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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

Jazky
Community Member

My first post here, in fact my first day logging on....so hoping this will help me out & be the start to getting my life back on track..

My anxiety & panic attacks have been out of control lately, I experience many of the symptoms people have spoken about but I find the worse is the feeling of disassociating to my surrounds, brain fog, lightheaded ness & the shakes the worse. Lately even in places I always felt comfy in, the panic attacks have started to pop up.

Not sure is anyone else gets this but the best I can explain is the feeling like I am falling off into a abyss, I could be sitting in a chair at a restaurant, club, standing in a queue, at a atm, even in my own home & if there is not enough “stuff”, people, chairs, tables, around me I felt like I am going to slide off into the big unknown....weird hey....Social distancing is the worst for me, having a clear 1.5 metres from the next table, person or chair just makes this vast abyss feeling even worse.

Don’t even get me started on how I feel crossing a road at the set of lights, if I can step off on the side where the cars are stopped I am ok (not great but ok) but if I have to step off the curb with no cars there to feel like there is substance around me, the feeling of panic & falling into a abyss steps in straight away.

And I don’t do shopping centres at all, the glass, lights, shine just make the abyss feeling worse, thank goodness for online shopping.

Well hopefully today is the first day of me getting out of the house more often!

love & light to all!

Not_Batman
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

hi all, these are some of the symptoms i get. these will be familiar.

Anxiety:
constant chest pain (can last for weeks). Sometimes its a dull ache, sometimes its like my chest is about to go all ‘Alien’

bad feeling in my gut. Kind of like emptiness and burning.

intrusive thoughts

obsessive thinking

breathing with a short pause (like when you are crying and gasping for breath)

tired

trouble sleeping (which causes being tired, which fuels the anxiety, which means i have trouble sleeping, which causes being tire...its a vicious cycle)
worry

panic attack:

fast breathing

numb fingers

hot face

headache

crying

rapid thoughts

cant think clearly

erratic movement.

shaking hands, particularly my dominant hand.

Depression:

low mood

low self esteem

crying. Normally i cant get a tear out, but when im depressed the tap is on full.

Apathy

cant enjoy anything

irritable

intrusive thoughts and ideation.

worthlessness

tired

no desire to do anything

cant concentrate

Being overly critical

lost appetite.

upset stomach.

Not_Batman

Davidc
Community Member
Everyone gets anxious at one point or another. The difference is how you respond to that anxiety, which determines whether or not you have a problem. When most people get anxious, they feel lightheaded, rapid heartbeat, or even tingles in their belly. But that's where it stops.

cjs
Community Member

Hi,

This is my first time on these forums. But when I get anxiety ,which seems to be daily at the moment, my stomach goes upside down, I become light headed and I clench my jaw and I usually suck in my stomach so I can start to feel less insecure. But usually I don't do anything further.

I feel as if I'm beginning to fade and hate myself.

abbeyroad
Community Member

hello im new to this site and am hoping it will help.i suffer anxiety and depression and find im very emotional all the time.this yeat has been a shocker for alot of people.havent seen my doctor for along time mainly because he has moved on and dont know who to see now.

with covid cant see my family

Hi Everyone and thankyou for helping others by sharing your own anxiety symptoms

Hey Abbeyroad...and welcome! Being new is a bonus as Beyond Blue always need a fresh set of eyes where anxiety is concerned. Your post is super helpful as the bulk of our internet hits come from readers (approx 70%)

Im in Victoria and have been in stage 4 for a long time. I understand what you are going through abbeyroad

Hey cjs....Welcome too! as posting on the forums takes huge strength which I didnt have when joined the forums in Jan 2016..Please dont hate yourself cjs....you are too special....

Hey Davidc and thankyou for being a part of the forums and for sharing your life experience about anxiety and you are spot on with your post.

Its only my experience .....If our anxiety impacts on our ability to function on a day to day basis we need to touch base with our doctor (GP)

My physical symptoms are on page 1 or 2 of this thread topic...

my kind thoughts always...Paul

jennieg
Community Member

Hello

thank you for sharing how you feel with your anxiety. Next week my adult daughter will be staying with us who has bad anxiety. Reading your posts has helped in my understanding.
One of my friends has suggested a gluten free diet at least for a while in case there is an intolerance for wheat. (Not full blown coeliac) a naturopath told her to try it and it worked a treat. Even her hands were shaking but this helped hugely.
Has anyone tried and had success with this please

Annewithan-e
Community Member

...a sinking feeling like I’m about to get into trouble.

A rising sick feeling and everything slows down.

Depending on how large a reaction or if I can get control one of two things happen.

1 I take control, over achieve and become very busy ‘fixing’

or

2 I start to detach and my vision is blurry white at the edges. Sometimes I will breathe out but not back in and it takes me a while to realize I’m not breathing. I feel incredibly tired.

It’s interesting how widely our experiences vary, and what we take for granted when people respond to situations in different ways.

Hello jennieg and welcome!

thankyou for speaking from the heart! I have heard some people find comfort with a gluten free diet

I am glad that you have found the posts helpful jennieg. I used to have acute anxiety since 1983 when I was 23 and have tried many natural health remedies. Just for myself I didnt have any success 😞

I hope some of this has been helpful....Paul

(any questions are welcome...or a new thread topic if you wish)

maxmadthecurse
Community Member

Hi all

I am 35 and suffer from insomnia/anxiety on and off for the last two years, though it's recently at its worst and I think i'm over obsessing my blood pressure levels.

I believe it all began early 2019 when I had major anxiety symptoms and when i visited a doctor he found my blood pressure to be on hypertension levels around 160/100, long story short a week after i decided to take 24 hour blood pressure monitor and it was found my resting BP was normal, so i'm told it's most likely psychological.

I do deal with occasional insomnia and maybe some anxiety here and there since then which is totally manageable but it's recently hit its peak a week ago.

8 days ago i decided to have just one drink of whisky before bed which usually calms me down for bedtime, and then i woke up at 3 am with my heart pounding and I couldn't sleep and felt drained. From that point on my anxiety is at peak levels. I can hear my heart beating constantly, feeling jacked up full of adrenaline, occasional pains in my chest and full blown insomnia again. I'm guessing i'm facing a period of generalized anxiety right now?

Only thing that's different now is that my housemate has got a blood pressure monitor this time and my readings are at near constant 160/100 levels again which puts alot of doubt and fear again over my experience last year.

Anyone here suffers from real high blood pressure levels during periods of anxiety?

I'm booked in to see a psychologist in two weeks at least, and i think there's no point taking my blood pressure readings every day when my anxiety is just constant right now.