Is It Anxiety or Intuition? How to Tell the Difference

Written by Taylor Alley, LPC-MHSP (temp)

Tulip Tree Counseling

TL;DR

Anxiety and intuition can both feel like gut signals. Anxiety is a fear alarm. Intuition is quiet awareness. When the nervous system is calmer, intuition becomes easier to hear. Learning the difference helps you make choices from clarity instead of panic.

Listening to Your Body’s Signals

One of the most common questions I hear in therapy is some version of, “How do I know if I should trust this feeling.” People tell me that they get strong sensations in their body or a sinking feeling in their stomach, yet they are never sure if it is a real internal cue or just anxiety flooding their system. I have had those moments too. When you live with anxiety, trauma, or a sensitive nervous system, your inner world can feel busy and loud, and the line between fear and intuition becomes blurry. Both show up as quick impressions and internal sensations. Both feel urgent in their own way. This is why so many people second guess themselves.

Psychological and neuroscience research helps us understand what is happening underneath. Anxiety is the body’s alarm system, fueled by regions like the amygdala that activate when the brain senses possible danger, even if the threat is not actually present (Shin and Liberzon, 2010). Intuition works differently. It is a quiet process that draws from lived experience, pattern recognition, and knowledge that forms beneath conscious awareness. It is a fast but steady sense of knowing that does not need analysis to make sense (Hogarth, 2010; Khalsa et al., 2018). Both are trying to protect you, yet they do not communicate in the same emotional language.

Why Anxiety Can Sound So Convincing

Anxiety tends to speak loudly and urgently. This makes it incredibly believable. When anxiety shows up, it often tells us that something must be fixed immediately or that catastrophe is around the corner. Intuition rarely sounds like that. Intuition tends to whisper, not shout. It nudges instead of demands.

Research shows that when people feel anxious, they are more likely to misread physical sensations as danger and more likely to interpret neutral experiences as threatening (Clark, 1986). Anxiety can also interfere with intuitive decision making. People make more accurate intuitive choices when their overall anxiety is lower and their attention is grounded (Remmers and Zander, 2018). What this means in practice is that when your nervous system is heightened, everything feels more intense, more urgent, and more consequential than it truly is. Anxiety becomes a megaphone, while intuition remains a softer voice that gets harder to hear.

Imagine receiving a job offer that seems ideal. Anxiety might quickly jump in with, “What if I fail. What if they realize I am not qualified. What if I make a mistake I cannot undo.” Intuition, on the other hand, might say something like, “Something felt tense during the interview. I want to slow down and gather more information.” Both create hesitation. Only one comes from fear about the future rather than information from the present moment.

What Intuition Feels Like and What It Does Not

People often expect intuition to feel dramatic or intense, but in reality, it is usually the opposite. Clients describe intuition as quiet, steady, brief, and grounded. It does not spiral and it does not pressure. Anxiety tends to feel global, repetitive, racing, and overwhelming. A helpful way to imagine the difference is that intuition feels like a small light turning on in a dark room, while anxiety feels like a fire alarm echoing through every corner of the building.

Because anxiety heightens bodily sensations, it becomes harder to trust your internal cues when you are already overwhelmed. Studies show that high anxiety reduces confidence in intuitive choices and makes interoception, or the awareness of internal sensations, less accurate (Remmers and Zander, 2018). This is why intuition is easiest to hear in moments when your body is regulated. It is not that intuition disappears. It is that anxiety temporarily overpowers it.

Reconnecting With Your Inner Signals

You do not need to eliminate anxiety in order to hear intuition. Instead, you can learn to give your body enough space for intuitive knowing to rise toward the surface. This often starts with slowing down. Taking ninety seconds before reacting allows the first wave of adrenaline to settle. Naming the emotional tone of the feeling can help as well. Anxiety tends to feel frantic and fast, while intuition feels calmer and more measured. Looking at the timeline of your thoughts can also give clarity. Anxiety drags you into future possibilities, while intuition usually speaks about what is happening right now.

It can also help to return to your body with curiosity. Noticing your heart rate, your breath, the sensations in your stomach, or the tension in your shoulders strengthens interoceptive awareness, which research shows is connected to better emotional understanding and more grounded decision making (Khalsa et al., 2018; Hölzel et al., 2011). You do not need to force an answer. Intuition often appears once the body feels safe enough to be still.

When You Are Neurodivergent, These Signals May Feel Different

If you are autistic, have ADHD, or experience alexithymia, your internal cues may not fit the typical descriptions of intuition. This does not mean you lack intuition. It means your nervous system communicates differently. Research shows that alexithymia, which is common in both autistic and non autistic populations, can make it harder to identify internal sensations or distinguish one feeling from another (Brewer et al., 2016). Autistic individuals often experience higher anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty, which can make every internal cue feel important or urgent (Boulter et al., 2014; Jenkinson et al., 2020). Adults with ADHD frequently experience intense emotions and quick nervous system activation, which can blur the line between excitement, fear, and intuition (Soler-Gutiérrez et al., 2023).

These experiences are valid and understandable. For example, an autistic person might say, “I cannot tell if something is actually wrong or if I am overwhelmed by sensory input.” A person with ADHD might say, “I feel a mix of anxiety and excitement, and it is hard to know which feeling is guiding me.” These are not failures of intuition. They are reflections of how your particular nervous system processes the world. Helpful supports often include structured check ins, predictable environments, time buffers before responding, and co regulation with someone you trust.

To bring this to life, imagine you send a vulnerable message to a close friend and hours go by without a response. Anxiety might immediately jump to, “They are upset. I did something wrong.” Intuition might say, “I feel tender about this and that makes sense. My friend may be busy.” A neurodivergent friendly approach might sound like, “Uncertainty is very hard for me. I am going to ground myself with something soothing and come back to this later when my body feels calmer.” None of these reactions are wrong. They simply reflect different nervous system needs.

When the Alarm Will Not Turn Off

Many people come to therapy not because something is wrong with their intuition, but because their internal alarm system has learned to work too hard. If you grew up in an unpredictable environment, experienced trauma, or internalized beliefs that the world is unsafe, it makes sense that anxiety would activate quickly. Research shows that disruptions in interoception are linked with many forms of anxiety and mood disorders (Khalsa et al., 2018). Mindfulness based and body focused therapeutic approaches can support the nervous system and help you reconnect with your internal cues, making it easier to distinguish fear from truth (Hölzel et al., 2011).

You do not have to shut down anxiety completely. The goal is to lower its volume enough that you can also hear the quieter voice beneath it.

Final Thoughts

Both anxiety and intuition care deeply about keeping you safe. Anxiety does this by scanning for danger, often too aggressively. Intuition does this by offering grounded awareness, often softly. Learning to hear the difference is not about perfection. It is about slowing down enough to notice how each one feels in your body. When you find yourself unsure, you might gently ask, “What is my anxiety saying right now,” or “If the calmest version of me answered this question, what would they say.” That calmer voice is often the one that leads you toward alignment and clarity.

Schedule With Taylor

If you want support in understanding your nervous system, navigating decision making, or building trust in your inner cues, I would love to walk alongside you. You can schedule a session with me, Taylor Alley, LPC-MHSP (temp), through our secure client portal or email me at taylor@tuliptreecounseling.com.

References

Boulter, C., Freeston, M., South, M., and Rodgers, J. (2014). Intolerance of uncertainty as a framework for understanding anxiety in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44(6), 1391 to 1402.

Brewer, R., Cook, R., and Bird, G. (2016). Alexithymia. A general deficit of interoception. Royal Society Open Science, 3(10), 150664.

Clark, D. M. (1986). A cognitive approach to panic. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24(4), 461 to 470.

Hogarth, R. M. (2010). Intuition. A challenge for psychological research on decision making. Frontiers in Psychology, 1, 1 to 11.

Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., and Ott, U. (2011). How does mindfulness meditation work. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(6), 537 to 559.

Jenkinson, R., Milne, E., and Thompson, A. (2020). The relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety in autism. A systematic review and meta analysis. Autism, 24(8), 1933 to 1944.

Khalsa, S. S., Adolphs, R., Cameron, O. G., Critchley, H. D., Davenport, P. W., Feinstein, J. S., Feusner, J. D., et al. (2018). Interoception and mental health. Biological Psychiatry. Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 3(6), 501 to 513.

Remmers, C., and Zander, T. (2018). Anxiety impairs intuitive decision making. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 100 to 114.

Sadler-Smith, E. (2016). The role of intuition in everyday decision making. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 888.

Shah, P., Hall, R., Catmur, C., and Bird, G. (2016). Alexithymia, not autism, is associated with impaired interoception. Cortex, 81, 215 to 220.

Shin, L. M., and Liberzon, I. (2010). The neurocircuitry of fear, stress, and anxiety disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology, 35(1), 169 to 191.

Soler-Gutiérrez, A. M., et al. (2023). Emotion dysregulation as a core symptom of adult ADHD. A systematic review. PLOS ONE, 18(1), e0280131.