Adrenaline rushes driving me up the wall

[izzybizzy]

I’ve recently had a bad relapse of health anxiety, it all started after having a lovely evening with my boyfriend laughing at a movie and then suddenly I thought there was something wrong with my heart, I panicked and well it went downhill from there.

I’ve been doing my best to sit with the anxiety when it comes, but the past week it’s like I get these rushes of excitement, it feels like I could laugh or cry and my stomach has a hollow empty feeling, I’ve felt this hollow feeling with grief before but not used to it with anxiety.

Anyways it comes on in my stomach/chest area sometimes I can feel it in my jaw tingling, I feel overly excited-hyper - I’m doing my best to not google anything health related that could be causing it, it’s strange because it doesn’t send me into a panic, my heart isn’t racing and I’m not hyperventilating. It just feels like a very strong nervous energy inside me, I’m going to keep trying to just sit with it but has anyone experienced this and has any tips for me on how I can get this nervous energy to pass?

I’m holding off visiting my GP, I had an ECG a year ago which was fine, blood pressure can be high when panicking but it’s mostly absolutely fine, so I really don’t want to waste their time asking them to check for tumours, heart issues etc even if my anxiety would love me to go get checked.

So yeah any advice would be helpful - I’ve been having magnesium baths, meditating, playing my piano but it still happens even if I’m relaxed, not sure what else I can do to get it to go away

Thanks for reading :-)

[Sparkling_Fairy]

Yes, I have this sometimes for days in a row.
A butterflies feeling in my chest and stomach. Like I have a nervous excitement, but I'm not excited or nervous about anything! And I also don't feel any other symptoms with it. Just that excitement feeling. It usually goes away after a few days for me.
I've stopped trying to figure out why I get adrenaline released into my body. I've just accepted it happens sometimes and let it be.

[Woody72]

I've been having similar symptoms for a month.
At it's worst I was feeling like it about 80% of the day.
I'm still getting nervous and anxious and having a couple of bad spells a week but the adrenaline feeling isn't as often
I have to be careful what I watch on TV. If it's too happy or intense it can set me off.
Dr says it's stress. It's taking its time to go but I feel like slowly it is.

[izzybizzy]

Isn’t it kind of funny how we can spend ages hating fearing fearful and now anxiety is giving me like a weird excitement feeling and oh I can’t stand that either 🤣, it is peculiar as I keep feeling like I need to laugh out loud I’m trying to just let it be and hoping it passes it’s been on and off for two weeks but obviously me worrying that it could be related to some illness if probably keeping it going.

I’ll let some more time pass and hopefully it subsides, 10 years of anxiety and I thought I’d had all the symptoms but I guess it can surprise you if very so often

Thanks both for the advice, I’m going to try and stop judging it as best I can.

[Woody72]

Do you find it worse when you're feeling tired or in the evening?
I feel it comes on more when my brain is tired. After I've been for a walk or done some activity that makes me fatigued( doesn't take much atm) or when I'm sat watching TV about 8 or 9.
I did have it though the day but that's not so bad now .
But getting it worse at night does reinforce the anxiety diagnosis.

[Carnation]

Laughing, feeling happy can give off the same response as if you were fearful. Doesn't seem fair, does it?
This has happened to me so many times. And when the seed is planted in the brain that anything joyful can turn into what seems a panic situation it tends to creep into anything you get pleasure from, like playing the piano. I play the piano too and had exactly the same thing.
The best thing you can do is not to avoid and carry on as if it's nothing, I know difficult because it's in the back of your mind. But take the feelings of being intense and not a threat. Once I did that the fear started to disappear.
Don't ruin your joy over a feeling or thought. x

[izzybizzy]

It comes on around the same time every day about 12:00 lunch time, then it waxed and wanes over the day, I think I expect it to happen at that time so it seems to start at the same time, for me being tired seems to help a little I think? I’m unsure. It does come on after an activity where I’m stimulated in some way, a conversation, a movie etc as soon as I go to change to another activity I seem to notice it. It’s so weird.

[izzybizzy]

100%! I’ve always had a fear of enjoying things due to OCD I fear that if I have fun something bad will happen to me, but it’s almost like I’ve flipped it to I feel excited/nervous which should be a good thing but because I can’t connect it to anything that’s happening I start obsessing about how I feel which makes the feeling stronger and then when I distract myself enough it’ll pass for a bit? I feel excited/nervous in situations where there is no stimulus but it’s highly possible that laughing so much that night and then panicking has reinforced that laughing is dangerous so now I’m scared of laughing which makes me feel like I want to? Who knows?!

Anxiety truly is a little b*gger, it attaches to literally anything, and I always fear that I may be ignoring a medical issue but then I think about all the recent stress I’ve been under and how much I’ve been battling my anxiety I’m not shocked it’s found another avenue to harass me from.

I just hope so much this passes soon, thanks for the reply it helps to know I’m not just crazy and others get me.

[Jotia]

100%! I’ve always had a fear of enjoying things due to OCD I fear that if I have fun something bad will happen to me, but it’s almost like I’ve flipped it to I feel excited/nervous which should be a good thing but because I can’t connect it to anything that’s happening I start obsessing about how I feel which makes the feeling stronger and then when I distract myself enough it’ll pass for a bit? I feel excited/nervous in situations where there is no stimulus but it’s highly possible that laughing so much that night and then panicking has reinforced that laughing is dangerous so now I’m scared of laughing which makes me feel like I want to? Who knows?!

Anxiety truly is a little b*gger, it attaches to literally anything, and I always fear that I may be ignoring a medical issue but then I think about all the recent stress I’ve been under and how much I’ve been battling my anxiety I’m not shocked it’s found another avenue to harass me from.

I just hope so much this passes soon, thanks for the reply it helps to know I’m not just crazy and others get me.

I know this thread is a few weeks old but I can really relate to this. My OCD also tells me I can’t enjoy anything for the same reason.