Anxiety and muscle weakness?

[Mrworrymaster]

Ever feel weaker after dealing with long term anxiety? Real or perceived?

[Saraclara]

I believe it is real. The way I see it is that your body is being practically assaulted with adrenaline and cortisol on a regular basis. How can that not affect your muscles, etc.? When I have a panic episode it takes a long time to recover-- longer now that I'm older. It's been 8 days since my last and I am still weak and my muscles feel like they're humming. I have been here before and I recognize it as anxiety but it's still scary. The last time I was on meds it took me months --much more than a year to "recover" and that was just convincing myself I didn't have a brain tumor/MS.

But as time goes on the line between real and perceived gets blurred, so all of it is a grey area. But constant scrutiny breeds more anxiety, more "assault" and therefore more symptoms. And the cycle continues. 😑

[Mrworrymaster in reply to Saraclara]

You have no idea how much peach you just brought me!

Of course, you read and read and read and research and learn how anxiety hits you. But, it just makes so much more sense when someone else is going through the same things.

My anxiety is much more manageable now, but I need to remind myself that I'm not "cured" and there is no magical fix from one day to the next.

You get some physical symptoms and you say to yourself: "it's just my anxiety again, relax!" But that nagging sense of "what if?" is always there and just keeps on pushing those chemicals through you.

Anxiety is a crazy thing. Roller coaster for sure.

Thank you again, you have made my day much better and I'm able to relax a bit.

[Saraclara in reply to Mrworrymaster]

Something you said jogged a memory. When I was on meds several years ago I was also in therapy. One of the tasks I had to complete was to string paper clips together for every "what if" thought I had. I was convinced that it wouldn't amount to much but my therapist told me I needed to go ahead and get a few boxes. Sure enough the paper clip chain got to be ridiculously long. We are still using them! 😛

I'm glad I helped you today. We seem to be going down a very similar path. You are not alone.

[Beevee]

That paper clip chain will get smaller and weaker if you change the way you react to all those "what ifs." You cannot stop an anxious mind from conjuring up anxious thoughts but you can choose how to react to them. Your reaction will determine whether or not you recover from anxiety.

If you add more fear to the what ifs, you strengthen and lengthen that paper clip chain. If you practice accepting those thoughts and develop a "so what" attitude and leave them alone, they will lose gradually lose their power to frighten and will melt away. They are just a figment of an anxious mind and won't be there when you recover. Effectively, you are fighting with yourself which just keeps you in the anxiety loop. You are trying to fix your anxiety with an anxious mind which will never happen. Give up the fight, give up trying to fix your anxious mind and do absolutely nothing about the thoughts. Learn to observe them come and go, instead of getting involved. Let them have their say, give them the room in your head and just roll with the punches.

If you haven't already done so, read Self help for your nerves by Dr Claire Weekes and visit a website called Anxiety No More which advocate acceptance as bringing about a permanent cure because it removes the fear of the symptoms of anxiety and without fear, anxiety simply doesn't exist.

[Hurt76]

Yessssssssssssss the other night my heart raced for about an hour.afterwards my arms , legs and fingers felt weak