Akathisia vs anxiety

Akathisia is often mistaken for anxiety because both can involve distress, agitation, panic, and an inability to settle. But akathisia often has a more physical, driven quality: intense inner discomfort, restlessness, or a sense of terror that may appear after starting, stopping, or changing a medication.

Key differences

Akathisia

Often feels like severe inner agitation, physical discomfort, terror, or an urgent need to move or escape the feeling.

Anxiety

Often centres more on worry, fear, thoughts, anticipation, or panic, though it can also have physical symptoms.

Why timing matters

If the symptoms began after a medication was started, stopped, reduced, increased, missed, or changed, that timing is important to tell a clinician.

If you feel unsafe

If you feel at risk of harming yourself or someone else, seek urgent medical help immediately through your local emergency services or emergency department.