MomSkoop
Feeling jittery, restless, or like your heart is racing can be scary—but figuring out why is the first step toward feeling better.
Sometimes these symptoms point to anxiety, a mental health condition that affects millions of people.
Other times, they signal hyperthyroidism, a condition where your thyroid gland produces too much hormone.
Knowing the difference between the two can help you get the right treatment and start feeling like yourself again.
1. Where It All Begins: Root Cause
Anxiety and hyperthyroidism may feel similar, but they start in completely different parts of your body.
Anxiety comes from your brain, specifically the areas that handle stress and fear responses.
When these circuits get overactive, they trigger all those uncomfortable feelings.
Hyperthyroidism, on the other hand, originates from your thyroid gland in your neck.
This butterfly-shaped gland pumps out too many hormones, flooding your bloodstream and affecting nearly every organ.
Understanding where your symptoms come from helps doctors figure out what tests to run and which treatments might work best for you.
2. What Sets Them Off: Trigger Pattern
Pay attention to when your symptoms appear—this reveals important clues.
Anxiety symptoms often spike when you face something stressful, like a test, a difficult conversation, or even just worrying thoughts.
Once the stressful situation passes, symptoms usually calm down too.
Hyperthyroidism works differently because it does not care about your stress levels.
Your symptoms stay constant whether you are relaxed on vacation or dealing with a tough week at school.
They persist day and night because excess thyroid hormones keep circulating regardless of what is happening in your life, making the pattern much more predictable.
3. Racing Pulse: Heart Rate Behavior
Your heart can tell an important story about what is happening inside your body.
With anxiety, palpitations come in waves—your heart might pound during a panic attack or stressful moment, then return to normal afterward.
These episodes feel intense but temporary.
Hyperthyroidism creates a different heart pattern altogether.
Your resting heart rate stays elevated most of the time, even when you are sitting quietly or just waking up.
Doctors can measure this during routine checkups, and the consistently fast heartbeat provides a major clue that something metabolic, not just emotional, is affecting your cardiovascular system.
4. Feeling the Heat: Heat Tolerance
How you handle temperature can reveal whether anxiety or hyperthyroidism is behind your symptoms.
Anxiety might make you sweat during panic attacks or stressful situations—think sweaty palms before a presentation.
Once you calm down, the sweating usually stops.
Hyperthyroidism turns your internal thermostat way up all the time.
You feel hot even in cool rooms, and you sweat excessively whether you are stressed or completely relaxed.
Friends might wear sweaters while you are fanning yourself, and you constantly crave cold drinks or air conditioning because your metabolism is running at overdrive around the clock.
5. Scale Surprises: Weight Changes
Weight changes happen differently depending on what is causing your symptoms.
Anxiety affects appetite in unpredictable ways—some people lose interest in food when stressed, while others eat more for comfort.
Your weight might go up, down, or stay the same depending on your eating habits.
Hyperthyroidism typically causes noticeable weight loss even when you are eating normally or even more than usual.
Your supercharged metabolism burns through calories so quickly that your body cannot keep up.
If you find yourself losing weight without trying while your appetite stays strong or increases, that is a red flag worth discussing with your doctor immediately.
6. Sleepless Nights: Sleep Disturbance
Both conditions can rob you of good sleep, but for different reasons.
Anxiety keeps you awake with racing thoughts, worries about tomorrow, or sudden panic that jolts you awake at night.
Your mind refuses to shut down even though your body feels exhausted.
Hyperthyroidism disrupts sleep through physical mechanisms rather than mental ones.
Your overactive metabolism and excess hormones keep your body in a state of constant stimulation, making restful sleep nearly impossible.
Even if your mind feels calm, your body stays wired and alert.
Understanding which type of sleeplessness you experience helps point toward the underlying cause.
7. Shaky Hands: Tremors
Trembling can happen with both anxiety and hyperthyroidism, but the quality differs.
Anxiety-related shaking usually appears during acute stress or panic—your hands might shake when you are nervous, but they steady once you relax.
The tremor connects directly to your emotional state.
Hyperthyroidism produces a fine, persistent tremor that doctors can see even when you feel completely calm.
Hold your hands out flat, and you will notice a subtle but constant shaking that does not go away with deep breathing or relaxation.
This physical sign remains steady throughout the day, providing doctors with an important diagnostic clue during examinations.
8. Eye Changes: Eye Involvement
Your eyes offer one of the clearest ways to distinguish between these conditions.
Anxiety does not cause any structural changes to your eyes—they might look tired or you might cry from stress, but the physical structure stays normal.
No swelling, bulging, or vision problems result from anxiety alone.
Hyperthyroidism, especially Graves disease, can dramatically affect your eyes.
You might notice bulging eyes, dryness, redness, or even double vision as tissues behind your eyeballs swell.
These changes happen gradually and persist regardless of your stress levels.
If you notice your eyes looking different or feeling uncomfortable, schedule an appointment with your doctor right away.
9. Bathroom Habits: Bowel Changes
How often you visit the bathroom can provide important diagnostic information.
Anxiety affects your digestive system in unpredictable ways—you might experience diarrhea before stressful events or constipation during anxious periods.
These bowel changes fluctuate based on your emotional state and stress levels.
Hyperthyroidism speeds up your entire digestive system consistently.
You will likely notice more frequent bowel movements or ongoing diarrhea that does not connect to stressful situations.
Your overactive metabolism processes food faster than normal, creating persistent changes rather than occasional digestive upset.
Tracking these patterns helps doctors understand what is really happening inside your body.
10. Getting Answers: Diagnostic Testing
The path to diagnosis looks completely different for these two conditions.
Doctors diagnose anxiety through conversations about your symptoms, mental health history, and how symptoms affect your daily life.
There is no blood test for anxiety—diagnosis relies on clinical evaluation and ruling out physical causes.
Hyperthyroidism requires specific blood tests that measure thyroid hormone levels.
Doctors check TSH, T3, and T4 levels to see if your thyroid is overproducing hormones.
These objective measurements provide definitive answers and guide treatment decisions.
If you are experiencing worrying symptoms, asking your doctor for thyroid testing can either confirm hyperthyroidism or help focus on anxiety treatment instead.