Physical symptoms - do they ever go away?

[sometimesanxious]

I feel like I am in a vicious cycle with my physical symptoms at the moment. Just when I feel like they are starting to ease bam they come back with a vengeance and I don’t understand why? And then of course I get even more anxiety because I am thinking about them.

lately my symptoms consist of severe headaches that make me physically ill, pressure in my ears, tingling, numbness and chills in my head and face and other parts of my body and also needing to pee all the time. I have all of these symptoms for most of the day in varying degrees.

sometimes I really struggle with the fact that anxiety can cause all of these symptoms and of course it makes me question if there isn’t something else going on.

i just don’t know how to get out of this cycle. For the most part I feel like I have my anxiety under control but by having physical symptoms all of the time clearly I am wrong?!?

can anyone offer me any insight? Is there something I am missing?

[Nurse_Jenn]

Hi sometimesanxious,

Great to see you reaching out on the forum. I just wanted to post and let you know that you are not alone. Anxiety manifests itself physically for many people. I always recommend to visit your GP and get a full physical health check.

On the forum there are number of threads around the topic specifically. If you search 'anyone suffering physical anxiety symptoms' you will find a thread with many posts about others experience. Having physical symptoms of anxiety is common.

You could start a diary of what your symptoms are each day and list the strategies that help relieve these symptoms. Having a daily rating score can help you identify symptoms of your physical health symptoms over time as well as the best strategies to help relieve symptoms.

I wonder if you have tried any types of therapy for example Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) or Mindfulness. Learning these techniques could help further reduce anxiety symptoms which may relieve your physical symptoms. There is an online treatment course called Mindspot that helps people learn about their anxiety and treat some of the symptoms. You visit Mindspot by going to www.mindspot.org.au and see if this is a course that is right for you.

Another option is to learn to practice Mindfulness. By learning this practice, you may learn to give your mind more rest. Mindfulness can improve concentration and reduce some of the symptoms of anxiety for some people. You could try to learn some of the practice by downloading an app called Smiling Mind or you could talk to a health professional about finding out where you can learn these techniques in this evidenced based therapy.

You are not alone and your symptoms can improve. Persistence is key and keeping your GP updated on the difficulties you are facing with these symptoms could be the first step towards getting some additional support . Having you anxiety under control is fantastic but going further and learning to manage your symptoms until they mostly disappear is possible for many people. Please keep posting on the forum and let us know how you go with finding solutions.

Wishing you the best possible outcome,

Nurse Jenn