How does your anxiety manifest itself?

[Inkachu]

I know we all have various ways that our anxieties manifest physically; body aches, trouble breathing, thinking we're going to choke, thinking we're having heart attacks, etc etc.

So what's your particular symptom that seems to be most prevalent?

Mine is something that I haven't encountered in anyone else. Mine is all about my throat. Not choking...I don't worry that I'm going to choke. I obsess over my tonsils, always thinking they're swollen (I've had tonsil stones, but nothing severe), and my uvula, cause it's big anyway, and if I snore too much it swells up and feels horribly uncomfortable (happens very rarely though, and just sipping water for an hour or so takes care of it), just generally thinking my throat is too small, it's gonna close up, on and on and on.

I've also experienced anxiety over how fast or hard my heart is beating, worrying that I'm just suddenly going to have some life-threatening allergic reaction to something (anything, food, medicine, chemicals). Basically any small medical problem I experience can turn into a huge worry, and lots of things that aren't wrong with me at all will worry me.

I'm so sick and tired of being this way!! I used to be "normal", and now I feel lonely and scared every day, I'm afraid to go places or take trips, I know that these fears can rob me of my life if I let them. I pray all the time for help from God, and I know there are steps I can take to help myself (eat right, sleep well, exercise).

I guess I just needed to talk about it. Thanks for listening. And I'd really like to hear if anyone else has obsessive fears about any particular thing, like I do.

 

[hope_is_last_to_die]

My main problem is breathing but I also struggle with eating re choking. A few months ago I had a very severe panic attack and at that time I didnt know it was a panic attack. I thought I was having a heart attack, I ended up in ER. Since that attack my breathing has been difficult. Looking back I now see that I suffered major trauma as a result of that attack. Thankfully, Im slowly recovering. The other problem I have is getting very agitated easily, snapping at people. Im normally very easy going.

 

[R.A.IN]

I don't know if I could list all the ways it manifests for me.

 

[Bribarian]

Usually mine come from worrying about mental or physical illness. That and of course the worry about more panic attacks themselves.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

My pulse races, I feel like I'm not getting enough air, and I feel like someone is sitting on my chest. Also sometimes I get nauseous or feel like I will faint (and last week I almost did faint -- my whole face went pale, my ears started ringing, I broke out in a sweat, and I started gagging). I will also cry uncontrollably and hyperventilate sometimes. There has been one time when I felt like I was choking -- that was definitely the scariest thing.

 

[Inkachu]

Poor Melissa! I hate to think of you going through that.

I'm not really talking about what you physically experience during a panic attack, though. But is there any physical condition that your brain seems to focus on, as like, your signature panic button? Like, mine is my throat, even when I'm calm and functional, I'm constantly like "OK, how is my throat, is it sore, does it feel okay, does it hurt..." I guess my anxiety manifests with hypochondria...I don't know, I've never been "officially diagnosed".

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

No, there's no physical thing my brain focuses on. I just worry about random things all the time -- and that will cause physical symptoms. I get physical symptoms of anxiety with no apparent reason at times, too, though.

 

[Inkachu]

I'd like to suggest to my church that they consider starting a mental health support group, but I'm afraid they'll look at me and go "Whoa, she must be borderline wacko if she's suggesting this!"

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

I doubt it. I couldn't imagine that happening in my church.

 

[nagwalk]

When I stress I am not aware but my leg breaks out in open sores. The last time it happened we had just learned that a lump was found on my wife's breast.

 

[R.A.IN]

My focus tends to be on my heart. I'm sure I'm having a heart attack. Of course that does wonders for my blood pressure........... NOT!

 

[nessa9522]

I use to feel something in my throat and i felt like i was gonna choke, also i would worry about my tonsils because i have a enlarged tonsil, I know how it feels to worry about every little symptom you feel I will pray for you.

 

[Inkachu]

I doubt it. I couldn't imagine that happening in my church.

I went ahead and sent them an email

When I stress I am not aware but my leg breaks out in open sores. The last time it happened we had just learned that a lump was found on my wife's breast.

WOW that would stress me out, too. I've never heard of anyone's anxiety manifesting in open sores...wow. Is it like itchy hives?

My focus tends to be on my heart. I'm sure I'm having a heart attack. Of course that does wonders for my blood pressure........... NOT!

I feel you! When I was going through my worst period of anxiety (which lasted for months) my BP was through the roof, which of course, only freaks you out more!

I use to feel something in my throat and i felt like i was gonna choke, also i would worry about my tonsils because i have a enlarged tonsil, I know how it feels to worry about every little symptom you feel I will pray for you.

ME TOO. I have one enlarged tonsil and I'm constantly thinking about it. I'm doing better, though...the better care I take of myself in general (sleeping enough, not over-eating), the more my mind functions normally. It's when my stress makes me go into unhealthy habits that I start to freak out about my health and start thinking morbid illness/death thoughts. It's like it's a cycle either way, the better you take care of yourself, the better you'll feel; the worse you take care of yourself, the worse you'll feel. Either one will expound on itself.

 

[ido]

I have a fear of death that I deal with b/c of a traumatic experience in 2005, so when I'm super-stressed/anxious about something, my fear of dying kicks in and I start imagining myself or my loved ones dying horrible deaths. Another way it manifests itself is through sharp stabbing pains in my head. I was thought to have an aneurysm (which they recently determined I don't!), so every time I would get a headache - which is pretty often - I would start to worry that it was the aneurysm. Even now that I know I don't have one, my brain still wants to automatically jump to that.

Physically, I have all sorts of skin reactions. In the past, I've had hives, water blisters, variations in my cycle. As I've gotten older, I've developed rosacia - so now when I'm stressed, my face explodes.

I'm a mess - lol - but I'm God's mess, so I just keep working at turning the worry and anxiety over to Him. I just don't always do a good job of it.

 

[Inkachu]

I have a fear of death that I deal with b/c of a traumatic experience in 2005, so when I'm super-stressed/anxious about something, my fear of dying kicks in and I start imagining myself or my loved ones dying horrible deaths. Another way it manifests itself is through sharp stabbing pains in my head. I was thought to have an aneurysm (which they recently determined I don't!), so every time I would get a headache - which is pretty often - I would start to worry that it was the aneurysm. Even now that I know I don't have one, my brain still wants to automatically jump to that.

Physically, I have all sorts of skin reactions. In the past, I've had hives, water blisters, variations in my cycle. As I've gotten older, I've developed rosacia - so now when I'm stressed, my face explodes.

I'm a mess - lol - but I'm God's mess, so I just keep working at turning the worry and anxiety over to Him. I just don't always do a good job of it.

You're more like I am than you realize! I never really put two-and-two together, and understood that my anxiety is due to a LOT of emotional trauma as a kid, and the fact that it manifests as hypochondria (constant worry about sickness and death) is probably because I've had many, many medical problems throughout life, and I went through things with doctors and hospitals as a child that totally traumatized me. I also find myself thinking about dying a terrible, tragic death and leaving my son all alone, or even worse, him dying or something terrible happening to him. I don't think thoughts like that are too uncommon, especially for mom's.

I love how you said you're "God's mess". I say the same thing to myself all the time! I'm so thankful God loves me and values me, even if I'm an anxious, depressed, confused, weird, lost wreck of a person. Woohoo

 

[ido]

Ink

 

[hope_is_last_to_die]

Dont know if this is related to my panic disorder but Im getting itchy, mostly around my chest and back but sometimes arms too. Have no rash or any signs of a skin prob but just an annoying itch Dont want to get too panicky about it but wondering if its directly related to my panic disorder. Also had a bad day today re panic disorder

 

[Inkachu]

Ughhh, I just had a friend ask me about my tonsils (cause I get tonsil stones now and then, which are nothing serious) and that made me start obsessing and I had to go look up web articles on tonsils and tonsillectomies and I found all these horror stories and on and on... fighting to keep my brain straight right now. I really have to "talk back" to my anxious thoughts sometimes. Like "OK, I've lived with these tonsils for 32 years, what reason do you have to think you can't live with them for the rest of your life?" And of course, the answer is that I've lived with them just fine, and I'll continue to be fine with them.

 

[Lighthouse76]

Mine is swallowing, choking, breathing; sensation my brains are not "normal compact" but like puzzle pieces inside and that I do have a real chemical imbalance; the most odd is that the room ceiling and even the sky are closing in, I do feel pressured, suffocated by the "outside" open space that lost the regular/natural/normal room it always had and it's just closing on me...it's very anguishing, terrifying sensation, that the world around me and inside are in desorder, chaos, not the same anymore.

 

[Inkachu]

Wow Lighthouse, that's intense. Are you in counseling, hon?