anxiety and real physical body symptoms

[devon]

Hello i am new to this site after plucking up the courage to join.I had a flair up over christmas and new year with my anxiety and the awful symptoms,i have been free from it up until about two weeks ago.I have been having lower back pain since last october which has really pulled me down and i think it is that which has triggered this latest episode as i am convinced it must be something other than anxiety. I am waiting to see an orthopedic on the spinal team on July 6th regarding my back.I also expierience weak feelings in my thighs and lower legs,crampy and twitchy calfs feel shaky within clammy and then feal as if you are going to collapse and to add the awful feelings of being spaced out not in the real world plus being very fatigued no energy. I am not new to this anxiety as i have had it going back many years but then i have good spells of quite a few years when i am normal then something happens and you are then dropped in it again and the panic gets a hold. My last bout prior to this christmas was six years ago so i felt i had done well, one thing i do notice is that when the symptoms come back they come back with a vegence and with extra ones which were'nt there before.

[Hidden]

Hi welcome to the site,its a god send I tell you.If you take time to read the blogs and questions you will soon find out you are not alone.I get the spaced out feeling when anxious and the tiredness,it gets you down.Hope the site helps you

[devon]

Hi Sharonlou thank you for replying.I only found this site about a week ago and have studied it well and as you said the blogs make very good reading and you can identify with a lot of what other people write about so you dont feel alone and in a funny sort of way it gives you some form of comfort to think you are not alone.I have had a gps appoint this morning and she is going to do a full blood count plus urine for me next week and to check my thyroid and vit and mineral levels so at the moment my anxiety levels have dropped a bit but i know that by this evening they could well be high again.

[Hidden]

Hi pleased you like the site its brilliant.Anxiety is a bugger you have a few good days then bang it hits you but we are strong we must be to get through each day.My anxiety is health had it for 6 months and hate it getting CBT now so hoping I can change the negatives into positives .I know its hard work but Im willing to do it to get through

[Pickle165]

i can relate to alot of your symptom and it is hard to know what is anxiety and what is a seperate medical issue.......im still trying to find out mine but one thing i do know is anxiety really does make me feel worse when im ill. i had the flu in march and it felt like i was dying i was so scared. x

[Bramwell]

I agree that the health anxiety comes back even stronger once you've had a break. Adding new symptoms as well seems the norm. My councilor told me that you get new symptoms because your mind had got used to the old ones and they aren't such a worry, so you come up with something new to really get you going.

I was almost free of HE between 1997 and 2008 with just few appearances popping up, but since 2008 I've had some horrendous scares (it's the only word I can think of to describe the absolute terror i go into when I think I've got the latest always-very-serious illness).

I wonder if it's age related. I was 37 when I really had the first bad health anxiety but now I'm almost 55 and it seems to be worse than it ever was before.

[devon]

Hi how i can identify with your comments on HE i was probably about 30 when mine started and i am now in my early 60s,this latest episode for me really is one of the worse i have had as so many new symptoms which you are always questioning can they really all be to do with anxiety.I have awful thoughts of the dreaded cancer,ms,bt you name it the brain wont leave off thinking all these things.When i get into this heightened state it is very difficult to switch off i try and distract myself but it is very hard to concentrate when all you can think about is how awful you feel and the symptoms all you want to do is feel normal.

[Boo1983]

Hi Devon,

I am like you, when i am suffering from a bout of Anxiety, i get all the physical symptoms too. There are loads of different symptoms that each person feels at one time. I have suffered from many over they years, only to be told by my doctor there is nothing wrong. Just check out different web sites they have lists of all the symptoms you can feel when you have anxiety. x

[Holisticstress]

Stress and anxiety can cause physical symptoms as mentioned before stress is a bully and will go for the weakest link. Also when people are stressed or feeling low they are more susceptible to feeling physical pain especially back pain as the seretonin levels in spinal column does reduce

CBT and mindfulness help tremendously. When stressed your emotional brain takes over from your rational brain so try some breathing exercises to reintroduce the rational brain

[Maxpower22]

I get the same symptoms and finding it difficult have i got something medical wrong with me or is it just anxiety. Have you got any tips on how you got free from it which may help? Doctors just sweep this under the rug tell you.you will get better but this is one of the hardest things in life to get over once it get a hold of you. Hope you can get normal again.