WHAT SYMPTOMS DO YOU HAVE WITH ANXIETY?

Hi all...I was just checking to see what other peoples sympoms of anxiety are..Mine is feeling off balance real bad like i need to hold on to stuff and , dizzy........Anyone experience that ?

  Lucy

I am going on my 6th day now of racing heart, chest pain, stomach feels like a black hole and I get this warm tingling that goes up my neck and down my arms extreme feeling of fear and losing control. I had an attack last Thurs. night the 23rd and I am still feeling like this.

I almost always start off with gastric issues. I get immediate diarrhea, nausea, heart racing. I find if I take my Xanax at the first hint and lie down with a fan blowing in my face really helps.

Hey All, Hello there and welcome to Healing Well.  I am Kitt.  When I feel anxious I immediately tense up in the shoulders and just feel jittery.  I have to really focus on taking nice slow breaths.  Just staying in the moment usually will help me.

Take Care,

Kitt

Loverain and everyone,

I concur that it is hard to believe that anxiety can actually make you feel like you are "dying" of something!  I have chest pains, rapid heartbeat, mind will not stop racing, break out in what I ca11 stress bumps that come and go, irritable, easily startled, the list goes on.  I have recently started on Buspar with my other med.  Have not been on it long enought to tell if it is working but have noticed that I do not over react in certain situations anymore.  I have found in the last week that I have been on it that I am not sleeping as well, but hopefully that will improve.

Good day to all.

Gem

Hello,

When I have a panic attack I feel like I am going to throw up, I get very hot and break into a sweat, I get dizzy and feel like I am going to pass out... and last but not least my hands and arms get pins and needles!!

YUCK!! It's so horrible!!

(I reposted this because the other one screwed up when I posted, so I deleted it. Sorry!)

Hi,

I tried to describe it once to my husband.  I said if you could imagine the feeling of standing on the edge of a cliff looking down all the time (that is my anxiety) and then every so often someone comes up behind you and gives you whack on the back and you loose your balance and think you are going over the edge (but you don't fall off). That is the panic! An intense fear that is quite literally h***.

My symptoms: I always feel a sudden rush of adrenaline, my brain freezes (can't think clearly), heart races out of control, and I can only think of myself and how to flee this situation causing this immediately! I also get a tightness in my chest and my breathing is very rapid. I know I am going to have a heart attack or stroke and "Where is the nearest hospital?" rushes through my brain. The worst part for me is I become totally selfish and  very nasty with those around me when I am scared to death and need to change my situation now! (what we are doing, where we are going, etc).

But you know the funny thing? One day I tried a new toothpaste and apparently I have an allergy or something to an ingredient in it because I had difficulty breathing for about 20 minutes. Yet, I didn't call for help! Know why? I figured it is because I am so used to living with the feeling of terror that I was able to just ride it out until it passed. Weeeiiiirrrd!

(Not to mention I have more fear of going to the hospital than dying in my living room alone!)

Anyway, I think we all deserve a medal!

Spinnaker

Georgie Girl’s   comment about her symptoms feeling like getting a phone call about an unknown tragedy befalling her husband and son, reminded me of a couple incidents in my life. And since we are talking about symptoms I hope this is on topic. If not, I will delete or move this post if needed. I did get that phone call. My husband and son were in a terrible wreck. Their conditions unknown and I needed to meet the ambulance at X Hospital. After the initial strike of terror when the call came. My brain/body did the unexpected. I had to drive myself a long way to the hospital, driving being a panic attack trigger for me . I had to deal with two loved ones going to different hospitals and both undergoing surgery, feeling helpless and out of control of a situation being a panic attack trigger for me . I had to make a LONG drive when my husband was sent to a distant hospital for advanced emergency trmt, going outside of my comfort zone perimeter being a panic attack trigger for me . A relative drove me, but I was not close with this relative and did not feel emotionally safe with him . We drove the entire trip in a blinding rainstorm, traveling and bad road conditions being another panic attack trigger for me . I had to spend over a week in an unfamiliar city, alone. Again, another panic attack trigger for me . And yet, through it all, I remained calm and was able to think clearly and function normally. So totally out of character for me it has baffled me ever since. This also happened when a loved one unexpectedly died and at the time I was suffering from severe agoraphobia (I was totally housebound) and yet my body/brain did it again and I could attend the viewings, funeral and burial without one single thought about moi (me)and without one single symptom (that is after the shock of the initial phone call wore off). The reason I bring this up is because I know how impossible it is to just shut off panic symptoms. And yet my mind/body did it, quickly and easily twice. I wish I knew more psychology to understand this and wonder how it might help those of us in some way. I find it very intriguing that my mind/body that has so viciously turned on me multiple times in my life that at these two times, The Usual Suspects (symptoms) never surfaced. For some reason when it involved someone else and not just me it changed my body’s response completely. I know we are all different and what happens to one may certainly not be the case for another . But I know what I experienced has been the case for some others too, and I wanted to say to you all-- Have hope! And don’t worry yourself to death over “If I panic this bad riding in an elevator, what will my symptoms be like if I have to deal with X tragedy of a loved one?” (Again, I hope this was not off topic) Thank you for listening, Spinnaker Post Edited By Moderator (stkitt) : 8/13/2009 4:43:50 AM (GMT-6)

Good Morning All,

Great answers by everyone and I am glad you each feel safe and comfortable posting your sx and issues.

Keep on adding your comments as it is good to be able to read how anxiety affects each person.  Good thread

Hugs

Kitt

I REALLY like that this was brought up!!!! Its so reliving to know that I'm not alone with the symptoms I have!!! I have all of the above!!!! I mean, all of them! I HATE the shortness of breath! Here lately thats been my worst symptom! I hate it all though!!!

Its so nice to know we aren't alone isnt it?

-Jen

as far as being in the same boat i hardly think its something to smile about but it is very comforting ! For my entire life i felt out of place, overly dramatic, weird and different because i couldnt socialize or go to parties, and inadequate bcoz i cant properly communicate at time, and my parents constantly accused me of being a drama queen. When i got a little older and started reading and researching and also getting worse i started to seek help without my parents knowing. When it became too bad my parents tried to convince me that i was overreacting and its not as bad as i think it is, and that i am just taking the easy way out by taking medication...
i felt so helpless and missunderstood, so reading these symptoms, having everything i could never put into words being described so many people... it is strangely reassurring
i just wanted to share that and i also wanted to ask acid girl what she meant about the universe feeling? because i think that might be one ofmy symptoms but im not quite sure what it is
When my friend once asked me what it feels like, i described it to her as if all the hurt and fear being felt by everysingle person in the universe is constantly being instilled in me
I get a constant fear
and i get really confused and somewhat hysterical at not being able to think clearly
i get a feeling of overwhelming helplessness and nagging realization that i am clueless
i feel uneasy, irritable angry and scared most of the time
i have a slight tremor all the time and sometimes i get really shaky
and i get hot flashes and i break into a sweat alot
sometimes i get random twitches throughout my body
i also tend to overeact and obsess allll the time

Hi all, im new here. My symptoms are way different today than when this first started. It seems they change over time. If you learn them and get use to them your brain creates new ones.

Neck tense, like its inflamed to the skull for a few hours
Heart rate to around 100 on and off
Palms sweat
feel like I have to escape
Feel like I stole something
Jittery internal feelings like a vibration or crawling
face tense
eyes feel pressure
head bands
right ear feels blocked
feels like the floor moved
blood pressure rises
sometimes stomach ache
if I get distracted it just all unlocks and if I dare think about it its right back.


My prior symptoms were
rapid eye blinking
IBS
fast heart rate
chest pressure
impending doom
out of breath
pale
sweating
extreme nervousness like I drank 10 pots of coffee
scared to death
cant swallow
full blown panic
obsessed about heart and health

I started suffering everyday at the same time, rush home from work laid on the couch and pet the dog. After feeling lazy I started cleaning and it was like some turned off a switch I went back to me. Stress just kept building it back up, refused meds, started therapy but stopped it after 3 years because we just drudge the same stuff up.

The weirdest symptom I ever had was feeling like I was looking in the mirror and had this sensation that made me feel I was not here, I jumped and had to pinch myself and a few times I felt lighter than air. Talk about a drug free trip. Now my head gets tight around it like a band and the top feels weird like I have to touch it to make sure its here. Thought it was BP and but tested a million times and found 110/65 to 140/72 so never really very high. I was just dx with sleep apneia, DR says that it will clear a lot of this up when im treated.

Time to time is all different. I used to have panic attacks 3-4 times per week... Terrible nausea, feeling of dying, crazy heart beat that I couldn't even count (about 170p/m), dizziness, tingling hands, shaking... It is horrible to remember! I was on this site all the time, reading postings. That was about 5 years ago. Someone recommend the book Hope And Help For Your Nerves by Dr. Clair Weeks. I have this book till now. I'm still keeping Xanax in my bag (still afraid to go out without), but I have panic attacks 2-3 per year and they are not so bad anymore. I hope this book will help somebody else too. When I feel strong anxiety or panic attack, I'm taking that book with my trembling hads (also, I can't understand much during attack), but I do read the chapter over and over again and it helps a lot.
And of course, thank you for this site, I found that I'm not alone!