Tingling, muscle tension after intense anxiety

[sledz14]

Hi All,

For the past 1-2 weeks I've had a really intense period of panic and anxiety brought on by a health scare. I was so wound up in paralyzing fear, dread, sadness, stress for nearly 2 weeks. I had the occasional moment of calm when distracted, but it would always come back and hit me like a tidal wave. My sleep has been awful and my body has truly taken a toll. However, today I'm finally feeling a little bit better and like myself. I honestly think my brain just gave up and has no capacity to panic anymore. I feel calm and relaxed, am able to think straight and concentrate, but I'm having these waves of tingles and numbness down my head through my right jaw, neck and shoulders. I know it's not a panic attack.
Is it possible that this is my bodies reaction to being so stressed for 2 weeks? I've been reading online that it could be that my stress response is still in a semi-hyperstimulated state.

I'm considering popping to shop and getting a massage to help relieve that tension.

Has anyone else felt this way?

[Croix]

Dear Sledz14~

Welcome back. I remember reading around 3 months ago you started tapering off your medication -doing it the right way with your doctor's supervision. At that time you were suffering " Side effects include nausea, lightheadedness, confusion, agitation, brain zaps, nightmares, dizziness and anxiety (yuck!)"

My I ask if things have now settled down?

It sounds like the last couple of weeks have been particularly difficult with a great deal of tension and stress. I'm glad things are now a little easier. It's funny the way you put it, as I've thought the same, the brain can only keep the tempo of anxiety at fever pitch for so long then has to take a rest. As a result calmer thoughts start to come though.

For me that amout of stress does leave physical effects lingering on, head and shoulders very stiff tense and aching, headaches and even chest pain among other things, so I would say it is not impossible those tingles and numbness in your jaw and shoulders might be something similar.

I don't think it wold hurt to visit your doctor and get a medical opinion, it might set your mind at rest.

Croix

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi sledz14,

Thanks for your post. It sounds like you've been through a lot in these last few weeks, and I'm sorry that you had the health scare - I imagine that must have been hard to go through.

You said that you know that what you're feeling is not a panic attack, are you worried that it might because of a health reason (i.e. panic attacks can often be confused with heart attacks)? Or is it more so that you know that you have this anxiety even though it's not as intense as a panic attack?

It is absolutely possible that this is your bodies reaction to all of this stress. Even if the 'stressor' is out of the way, the alarm bells in our mind can tend to ring for a while until it's sure that there's no reason to be anxious or afraid.

If you find a massage to be helpful, that's great - the most important thing is to be kind to yourself and manage your anxiety so that things can settle.

RT