Medical Facts About Anxiety You Need To Know

Causes Significant Difficulties Concentrating

Anxiety causes significant difficulties in concentrating. If an individual is struggling with anxious thoughts and feelings, they may notice their short-term memory is affected. They may also not be as productive as they usually are, which can seriously impact their functioning in school or at work. One of the reasons for this is anxiety interrupts an individual's ability to encode short-term memory into long-term memory. Thus, affected individuals are less likely to retain information they learn when they're anxious. When this impacts school or work performance, it can lead to further anxiety, causing a vicious cycle. Many individuals have little to no difficulty concentrating when they aren't anxious, but in stressful situations, they find their ability to focus is greatly diminished.