Help- Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

[Jessica_M]

Hi everyone,

I’m new to this page but I have been through the hardest months of my life with un-relentless physical symptoms which I believe is linked to Anxiety. Please please please share your story with me if you’ve ever experienced anything similar.

I work in a high stress job in finance and have been in a highly stressful environment for a number of years. In January 2021, I started getting a sore finger, and then the pain spread to the rest of my hands, and then my forearms and upper back. I got all of the tests under the sun- MRI of the brain and spine, ultra sounds, neurologist tests, nerve conduction studies, blood tests etc and everything was fine. I found out I was B12 deficient and the stress of the physical symptoms from this felt like I was making the symptoms worse. Ive had to stop work indefinitely due to the following symptoms that I now have:

1. Twitching in random parts of the body

2. tremor / shaky feeling all the time

3. weakness and fatigue

4. pain in my back and tension around my hips / hands

5. Fast heart rate / can feel my heart beat throughout my body

I don’t think I realised how anxious I was until I stopped working and wake up feeling anxious and needing to have diarrhoea. I have always pushed myself to be successful but I’ve pushed to hard and now I feel like I’m having some kind of breakdown. I’m seeing a naturopath and psychologist who are helping with my breathing. I think this is really helping but just struggling to see a life without this pain!! Please help me as I’m motivated to get better and I have found it hard to think this might be linked to Anxiety and stress.
thanks so much

Jess

[blondguy]

Hello Jess

Welcome and thankyou for having the courage to post too!

I really feel for you as I had the same symptoms too whilst being in senior management/corporate and they are awful to have Jess

Just for your own information the link below has been been super helpful albeit a lengthy one...It was created by Annabay, one of our members in 2019

www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/online-forums/anxiety/what-physical-feelings-of-anxiety-do-you-get

you mentioned;

1. Twitching in random parts of the body
2. tremor / shaky feeling all the time
3. weakness and fatigue
4. pain in my back and tension around my hips / hands
5. Fast heart rate / can feel my heart beat throughout my body

As per the link above diarrhoea is unfortunately very common as our digestive system is the most sympathetic to most levels of anxiety

The tremors... shakes and fast heart rate usually stem from an oversupply of adrenaline which again is very common to experience Jess

Just a note on chronic back pain...anxiety/stress can also 'tighten' our back muscles to the point where we experience sciatica which is horrible

you are not alone Jess

any questions are always welcome!....there are many gentle people that can be here for you too

my kind thoughts

Paul

[Jessica_M]

Hi Paul,

Thanks so much for your reply. That’s really helpful. It’s hard to believe these symptoms might be from stress.

Can I ask how long it took you to feel back to full health? Did you share any of the symptoms I have listed? And Do you have any tips or recommendations that might help?

It feels nice to have someone who relates and know that I’m not going crazy or getting lost in my own thoughts.

The muscle weakness if particularly bothersome as I feel even walking is tiring at this point, which is unusual for me as just a few months ago I was running and exercising everyday.

thanks again,

Jess

[blondguy]

Hi Jess

Thankyou for posting back and yes...stress can sometimes cause the symptoms you mentioned. I used to have most of the feelings/symptoms you have

To answer your question Jess.. my stress exacerbated into an anxiety condition when I started to have difficulty functioning on a day to day basis...thats only my own set of symptoms

I did get over the awful symptoms yet it took some time and visits to my GP to grasp what I was going through

you are not alone Jess

my kind thoughts

Paul