This is one of the most common symptoms of anxiety: when your fight-or-flight response kicks in, this ups your heart rate, sometimes leading to heart palpitations.
"In the short term, our heart rate and breathing increases, and adrenaline floods through our body to give us energy to fight or run away," explained Sarah Allen, PhD, a Chicago-area psychologist who specialises in treating anxiety and stress. "That is useful for dangerous situations, but typically we don't face that sort of situation; our mind is just telling our body that our thought is dangerous, and so we find that this anxiety response is activated in inappropriate settings like traffic or during a stressful conversation."
Dr. Allen explained that if this happens occasionally, there is no long-term harm effect on your body. However, if this is a persistent symptom, you should see a doctor to avoid further complications.