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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

I know this feeling oh so well to .I have had some stress recently and i just hate the pains in the stomach and then they set off health anxiety .I also have anxiety panic disorder and had a panic attack yesterday .I am heading back to work today not many hours and so nervous havnt worked since the c virus outbreak and im feeling crap let you know how i get on .

Totally agree

Often we can beat ourselves up on this which only makes anxiety worse

yes some of needs doctors/counsellors or even a good friend who can get beside us and be a great support

overtime I have learnt early triggers and I now remove myself from the situation, even if just for a short time to grab a coffee.

This gives me time to refocus and not feel so overwhelmed.

Take care

Ricman
Community Member
One of the biggest challenges I have, and I assume most of us do, is actually believing these physical symptoms are actually anxiety. Mine are mainly in the chest and shoulder area (left side which annoys me - the right would make me less inclined to think it's my heart). But I've had a couple of good days where the 'symptoms' have not been there. Today I discovered I need to do some expensive plumbing repairs to the house (like I haven't had enough stress this year) and as the plumber is telling me all the stuff that needs to be done (we are talking thousands of dollars), my chest got tight and the gosh darned knot in my rib appeared. It will hang around for the night and my mind will try to play tricks on me but it's so obviously to do with stress and anxiety. Believe what you know is true about how your anxiety effects you but always remember to seek medical advice for anything you can't explain - that's how I work.

Bonnie.r
Community Member

Hi hello!

Hope everyone's doing okay 🙂 just joined today 😄

I was wondering if anyone else gets really bad shakes. Like not like when you have a panic attack but your whole body just starts shaking really bad and you start sweating and all your muscles cramp up and like the only thing that really helps is breathing deep (it sounds like a panic attack but i swear it isn't or at least its unlike the ones i've had in the past) and also for me, doing something distracting like watching funny youtube. This usually happens when theres topics of conflict but lately its gotten worse, like it happens when we're talking about planning my birthday zoom call or just when I have class that is actually quite chill. Though i might be lying to myself if i said it wasn't stressful cause i do design and every class is basically getting critiqued on your work so maybe i am lying to myself woops. I tried reading through some of the other replies to see if anyone else experiences this but then i started feeling like i wanted to cry so stopped after skimming like 5 posts. so yeah, please tell me if i'm not the only the one (which i'm sure i'm not) but these 'episodes'(?) confuse me a lot cause i've told my friend about it and she was surprised

Hope everyone stays safe ❤️

Bonnie.r
Community Member

Hi jesicca!

just wanted to say i do the exact same thing! love going out on runs or walks on sunny days and pretty skies do wonders to calm me down even if its momentarily. and yoga's the best for stretching out tight muscles and practicing deep breathing. I really recommend Yoga with Adriene on youtube for anybody else who might see this. She's really great - has yoga practices for beginners onwards and for absolutely anything. workouts, stress, waking up, period cramps, chronic pains, feeling sad, being productive etc. I felt really silly doing yoga at first cause of all the loud breathing and stuff but eventually i got used to it and now i love it!

Gambit87
Community Member

Hey there everyone!

I've been trying out the yoga with adriene videos! they are good.

so, the night before last I ate a packet mix butter chicken dinner thing - it gave me heart burn and I ended up having a bad sleep - eh, it happens! mistakes were made.

Last night, went to bed at 11 - woke up at 1230 - couldn't get back to sleep until about 3. It felt like my heart was racing and I was overheating! like I was to hot under the blankets, but if I took the blankets off I felt the cold air on my skin but wasn't cold. My mind was clear and relaxed though - I didn't feel anxious but after talking to my girlfriend about it it appears my body was anxious?!

sometimes I do get anxious when I think about whether or not im going to get a good sleep that night.

My early sign is mostly the shaking of my left hand gets so bad cant hold cup of coffee

I then need to relax focus on something else till shaking goes away.

Being able to recognise this early is very important

SaiyanSteph
Community Member

I have a lot of physical feelings and problems that come with my anxiety so I’m just going to put a list so I don’t have to type a lot, sorry just been hard the past couple days.

seizures

trembling all over my body

shaky voice

ringing in my ears

Self-harm

and I could go on and on and on, I’m even nervous now just posting this reply cause I’m scared that I’m going to get hate replies, but here it goes.

 

Hey SaiyanSteph, thanks for reaching out to this community. We understand it can be hard to post when you're feeling so low, so we are genuinely grateful you decided to reach out. We're so sorry to hear about your experiences with anxiety. We understand that these feelings must be very overwhelming. Please know that you're not alone and there will be members of this community who relate to what you are describing.

Can we ask if you are you currently receiving mental health support, or have you in the past? If not, we would urge that you do seek professional support to help you work through these urges that you're experiencing. If you are not sure of how to access mental health support, please contact the Beyond Blue Support Service anytime on 1300 22 4636 or get in touch with us on Webchat 3pm-12am AEST here: www.beyondblue.org.au/getsupport One of the friendly counsellors can offer you some support but also provide you with advice and referrals for seeing a counsellor in a more ongoing way. Many of our members will understand and may be able to help.

If you would like to post further, please feel free to begin a personal thread and we can discuss more about what's on your mind and how we can best help support you. 

Hello SaiyanSteph (and thankyou Sophie_M)

We understand how you feel SaiyanSteph....anxiety is horrible when we have these awful symptoms you mentioned..I used to have chronic anxiety and it was a dark place to be in

Good on you for being a part of the forum family! If we didnt have new members like yourself the forums wouldnt exist so thankyou so much for contributing to the discussion

Can I ask if you have seen your GP about your anxiety? This is crucial so we can find some peace of mind in these difficult times

we are here and listening!

my kind thoughts for you

Paul