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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

Cee123
Community Member
I get the whole tightness in my chest, I can't breathe, shakiness, knots in my stomach, and sweating under the arms and on my palms. It's absolutely horrible. I am absolutely miserable and ashamed of myself that I can't function normally like a normal human being. And I feel like it's going to take me a lot to catch up to everyone else my age in terms of life experiences. And then I get depression when I think about that as well.

ThomasJakeLim
Community Member
Tight chest, mild cold sweats thinking about anxiety itself, feeling helpless, mild body ached, tense upper back and neck muscles that does not go away or comes back after stretching, broken sleeps, dreams, fatigue. It's tough, rough, annoying and it never seems to end. Wears you down.

Hi Cee I feel your pain and understand exactly how you feel. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you ThomasJakeLim.. It's tough isn't it? Wish there was a cure for this horrible affliction.

Hi isabelle21

How are you feeling now? Have you found any answers? I am experiencing the same thing and it causing major health anxiety . I have seen a neurologist about it and in the end he said it is anxiety. he is doing an mri for my sake to help my anxiety but he said he 100% doesn’t need to do it for him. So I will let you know how I go.. otherwise all I can say is I was on anxiety meds and it helped dramatically and once I got off them I feel everything 10x more I feel worse! Also I went to physio and she worked on my back and that helped some of my symptoms too. So it could be a mix of things I hope you feel better soon as I know how scary it can be.. I am convinced I have MS

I am with u.

The worst for me is the anxiety l still get even yrs later over the regrets of something l did during anxiety, some go back 10yrs, some even more. But l can't change and undo a thing or apologize or explain to anyone.

lt's the absolute worst part of anxiety for me. rx

alexg21
Community Member
Yeah that is not easy at all.

Hi Rach, thanks for the reply!
Honestly... I don't think I have gotten to the bottom of it yet.

I went and saw a physio and we suspected it was a muscular thing in which he started to get to me work on strengthening my glutes and thighs.... but it wasn't doing much... so I went to see an osteo and he thinks that it has something to with my legs being hypertonic and not "switching off"... I am still not convinced because I find I still get weak/stiffness in the legs from time to time. I am really struggling quite a bit with it all... and probably going to request to do some scans for it...
I am also wondering whether this is just my anxiety? Very stressful because it plays on my mind all day... and I justwant an answer... 😞

I don't deal well with anxiety at all. I chain smoke, which in turn has an affect on me physically. When the fear takes over I sometimes can't get out of bed because the anxiety is too overwhelming. I have tried self-soothing and that seems to calm me down a bit but the negative thoughts are just too much sometimes.