Why Menopause Anxiety Feels So Extreme
- Brainz Magazine
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Magali Collonnaz is a medical doctor, life coach, and founder of SPARRK Life Coaching. After experiencing long-COVID and breast cancer herself, she created a whole-system coaching framework to help people reclaim strength, clarity, and control after major health disruption when traditional care falls short.
For many women, menopause brings anxiety that feels overwhelming and out of character. It can escalate quickly and leave women wondering if it will ever stop. Hormonal change plays a role, but the deeper problem is the gap between medical reassurance and the practical, day-to-day support women actually need to function.
What is menopause anxiety?
Menopause anxiety refers to new or worsening anxiety that develops during perimenopause or menopause. It can affect women who have never experienced anxiety before, women who have struggled with anxiety in the past, and women who previously felt they had it under control.
Anxiety symptoms are common during the menopausal transition, with vulnerability increasing as hormone levels fluctuate.
What makes menopause anxiety particularly distressing is that it often feels different from everyday stress or situational worry. Many women describe a constant sense of inner tension, sudden surges of panic, or a feeling that their body is stuck in a heightened state of alert, even when there is no obvious external trigger. This loss of emotional and physical steadiness can feel frightening and hard to explain.
Why anxiety can feel so intense during menopause
Hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause affect multiple systems involved in mood regulation and stress response. Oestrogen interacts with key brain chemicals such as serotonin and GABA, which help regulate calm, emotional balance, and stress tolerance. As hormone levels fluctuate and decline, these systems can become less stable, making the brain more sensitive to stress signals.
At the same time, menopause often brings other symptoms that place additional strain on the nervous system. Poor sleep, night sweats, hot flushes, weight gain, palpitations, and brain fog all increase physiological stress. When the body feels unpredictable or out of control, anxiety often follows. The nervous system remains on high alert, scanning for danger, even when none is present.
This combination of hormonal change and ongoing physical symptoms helps explain why anxiety in menopause can feel more intense, more constant, and harder to switch off than at other times in life.
How menopause anxiety shows up in daily life
Menopause anxiety often affects daily functioning in subtle but persistent ways. Some women wake each morning with a sense of dread or unease. Others experience sudden waves of panic, breathlessness, or racing thoughts during the day. Many notice increased health anxiety, constant worrying, or difficulty concentrating.
At work, tasks that once felt manageable can become overwhelming. Confidence may drop, decision-making may feel harder, and emotional resilience may be lower. At home, irritability, emotional reactivity, or an inability to relax can strain relationships. When anxiety is combined with fatigue and poor sleep, it can feel relentless.
Why being told it is normal does not help
Many women are told that anxiety in menopause is common and, therefore, something they should expect. While it may be common, that does not mean it is easy to live with or that it does not deserve support.
Being told that anxiety is normal often leaves women feeling dismissed and unsupported. Without clear explanations or guidance, anxiety can feel confusing and isolating. This lack of support can increase fear and self-doubt, which in turn worsens anxiety symptoms.
Normal does not mean insignificant. Women need understanding, structure, and practical tools. Normalising symptoms without offering solutions leaves women managing a physiological problem as if it were a personal coping failure.
Why menopause anxiety can settle with the right approach
Menopause anxiety is not permanent. The nervous system is adaptable, and anxiety often settles when the right supports are put in place.
Addressing anxiety early prevents it from becoming entrenched and reduces the risk of secondary problems such as depression, burnout, or withdrawal from daily life.
Hormone therapy can be helpful for some women, particularly when anxiety is closely linked to other menopausal symptoms. For many women, however, lifestyle strategies are the real game-changer. These approaches directly reduce physiological stress, improve resilience, and restore a sense of safety in the body.
The most effective approach is early and proactive. Too often, women are reassured and sent away, rather than given tools to stabilise anxiety while symptoms are still escalating. That delay is one of the reasons anxiety becomes entrenched.
The good news is that menopause anxiety is highly responsive to the right interventions. When support is practical and targeted, symptoms often ease far more than women expect.
What actually helps calm menopause anxiety
Calming menopause anxiety is not about forcing yourself to be calmer or thinking more positively. It is about reducing the signals of threat in the body and giving the nervous system consistent messages of safety.
Supporting the nervous system
Breathing exercises are powerful because they act directly on the stress response. Slow, controlled breathing, particularly with a longer out-breath than in-breath, helps shift the body out of a constant fight-or-flight state. Learning how to use breathing intentionally during moments of anxiety, as well as at regular points in the day, helps retrain the stress response.
Processing emotions rather than suppressing them
Many women are encouraged to suppress anxiety, distract themselves, or replace it with positive thoughts. This often backfires. Anxiety is not resolved by ignoring emotions. Emotions need processing, not pushing away. Allowing sensations to be felt, without judging or fighting them, reduces fear and prevents anxiety from escalating.
Improving sleep quality
Poor sleep makes anxiety feel constant. Regular bedtimes, limiting screens in the evening, and getting natural morning light all help regulate the sleep-wake cycle.
Caffeine and alcohol are common but overlooked triggers. Caffeine can increase feelings of nervousness and restlessness in menopause. Even small amounts can worsen anxiety or sleep in some women. Alcohol may feel calming initially, but it often increases nighttime anxiety, early waking, and poor sleep. Reducing both can significantly lower baseline anxiety over time.
While sleep may not improve overnight, consistency often leads to gradual stabilization, which in turn reduces anxiety.
Using worry time
Worry time is a simple but powerful tool for reducing constant mental noise. Instead of engaging with worries throughout the day, worries are written down and intentionally set aside.
At a scheduled time later, the list is reviewed. Many worries lose urgency when revisited. Others can be addressed more clearly. This practice helps the brain learn that worries do not need constant attention and reduces the sense of being mentally overwhelmed.
Movement and time outdoors
Movement helps the body process stress hormones and regulate mood. Walking, strength training, and gentle cardiovascular activity all support nervous system regulation when done at the right intensity. Time outdoors, particularly in natural light, further reinforces calming signals to the brain.
When extra support is needed
For many women, menopause coaching provides structured guidance to implement lifestyle strategies in a way that fits their specific needs, goals, and daily realities. Clear guidance, accountability, and personalized strategies often make the difference between knowing what might help and actually feeling better.
If anxiety is severe, persistent, or accompanied by low mood, hopelessness, or loss of interest in daily life, medical support is important. This may include assessment for depression or discussion of treatment options such as hormone therapy.
Rebuilding confidence during menopause
If menopause anxiety has left you feeling unlike yourself, it is often because you have been expected to manage a complex physiological transition with little more than reassurance. Many women are told what is happening, but not shown how to live well while it is happening.
With the right support, this phase does not have to define you. When you learn how to calm your nervous system, improve sleep, and respond differently to anxiety, things start to shift. Your energy begins to return. Your thinking becomes clearer. You feel more capable in daily life again.
This is exactly the gap my Menopause Empowerment programme was created to address. It is designed for women who want more than reassurance and are ready for clear, expert guidance on how to stabilize anxiety and rebuild confidence in daily life.
You will be guided step by step to build a weekly plan that fits your life, your capacity, and the activities you enjoy. Rather than focusing on one area alone, the programme works across sleep, stress regulation, movement, nutrition, and mindset, because lasting change requires all of these working together.
The aim is not to cope with menopause, but to thrive through it and feel strong, steady, and confident again.
Read more from Magali Collonnaz
Magali Collonnaz, Medical Doctor, Life Coach, and Founder of SPARRK Life Coaching
As SPARRK Life Coaching founder and director, Magali Collonnaz combines medical and health coaching expertise in her online coaching programmes.
After developing chronic pain following long COVID, and later experiencing treatment-induced menopause after breast cancer, she saw how often people are left without practical support when symptoms persist. She created SPARRK for those who refuse to accept “There’s nothing more we can do".
Her work focuses on lifestyle-based coaching to help people regain control of their health when traditional care falls short. She is committed to helping people make a powerful comeback, feel empowered in their daily choices, and build lasting change.
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