How do you 'feel' your anxiety?

[happyone]

I know we all know anxiety and panic but I am intrigued/cheesed off, with how it seems to morph. I know all the symptoms of anxiety and how they are caused but the particular way in which I feel my anxiety seems to change, as though to stay one step ahead of me.

It used to be that my anxiety was felt clearly in my digestive tract. I had a tight feeling in my stomach and I would have to go to loo immediately (tmi!) I would tell myself it was anx and it would pass and that seemed to help.
Then it morphed into dizziness. Or un unreal feeling. I would feel as though I was leaving my body and listening from far away. It took me a while and I still find it difficult but again I would breathe and try to regain the upper hand.
However, the anx would then manifest in the form of pins and needles, heavy sweating, nausea, tight chest, cramps, dry mouth.........each time I thought I had mastered it, a new symptom came and bit me on the bum!

Now, it has grabbed me again. I have gone pretty much without diazepam since my hospital stay in February but this last week the panics with no apparent cause have gripped me. And it does feel like it has gripped me....literally......round the windpipe. It jumps on me and I have this horrid feeling of my airways being crushed and a feeling of not being able to breathe. I know it is anxiety which is always a help but I am finding this one difficult to deal with. I think it is because the source of my anxiety is outwith my control and I am trying not to think about it, but my brain has different ideas.

Oh well........diazepam here I come:mad:

How do others feel their anxiety? How does it manifest?

Happyone
xx

[daydreamer]

I know what you mean. Mine used to start with palpitations and then all the other physical symptoms would follow, lately every week it seems to be changing! Last week it would start with a headache and this week it has been a feeling of sickness. Just when you think your getting to grips with it, bam!, along comes something else....

[panicdiva]

physically I feel it in my teeth! They ache. I also get a tightness in my chest. Mentally though I feel like I am falling & my mind (not my head), feels like its going expolde. I feel that in any second I will start screaming & never be able to stop & I can't get rid of that thought until my anxiety passes.

[Going home]

I think just reading the various threads and posts on the forum tells you how it feels for most of us?

Anna xxx

[Anxious_gal]

I'm always complaining about how when I get used to one symptom, so it doesn't scare me any more,
a brand new symptom will come up and set me off again.

[PUGLETMUM]

:)hey happyone/all - im a bit like panicdiva, in as much as the actual emotional feeling of fear seems to be my worst symptom - i have all the above mentioned physical symptoms which i dont care about - i know what they are and i ignore them - but the actual 'feeling' of losing control or losing my mind is by far the worst symptom for me and can last in varying strengths for the bast part of a day, if i dont feel 'safe':hugs:

[ewood79]

Anxiety is sometimes smarter than what we think, my GP told me that its called symptom swapping...... your anxiety will jump to something else once you have removed the fear from the last little blip, it simply jumps from one to the other until we get scared.... then it settles in until we remove the fear!!!!

[happyone]

Very interesting. It is remarkable how many different feelings are conjured up in different people by the same cause, anxiety. Feeling it in the teeth is a new one but I can see how you could.

Obviously I could have read through hundreds of posts and this information that I find interesting, would have been available to me. However, I didn't really see a problem in asking a specific question for a specific answer? In reality, anyone could read through all the posts to find the answer they needed and then no one would have to post to ask a legitimate question and then all posts would end.......... I took the quicker route. Thank you everyone for answering.

Symptom swapping......that is an expression that sums up nicely what happens to me. Thanks for sharing that ewood.

Happyone
xx