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): In addition to minimizing symptoms of anxiety, DBT for anxiety can also reduce anxiety-related shivers, chills, and other symptoms.
- Exposure Therapy: Exposure therapy for anxiety is used with phobias and involves gradually escalating exposure to the phobia-inducing object. As you decrease your anxiety symptoms, you’ll naturally decrease the frequency of anxiety-related shivers and chills you experience.
Medication
Sometimes, a combination of therapy and anti-anxiety medication is needed to manage anxiety. If your anxiety keeps you from enjoying normal activities, even with therapy, you should consider finding a psychiatrist to speak to about medication options. To access anxiety medication, you must have a doctor’s prescription. Being upfront with your doctor and sharing as much as you can about your symptoms is important for the correct medication to be prescribed.
In My Experience
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Anxiety Make You Cold?
Anxiety can lead to feeling cold or experiencing chills. When you’re anxious, your body’s stress response is activated, which can cause blood vessels to constrict and reduce blood flow to the extremities, leading to a sensation of coldness. Additionally, anxiety can trigger a release of adrenaline, which may also affect blood circulation and temperature regulation.6
Why Do I Shake When I Get Nervous?
When you feel nervous, your body’s sympathetic nervous system kicks into gear, releasing stress hormones like adrenaline. This increase in adrenaline can lead to various physical responses, including trembling or shaking.7 It’s a natural reaction as your body prepares for the “fight or flight” response. Shaking helps to release excess energy and tension, priming your muscles for action in response to perceived threats or stressors.
Choosing Therapy strives to provide our readers with mental health content that is accurate and actionable. We have high standards for what can be cited within our articles. Acceptable sources include government agencies, universities and colleges, scholarly journals, industry and professional associations, and other high-integrity sources of mental health journalism. Learn more by reviewing our full editorial policy.
-
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. American Psychiatric Association, 2013.
-
Carver, M. L., & O’Malley, M. (2015). Progressive muscle relaxation to decrease anxiety in clinical simulations. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 10(2), 57-62.
-
Ackermann, S. P., Raab, M., Backschat, S., Smith, D. J. C., Javelle, F., & Laborde, S. (2023). The diving response and cardiac vagal activity: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Psychophysiology, 60(3), e14183.
-
Bateson, M., Brilot, B., & Nettle, D. (2011). Anxiety: an evolutionary approach. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56
-
Bandelow, B., Michaelis, S., & Wedekind, D. (2017). Treatment of anxiety disorders. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience.
-
Fischer, S., Haas, F., & Strahler, J. (2021). A systematic review of thermosensation and thermoregulation in anxiety disorders. Frontiers in Physiology, 12, 784943.
-
What is adrenaline?. Mental Health America. (n.d.). https://mhanational.org/what-adrenaline
We regularly update the articles on ChoosingTherapy.com to ensure we continue to reflect scientific consensus on the topics we cover, to incorporate new research into our articles, and to better answer our audience’s questions. When our content undergoes a significant revision, we summarize the changes that were made and the date on which they occurred. We also record the authors and medical reviewers who contributed to previous versions of the article. Read more about our editorial policies here.
Author: Suzanne Degges-White, PhD, LCPC, LPC, LMHC, NCC (No Change)
Medical Reviewer: Naveed Saleh, MD, MS (No Change)
Primary Changes: Added sections titled “FAQS”. New content written by Allison Lieberman, LMFT, PMH-C, and medically reviewed by Naveed Saleh, MD, MS. Fact-checked and edited for improved readability and clarity.
Author: Suzanne Degges-White, PhD, LCPC, LPC, LMHC, NCC
Reviewer: Naveed Saleh, MD, MS
Your Voice Matters
Can't find what you're looking for?
Request an article! Tell ChoosingTherapy.com’s editorial team what questions you have about mental health, emotional wellness, relationships, and parenting. Our licensed therapists are just waiting to cover new topics you care about!
Leave your feedback for our editors.
Share your feedback on this article with our editors. If there’s something we missed or something we could improve on, we’d love to hear it.
Our writers and editors love compliments, too. :)
Additional Resources
To help our readers take the next step in their mental health journey, Choosing Therapy has partnered with leaders in mental health and wellness. Choosing Therapy is compensated for marketing by the companies included below.
Best-In-Class Therapists for Anxiety
Jimini Health – Anxiety doesn’t have to continue to control your life. Get the support of a Jimini Health therapist. Join them for video sessions and a personalized continuous care plan, exclusively from Jimini. Combining the heart and experience of top therapists with the consistency of clinically-informed AI exercises has shown to be twice as effective as traditional counseling. Starting at $200 per session (insurance not yet available). Next-day appointments available. Visit Jimini Health
Therapy for Anxiety & Medication Management
Brightside Health – develops personalized plans that are unique to you and offers 1 on 1 support from start to finish. Brightside Health accepts United Healthcare, Anthem, Cigna, and Aetna. Appointments in as little as 24 hours. Start Free Assessment
Anxiety Diagnosis & Treatment
Circle Medical – Affordable and accessible anxiety evaluations and treatment. Diagnosis and prescription over video. Insurance accepted. Same day appointments. Visit Circle Medical
Ketamine Therapy for Anxiety
Better U – offers personalized ketamine therapy with 1-on-1 coaching, all from the comfort of your own home. Address the root causes of your anxiety and live a more fulfilling life. Start Your Free Assessment
Learn Mindfulness, Meditation, & Relaxation Techniques
Mindfulness.com – Change your life by practicing mindfulness. In a few minutes a day, you can start developing mindfulness and meditation skills. Free Trial
Online Anxiety Test
A few questions from Talkiatry can help you understand your symptoms and give you a recommendation for what to do next.
Best Online Therapy for Anxiety
Anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health issues in the world. To find the best online therapy for anxiety, we reviewed over 50 providers. Our evaluation focused on their geographic coverage area, cost, convenience, extra features, and more. Our top recommendations are based on more than three years of research and over 250 hours of hands-on testing. Read on to see our top picks for the best online anxiety counseling platforms.
Best Online Psychiatry Services
Online psychiatry, sometimes called telepsychiatry, platforms offer medication management by phone, video, or secure messaging for a variety of mental health conditions. In some cases, online psychiatry may be more affordable than seeing an in-person provider. Mental health treatment has expanded to include many online psychiatry and therapy services. With so many choices, it can feel overwhelming to find the one that is right for you.