Anxiety without feeling anxious?

[Springtimeholly]

Hey, everyone! I’m fairly new here but have browsed several posts and haven’t found the answer to my particular question yet (some that are similar). Over the past year, I’ve had a lot of symptoms that seem like anxiety but without feeling anxious at all... at least not initially. The symptoms make me a little anxious because they’re very uncomfortable and becoming chronic, so that’s fear-inducing. I just wonder if anyone else has had this experience... the physical symptoms of anxiety without any of the emotional feelings of anxiety. I’ve actually never been anxious as far as an emotional feeling (until these symptoms persisted) that I can recall, and everyone describes me as very laid back and calm. I do have a lot of stressful things in my life and work a lot... but again, I don’t *feel* emotionally stressed out or overwhelmed or anything else. Because of these symptoms, I was ultimately referred to a neurologist, and after a year long hunt for a reason, we’ve come up with nothing. I have trouble initiating a swallow when I eat, when I drink water, and sometimes just with spit (once I can swallow, nothing gets stuck... it’s just an issue of getting the swallow reflex to start). My asthma has become considerably worse over the past year, allergy symptoms have returned (probably not anxiety related but important maybe to note). I get lots of twitching in various body parts, lots of pings and stabbing pains that come and go, heart palpitations, breathlessness when I’m just sitting still (separate from the asthma exacerbations)... those are the major ones but they’re so frequent and more on the severe side, so sometimes completely debilitating. I know you may be inclined to tell me to see my doctor so I want to reassure you that I am... I’m just looking for opinions or personal experiences that might shed some light and that I can bring up with my doctors (since they’re stumped, too). Thank you so much for reading my super long post!!

[b1b1b1]

Are you seeing a therapist. This might be helpful since your doctors do not seem to find anything specifically wrong.

[Springtimeholly]

Yes, I am. I have been for a year since the symptoms started partly because I wondered if it’s anxiety and partly because of the stress of not knowing and having so many medical tests and appts. However, even my therapist is unsure because I don’t seem anxious. That’s why it’s so helpful to hear from other people because my “sampling” of the population so far is a handful of people who may never have experienced anxiety themselves.

[Dignacio]

Hi Springtimeholly, I’m Dee and I am one of the anxiety complainant. I hope everything is doing great with you. I myself have multiple medical condition, you name it! Asthma, high blood pressure anxiety, stress etc. etc. Bit you know what? I dealt all this without taking any drugs at all . Believe that? It’s unbelievable right? Last year of Feb. when I was diagnosed having anxiety I just ignore it . I thought it’s just a regular stress that if you had a complete rest it will disappear which is not! I’d been to hell a lot . Back and fort to the doctor , getting too many test to figure it out what is going on cause of these symptoms such as numbing and tingling of my limbs, light headed feels like I’m floating, gassy, bloated , you named it is messing up my life, But I realized that I can’t live like this , always paying attention to the symptoms and rely on to my doctor who can’t find the answer to my question. So I decided to search online and I found this site. I can’t believe how many people experiencing the same way I do, and luckily some of us are helpful and reaching out on a time that you needed help the most. I am so lucky to join on this forum and hear everybody’s advice. So as you see, sometimes it helps talking to somebody about your feeling about this anxiety issue, cause myself don’t really tried to talk about my personal medical issue to anyone but I learned to trust now. You mention that u experienced stabbing pain, that symptoms sounds like shingles , try to make a doctors appointment and have your CBC tested , diabetes, and shingles symptoms. I hope all the info I gave you can help. GOD Bless