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what physical feelings of anxiety do you get?

annabay
Community Member

hey there, what physical symptoms of anxiety do you experience?

I often feel very alone in my experience of having physical chest (what I think are heart) spasms and was wanting to create a space for everyone to list their physical feelings that come hand in hand with anxiety so we can all feel less alone.

hope everyone is well.

797 Replies 797

Supermum
Community Member

Hi all,

Chest tightness, itchiness especially on my face and scalp , hot flushed, disassociation, racing heart, irritable , shaking my hands - tingling , hyperventilation, sheer panic. I start laughing usually in a very crap attempt to divert how I’m feeling to those around me!

fun fun fun !

Hi SarahA

Welcome to the forums! Having diarrhea is very common as our digestive system is the most sympathetic to any forms of stress or anxiety. I understand what you are going through! I hope you are doing okay 🙂

Hi david'n'goliath

Great to have your input and thankyou!

I remember those hot flushes....(and the cold sweats at night) with my anxiety symptoms...ugh!!!

Hi Supermum...the tightness of the chest.....that is a truly crap feeling to experience....I get it and respect your post...You mentioned ' I start laughing usually in a very crap attempt to divert how I’m feeling to those around me!'...Love your attitude Supermum...Good1

my kindest...Paul

gindernomad
Community Member

Hey JonA

i have a very similar thing where i feel like and get very close to fainting, i am currently going through the process of all the checks you have listed. but deep down i know it is just anxiety (better safe than sorry though right). Do you have any tips for how you have dealt with this?

Hello Everyone

Hi gindernomad and thankyou for being a part of the forums! Good on you for being proactive with your health by having the various tests done and yes its better to be safe than sorry

Just from my own experience with anxiety/panic issues....the earlier we treat the symptoms the less severe our symptoms

Any questions are always welcome 🙂

Paul

BlueOceansGentleWaves
Community Member
PANIC. Panic that I've missed out, panic that I've stuffed up, panic that I won't get another chance. It happens over the smallest things and it's an absolutely overwhelming feeling that I need to do something straight away to fix things, yet often there's nothing to fix or no way to fix it. My heart races as if I'm about to go head on with a lion and when I catch myself feeling so wound up, tears immediately well in my eyes. This usually means that by afternoon, it overflows and I cry and cry big heaving sobs. Then I'm so exhausted and deflated I walk around like a zombie. My poor family.

Hello BlueOceansGentleWaves

Welcome and thankyou for your heartfelt post too!

I feel and understand your pain and yes its a horrible set of symptoms to have. The sobbing/crying is a healthy way to vent our feelings (panic etc) even though no one likes crying of course

Can I ask if you have a couple of people (family or friends) that you can confide in? If our symptoms begin to interfere with our ability to function on a daily basis, seeing our GP is crucial

Having a 'tired' mind isnt a good place to be in....I hope someone in you family understands your feelings

The forums are a safe and non judgmental place for you (and me) to post otherwise I wouldnt be a volunteer . I really hope you can stick around the forums or if you wish create your own thread topic..(you will get more replies as this thread topic is non specific)

take good care and I hope you have the best weekend you can 🙂

Paul

ecomama
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor

HUGE warm welcomes to all the new posters!!
Thankyou for sharing!!
Hey Paul and others, how wonderful people are coming onto the forums and sharing their experiences!

Hey isabelle21 and others that can relate,
yes I had "out of body" experiences, they were labelled 'dissociation' by my psych friend then diagnosed as such by a trauma psych.
Yours could be different, hopefully a psychologist could help determine?

Mine was based in anxiety. The "anxiety umbrella" covers PTSD and C-PTSD but these are extreme forms I was diagnosed with.
>>> grounding exercises, which I can be more specific about if you want me to, made dissociation leave completely.

Also indeed the muscle soreness I can relate to.
>>> knowing the source was anxiety helped. Then coaxing my mind / body connection into feeling safe thru self-care and self-compassion every day, made this leave also.

I did some funny things there that are worth a try!
My Counsellor, psych and even Chiropractor agreed they were unusual but gave me the thumbs up for them.

SO if I felt my heart racing or felt my blood pressure rising.
I would notice this.
Stop.
Sense.
Breathe OUT.
Put on some groovy music and do busy, physically active work.
At work I would climb the stairs, carrying boxes, moving stuff.
At home inside I would vacuum or mop or sweep the floors.
In the garden I would sweep with my huge heavy broom, sweep the long the driveway!

At present, a year after I began my own intensive journey hell bent on recovery lol, I'm doing well!
Now, after or during challenging events at work / in my family, I've noted some light symptoms occurring ie not happy dreams, some exposure therapy, I can do on my own, needed at times but rarely.
No other PTSD symptoms.

You CAN get better!
The work you do WILL reap benefits over time.

Some ppl may feel the need for prescribed medications. Please don't discount all the work you need to do on your own.
I chose not to have meds but to implement all I could outside of medicating.

Huge hugs everyone
Love EM

l was suggesting something really physical to my daughter the other day. She use to walk 20 even 30k a day sometimes but her usual walk was 5 or 6 k . But she's doing nothing now and l said that's probably 1/2 the problem she's a young healthy girl she needs something physical to get burn off the energy in her head , even long walks is a bit passive right now and all you do is think on a long walk l said hat about kick boxing or some martial arts - which she was doing a few yrs back, mowing the lawn here which is a workout and a half now since l sold my ride on , so is vacuming joints pretty big.

lf she could just get up and moving and out of her damn head , burn some of this rubbish out of there it would help her sooooooo much, lt's always helped me. rx

efewnfnfk1
Community Member
I hyperventilate. It's the worst. You feel like you're going to pass out, and you want to die simply because depression mixes in with it. It's so bad. I've been doing much better since then though. I hope it doesn't come back. I hate it.

Ha , my last post sounds like l'm trying to palm off all the house work doesn't it but nah it's not that . During bad periods she often has a lot of trouble actually leaving the house so if she can do something physical at home it'll still help.

rx