Can Anxiety cause a constant pyhsical symptom?

[shanlynn1012]

As I keep posting about my sun burn skin sensation I have to wonder why is it occuring everyday not just durning times of anxiety?
While I do have several big things going on in my life this burning sensation has taken over all my thoughts and it very upsetting. But if I am just sitting around it starts up? Any ideas?

[jojo1976]

Yes, it will continue on and on and on while you continue to focus on it. That's the thing with anxiety - you'll feel something and then that's all you can think about. You are checking yourself constantly to see if it's still there, see if it's better or worse, or if it has left... your mind is feeding it and it will continue to be there until you can try to ignore it. Easier said than done because it's hard to ignore something that is nagging at you day in and day out, but it's your brain's alarm system trying to alert you over and over that you "may" or "may not" have an issue there. I find that as soon as I acknowledge the problem "yeah, yeah, my skin is burning, I get it, who cares, it's just anxiety" that slowly it will go away.

To give you an example - four years ago, I had VERY bad anxiety where I was panicking over every little thing, every day, for about a year. One of my problem areas was a buzzing in the bottom of my left foot. It drove me CRAAAZY. But finally when the anxiety subsided, it went away on it's own. Its surfaced a few times since then, but as it's so familiar now, my brain doesnt care too much about it and its gone within hours, not months or days.

Just this week, my legs and arms were twitching and jumping. For two weeks I kept feeding it, thinking about it, scared I had a neurological problem (and I will admit, I am still tumbling those thoughts in my head), but since I said I didn't care, whatever, it will pass too it has been MUCH better. I get only the occasional now when I start thinking negative thoughts so it's on it's way out... just took two weeks for me to accept it and make the conscious effort to not care anymore about it. So I twitch and jump -so what?? So do a lot of people without anxiety.

Tell yourself that it is anxiety only and when you find yourself focusing on it, do something else that needs your full attention. I like to use Tetris. :) HTH!

[shanlynn1012]

Well put, Thank you. I go from one CHRONIC physical alliment to another. Thanks

[Utility]

Hi


I can only agree with what "jojo1976" has said. While you focus on it, it will always be there. Distraction is the thing to master and it will go away.

[shanlynn1012]

I had a great day the other day but yesterday it kept creeping back in. But I am telling myself any break in it is a step forward.

[blackberry1972]

Yes, it will continue on and on and on while you continue to focus on it. That's the thing with anxiety - you'll feel something and then that's all you can think about. You are checking yourself constantly to see if it's still there, see if it's better or worse, or if it has left... your mind is feeding it and it will continue to be there until you can try to ignore it. Easier said than done because it's hard to ignore something that is nagging at you day in and day out, but it's your brain's alarm system trying to alert you over and over that you "may" or "may not" have an issue there. I find that as soon as I acknowledge the problem "yeah, yeah, my skin is burning, I get it, who cares, it's just anxiety" that slowly it will go away.

To give you an example - four years ago, I had VERY bad anxiety where I was panicking over every little thing, every day, for about a year. One of my problem areas was a buzzing in the bottom of my left foot. It drove me CRAAAZY. But finally when the anxiety subsided, it went away on it's own. Its surfaced a few times since then, but as it's so familiar now, my brain doesnt care too much about it and its gone within hours, not months or days.

Just this week, my legs and arms were twitching and jumping. For two weeks I kept feeding it, thinking about it, scared I had a neurological problem (and I will admit, I am still tumbling those thoughts in my head), but since I said I didn't care, whatever, it will pass too it has been MUCH better. I get only the occasional now when I start thinking negative thoughts so it's on it's way out... just took two weeks for me to accept it and make the conscious effort to not care anymore about it. So I twitch and jump -so what?? So do a lot of people without anxiety.

Tell yourself that it is anxiety only and when you find yourself focusing on it, do something else that needs your full attention. I like to use Tetris. :) HTH!


Thats one of the best explanations I have heard and has certainly made me feel better about my constant muscle twitching

[jojo1976]

@Shanlynn1012 - That's great! I'm so glad you got a little break! That is definitely the step in the right direction. For that one day, you had the right mindset that you were just going to go about your business and your brain's alarm system cooled it for the day. Let me guess - you started checking yourself and it came back? Brain goes back on alert... it doesn't happen overnight and may take even several weeks, but it WILL stop when you stop feeding it.

@Blackberry - ah, another twitcher. So what kind do you got? The surface skin twitches that you can not only feel but see as well, or the limb jerkers? Or both?

[train]

hi i have just found this web site and im so pleased to hear all comments.... i thought i was going mad been suffering with anxiety for 6 months been on cipralex for 3 months had to go down to 5 mg as head thoughts got out of control and was maknig my body hurt even more i have felt ok for 3 weeks but then out tuesday in the car and my head said you will be like this for ever and i had instant attack of sweaty hands burning head dry mouth and near fainting is all this normal and will i ever be ok again ?

[blackberry1972]

[QUOTE=jojo1976;633313
@Blackberry - ah, another twitcher. So what kind do you got? The surface skin twitches that you can not only feel but see as well, or the limb jerkers? Or both?[/QUOTE]

The Surface skin twitches. I get them in my legs the most. sometimes it feels like there are lots of little insects crawling under my skin and other times it is big muscle twitches, some constant (hours) and some just occasional.
I have one at the moment at the top of my thigh which feels like someone is lightly taping their fingers on it.

What are yours like?

[jojo1976]

Hi there! Yep. You see that train of thought there? You were fine up until you started thinking about it again. The brain is powerful thing - and it controls the rest of your body. When it comes to anxiety, your nervous system is on overdrive and all it needs is a small signal from the brain to start acting upon those thoughts. Your body is designed to work this way - there's nothing wrong with you - in fact, your body is working the way it's supposed to when these signals are sent from the brain, however, it's the signal (that there's something wrong in the first place) that's misfiring.

I used to freak myself out while driving all the time and had to pull over plenty thinking I was going to pass out. Never did and was all due to incorrect breathing then the negative talk inside my head. When the thoughts start creeping into your mind that ***SOMETHING IS WRONG****, it is at that moment you have to change your train of thought. Don't allow it to go further than that. Say "yeah, ok, alarm system, let's move on to POSITIVE talk - "nothing is wrong, you're strong, you're perfectly healthy, yeah you're feeling that but it will pass." And then distract yourself with doing something else. Even if that's counting birds. The more you feed the negative thinking, the longer it prolongs things.

I am by no means an expert or a doctor, but I do know following these principals "cured" my anxiety and daily panic attacks for almost four years - back then, I was terrified and had no idea what to do. I was ready to check into a mental hospital it got so bad - but I went completely back to normal after learning what anxiety was and how to handle it. I am back here due to an overloaded stressful time in my life, but I know what I need to do and I'm improving by the day. A body can only handle so much stress before it starts letting you know. Recovery won't happen overnight - just know your body needs time to heeal, just like any ailment.

[jojo1976]

The Surface skin twitches. I get them in my legs the most. sometimes it feels like there are lots of little insects crawling under my skin and other times it is big muscle twitches, some constant (hours) and some just occasional.
I have one at the moment at the top of my thigh which feels like someone is lightly taping their fingers on it.

What are yours like?

I get them both. :) For the moment, they are mostly the big ones (which are still relatively minor) that jolt a leg, or a shoulder. Kinda like the ones that you get when falling asleep. I also get the skin twitches - in a thumb, somewhere on my legs, my chin... right now my left upper eyelid is driving me bonkers. The twitch likes to change speed and sometimes it's really fast and annoying, other times it's super slow and just closes my eye halfway. LOL. I watch it in the mirror and my 12yr old laughs at me. I try to laugh at it too. All these are anxiety and your system unloading stress. Completely harmless - although once upon a time I used to freak out about them. Not anymore. They will pass when the anxiety and stress are let out of the body.

[blackberry1972]

I get them both. :) For the moment, they are mostly the big ones (which are still relatively minor) that jolt a leg, or a shoulder. Kinda like the ones that you get when falling asleep. I also get the skin twitches - in a thumb, somewhere on my legs, my chin... right now my left upper eyelid is driving me bonkers. The twitch likes to change speed and sometimes it's really fast and annoying, other times it's super slow and just closes my eye halfway. LOL. I watch it in the mirror and my 12yr old laughs at me. I try to laugh at it too. All these are anxiety and your system unloading stress. Completely harmless - although once upon a time I used to freak out about them. Not anymore. They will pass when the anxiety and stress are let out of the body.

Thanks again, I feel better already

[train]

thanks you have been such a help i found it difficult to accept that is was the brain and thats what makes me think ill be like it forever but hearing you say it cured and some advice on how to handle it i feel more positive and i will try hard to make the symtoms pass

[shanlynn1012]

This is really great advice! Although today I was on fire on my feet and legs but I sort of was waiting for it to happen when I do that it happens. It is hard to convince myself but I think I really know there is no other explaination....

[blackberry1972]

This is really great advice! Although today I was on fire on my feet and legs but I sort of was waiting for it to happen when I do that it happens. It is hard to convince myself but I think I really know there is no other explaination....


Yeah I know that feeling.
Sometimes I get anxious because my muscle’s are twitching and sometimes I get anxious because they are not and I’m waiting for them to start again.

[shanlynn1012]

That is the thing even when my skin does not feel burning I am thinking about when it will happen again. Lst night was so bad for me my skin was on fire,once i tried fallling asleep it passed. So here it is morning and i am waiting for it. UGHHH

[train]

hi does anyone suffer with the chest pains and tightness and the feeling dizzy if so any ideas to help deal with them !!!!

[blackberry1972]

That is the thing even when my skin does not feel burning I am thinking about when it will happen again. Lst night was so bad for me my skin was on fire,once i tried fallling asleep it passed. So here it is morning and i am waiting for it. UGHHH

You just need to try and convince yourself that there is nothing wrong with you. I find I always feel better after visiting my counselor as usually I we just discuss how it’s so obvious that there is nothing physically wrong with me and afterwards, for about a week or so I feel really good. The Anxiety has a mind of its own and it constantly tries to find ways of making you feel anxious. For instance if you are totally engrossed in something, ie work and you are out with friends having a laugh you will suddenly notice how you haven’t felt any symptoms for a while. You then need to tell yourself that terminal diseases don’t work like that, if you are I’ll it never leaves you. So if your skin doesn’t burn or your muscles don’t twitch when you are busy then you know it’s only your mind that causes it.
The next battle is to convince yourself not to worry when your skin does burn or muscles twitch. Try and laugh at it, say to yourself “nice try anxiety but I know all your tricks now and I’m not scared”

BTW I’m by no means over my Anxiety but these are just methods that I have used in the past that have helped me.

[Starscream]

I just cant ever seem to understand how you can get ill or side effects from thinking negatively about something

[Cat80]

I have constant nausea which I've been told is down to anxiety. It's dreadful, sometimes it can go on for months and I lose weight. A couple of years ago I was living off 4 slices of toast a day and that was it most days, I lost 2 stone in 9 months. It's bad again at the moment and I can't stop it no matter what I do :(

[blackberry1972]

I just cant ever seem to understand how you can get ill or side effects from thinking negatively about something

The same way as people who are genuinely ill can get better by having positive thoughts and fighting it.