Anxiety symptoms going away when I'm ill?

[Madgirl12]

Hi everyone,

Just wondered if anyone else has experienced this.

I've been on 2 much-needed weeks' holiday from work (didn't go anywhere, just chilled out at home mostly) and when I saw my doctor on Friday (am currently on sertraline) I had a bit of a cry because I was suddenly dreading going back to work. And he reassured me that I'd be fine and I knew I would really but I was still feeling worried and not looking forward to starting back.

Anyway, I picked up a cold over the weekend. And when Monday came I went into work, still had the cold and felt that achy, sniffly way but I didn't feel anxious at all! I just got on with work at my own pace, no worrying about what might or might not have happened during my absence or fretting about things that might happen now I was back. When I took paracetamol it was to help me get rid of the cold symptoms, not because I'd developed a headache because I was feeling anxious. I haven't had a headache since I've been back either. And I've still got the cold so that's been 4 days at work and no anxiety! I could get used to this. Although I'd prefer not to have a cold either haha.

This isn't the first time I've noticed this. I think maybe having the cold gives me a distraction from things/thought processes that make me anxious? Because I'm feeling lethargic and physically crap that's what I'm concentrating on? And colds are 'normal' so I don't worry that anyone will pick up on me being sick and question me about it, making me anxious? Like how I sometimes worry about people finding out about my depression/anxiety, which makes it worse.

Anyway, just thought I'd share :)

[Oosh]

I get this. And you are the only other person I've heard mention it.
I've experienced it for years, googled it, nothing.

I dread getting colds, don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy them.
But I've observed many times I will feel less anxious, more myself. Of course I look into the cold remedies I took, like lemsips and continued to take them after the cold had gone, thinking it was those, but it wasn't. It leaves when the cold dies.

I put it down to beta endorphins, bodies natural painkiller, that could increase when struggling with cold symptoms. OR, what you said about being semi distracted by symptoms so it's almost like you're playing ping pong and carrying out your day, your minds always dealing with something else so is a bit more spontaneous and less prone to overthink and worry.

I don't know. Glad to see it mentioned though. It's baffled me for a long time. :)

[SarahH]

I get this too and believe I am so distracted by the "real" symptoms I forget about the anxiety.

Sarah

[Ryan92]

Yeah same here, even though its never nice to have a cold it's a relief to have a distraction from anxiety, even if it distracts me I still hate colds but then again I bet everyone does.

[Fishmanpa]

I get this too and believe I am so distracted by the "real" symptoms I forget about the anxiety.

Sarah

That's it right there. It's actually been mentioned on the boards many times. It's very, very rare that someone realizes their fears. But there have been posts from a few members that have or were diagnosed with a physical illness and their anxiety takes a back seat. In some cases goes away completely as they focus and deal with the task at hand in fighting the physical illness.

Positive thoughts

[Sunflower2]

When I have a really bad cold I even care so little about anxiety I even take medicine. And being phobic of medicine that is a big deal for me!

[rossthekid]

You are describing why anxiety is there. Think about it anxiety is caused by thought, how you feel, why you feel they way you do, total self assessment. When you get ill with physical illness like a cold your mind then has something else to focus on, and you are not anxious about a cold, you know what it is you understand it. Your focus shifts and your brain, which is exhausted, gets a rest from constant self questioning and assessment. Once your cold goes, your old habits returns. This should give your the insight into how to begin to start getting this away out of your life.

[Lyn89]

Me too. For me it's because any symptom or feeling bad can be put down to another cause rather than my anxiety. It's not me getting worse or going wrong in my recovery/progress. It's a virus that I can't help.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I get this too. I'm not sure why but I don't believe it is because I am focussing on a real illness because to me a cold is something that doesn't stop me doing what I normally would. When it goes, it just comes back. On this basis, I would believe this is more likely to do with the effect of your body fighting the cold/illness and how the body may respond in diverting resources. Maybe something is out there that explains this?

It can be useful though. I used to have issues with nausea and I caught a sickness bug and after it went I found that I rarely get anxious from the specific symptom of nausea. I put this down to the moment I found myself being sick down the toilet because I remember having a moment why I thought "so, this is how real nausea feels and it will do what it needs to regardless of my thoughts". I felt myself consciously recognising the felt different, more certain.

I think what had helped is that I had learned Mindfulness prior to this...it was almost as if I was practicing Mindful vomitting!!!

[shakey1961]

I too experienced this. Here's my story.

If I remember rightly, I was in my early twenties and I came down with a very bad chest infection. I couldn't walk 50 yards without having to stop to get my breath. What I did notice was that I wasn't feeling anxious or panicky while I had this bad infection which I though was really weird.

As you may have seen from previous threads I have posted, I have found out my anxiety problems stem from Coeliac Disease, in which my body sees gluten as an invader an attacks my gut. This is an auto-immune disease.

Here is my theory - and it's just an educated guess.

As I was so ill with the chest infection, and my immune system was so occupied trying to fight off this infection, it sort of "forgot" to attack the gluten, so left my stomach alone and my stomach started to heal and my anxiety symptoms went away. Once my chest infection cleared my anxiety came back. It's the only theory/explanation that fits best.

I've since removed gluten from my diet and I'm cured. I've not panicked in over 3 years now and I'm so relaxed.

[Oosh]

I don't feel it's because my thoughts are distracted from my anxieties either.

1. I'm pretty in control of my anxious thinking these days. I don't suffer from Health anxiety etc so am never focusing on these things.

2. The change I observe is in how I FEEL in myself. It feels as if a level of something has gone up, OR DOWN, and it leaves me feeling more myself. I become frequently more appreciative of humour, I laugh more, I feel myself more in my thoughts and how I feel about things. A more stimulated feeling, maybe. I just feel more myself.
When the cold dies I feel it clearly as being gone.

Beta endorphins.
Immune system.
The bodies resources.
Some other change in neurotransmitters.
For me, there is some kind of temporary change in the way that I feel.
I observe it there, I observe it go.

I've experienced it for many years.

I've attempted to find out what happens inside the body when the body fights off infection, but without any conclusions.

That's why I can only come up with beta endorphin. It is triggered when you starve or run or get ill. I'm just not educated enough to know the other things that happen inside your brain when your body fights infection.

I definitely feel it's more than just being distracted though.
I can be distracted by all sorts of important events that immediately take all of my attention but I never feel more myself, more humorous, laugh more when doing so.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well, Beta Endorphins are released due to physical stress (exercise) or when we receive an injury. I don't know if they are produced due to the impact of viruses on the body but it seems plausible given these viruses leave us aching and cause our immune system to work harder.

[Madgirl12]

Interesting comments, seems this is 'a thing!' Need to google beta endorphins.

I still have the cold. And still no anxiety. Let's see how long I can keep this up...

[Charlotteee89]

I'm the complete opposite tbh! I find being ill makes me anxiety a lot worse! As I'm constantly worrying about myself and feeling rough! I've never done being ill well at all anyways, I'm a complete wimp haha! :blush:

But I suppose the anxiety is different, I'm not thinking about my 'normal' anxiety issues. I suppose it depends on what's actually wrong with me. The other week I had a weird lightheaded-y/funny tummy/achy virus which just made me feel awful - one of my anxiety symptoms is lightheadness so having that symptom just didn't help matters! But right now I've got a bit of a cold which is throwing me off but I'm not too anxious, I get anxious when I have a little dizzy spell due to blocked sinuses, I have a fear of passing out.

[Oosh]

A greater appreciation of music is another symptom I experience when I feel I'm carrying a cold infection. I can often tell if my immune system has begun battling a cold infection by these various symptoms.

Last time I had a cold/virus of some sort I enjoyed my music so much I went out and bought an acoustic guitar. I wrote about it on here. Music became like a class A drug. I was as high as a kite.

Cold dies and I feel a noticeable drop in appreciation of music to more normal levels. I still enjoy the guitar I bought but all the euphoria I was experiencing around it and music left when the infection did.

These things have happened so many times I now recognise I'm coming down with something by them.

"I'm laughing more, I'm REALLY appreciating music, I'm probably coming down with something"

[MyNameIsTerry]

Thats bizarre Oosh! It's like you are contracting a 'positive virus'...remember that on Red Dwarf???

[Twinsmummy]

Hello all
I totally agree with this, who has time to worry if you are fighting just to physically function? It is also a relief to focus on something 'normal' that everyone has to focus on, just getting better.

My son was quite ill a couple of years ago and I became energised and focused on him alone. The last thing on my mind was whether other mums at school were leaving me out of things and other terribly important things like that that usually fill my day (big self esteem issues!). I am just working on trying to do just that, focus on other things.

Wishing you all a day of peace of mind x

[Oosh]

Thats bizarre Oosh! It's like you are contracting a 'positive virus'...remember that on Red Dwarf???

Haha. No i don't remember that one. I did like Red Dwarf though.

I'm making it sound a bit like "HOORAY IVE CAUGHT A COLD !"
It's definitely not like that. I still feel terrible, robbed of energy due to a taxed immune system and full of cold symptoms etc

And I don't always feel these benefits either. They're just consistent observations I've made. I hate getting colds but miss these symptoms when they go.