So alot of us are worried

[MidnightCalm]

about how we feel certain things we have aren't attributed to anxiety, how they must be something deadly or massive as we feel something of the mind can't cause the things we feel on a day to day basis even when anxiety isn't present!
A few questions I have:
Can symptoms still be present even when you're not anxious?
How long would it take for your nervous system to get sufficient rest enough to stop producing these sensations?
What's the worst anxiety has made you, I mean on a day to day basis, for example I've suddenly got pins and needles in my face and arms and legs and began violently shaking and it lasted ages and for days I felt the tingles and numbness, like my arms weren't mine, like my eyes weren't focusing or were flickering, I think it could have been anxiety but I worry it's worse.
I don't even think I have "panic attacks" at least I breathe normally, I don't sweat or get a racing heart.
I get weird things.

[Anabell]

My husband has said to me a few times - do you have these symptoms when you aren't anxious? as a way of getting me to asses the emotional/physical affects and the problem is that I'm not always sure. I think may on us are so used to living with panic and anxiety and it can be so misleading in your own head that I'm not sure if I know exactly when I'm at a panicky stage.
I used to think (& still do some days) my pins and needles and numbness was a stroke or some real issue and not panic because I didn't go into a panic attack until these symptoms were there and worrying me BUT what I wasn't realising was that the pins and needles etc were the early symptoms of my anxiety and the stage I identified as the 'panic attack' was actually the peak of the whole panic episode.

The symptoms of panic and anxiety can be reassuringly similar to other people but we don't all have the same thing I guess i.e. palps and feeling like you can't breathe is something I get but I don't get nausea or sweating. I also used to think I breathed normally but making my husband aware of my attacks instead of hiding them has meant he's been able to show me that I do hyperventilate and end up panting like a dog which obviously makes me feel worse. I didn't realise I was doing it.

I guess one of the real curses of panic and anxiety is that when you become focussed on health issues it's such a frightening whirl of possible diseases and symptoms. Things are internal and I suspect there are hidden things killing me but not being diagnosed and that doctors aren't finding them. But so often the symptoms are normal sensations that I become hyper aware of or common symptoms of a host of problems - in which case my mind always focuses on the most extreme of these. Pins and needles in the arm and hand could be carpal tunnel but I think stroke, breast pain becomes breast cancer rather than cyclical aching etc.

So it seems that even if you aren't feeling anxious or panicky on a given day your body might be running a low level of that and some symptoms might still be there. Of course some things could be symptoms or real disorders and I have been diagnosed with gallstones following aches and pains under my ribs but that pain was very real and different in it's extremity to the general aches and sharp pains I get that are more anxiety based.

For me what helps to distinguish things is whether they improve once I'm told things are OK - my palps, chest pains, feelings of madness, pins and needles etc all improve once I've been to A&E and had a clear ECG, my BP checked etc. The all clear settles these things down. But my gallbladder pain wasn't going no matter what reassurances I had so they did a scan and found the problem. The worst I've been on a day to day basis is frozen sat on the edge of my bed shaking violently, teeth chattering, finding it hard to breathe, pins and needles, certain that I'm on the verge of freaking out, sensitive to lights and sound, palps and chest pain, jaw and neck pain. Three days in a row my hubby took me to A&E like this and each time I got the full all clear and was left exhausted and numb but calm again for a few hours.

[MidnightCalm]

Ahh, I understand everything you're saying.
It's awful, I'm so mixed up in a world of imagined symptoms, sensations of anxiety or is it a real problem? I can't distinguish, a lot does fade if I don't focus on it or get anxious about it, I guess in time if I learn to just get on and deal with what I'm feeling it could fade completely because I'm not as in tune with my body, my body's not producing as much adrenaline etc.
Having been anxious for about a year NONE STOP I'm finally just ignoring it and trying to get on, it's only been 2 days since I haven't worried or gone into to much detail or inspection of myself and I'm still experiencing the symptoms, although not as bad they're still there.
My body's really ACHING, like in a constant state of pain, I'm thinking this could be because I've finally relaxed after so long of being tense and anxious that it's finally hitting my body and my body's getting used to this new found calm?
It's just things like the tingling and numbness that scare me, I can't think of causes if not anxiety, I also get this horrible spaced out feeling, like woozy, where I just sway and I feel out of it like I can't focus, I just feel dreamy and "depersonalised" like my body's not mine, like I'm on the verge of just collapsing because I'm just so out of my body, weird.

[MidnightCalm]

*I've also noticed my posture is REALLY BAD, which could be adding to the back ache and neck ache and maybe the numbness and tingling I get down the left side of my back that makes tingling in my hands and weakness in my arms, tingling in my face, I guess these could all be related and muscular or nerve related.

[daisycake]

I have weird symtpoms all the time, but I think it's like I said to my GP - I'm always anxious to some extent - it's just sometimes I'm less anxious and sometimes I'm really anxious.. I'm never 100% relaxed unless I'm asleep haha!!

[Anabell]

I know what you mean - if you've been in a constant stae of high tension for so long your body will have found ways to react and now you're actively relaxing from that it will take time for your body to settle it'd responses down I guess. I see that with my seasonal affective disorder - my brain gets used to needing extra serotonin to feel balanced and compensates so when I get the first few really sunny days I feel high as a kite and giigly and alive with energy because my brains used to compensating and hasn't had chance to stop doing that.

Muscles get used to being in certain tensed positions so it's likely that as you relax more there will be aching and tingling as you settle them into new positions and they relax. I had a long period of worry that neck pain and headache at the back of my head was a brain tumour but my doctor asked me to try not sleeping with 3 pillows but just one and to get my hubby to rub my neck for a few minutes before going to sleep - within a week the pains were going and now I only get them occasionally when I've slept in a funny position - my muscles were just complaining.

The trouble is that in order to get peace of mind us panic sufferers usually need some medical reassurance but that can make us so anxious anyway and being seen/treated as a hypochondriac is awful. I hate going to the doctor but dealing with him works better for me than Googling anything or letting it play on my mind x

[nrowe2]

I can totally relate to all these posts! I am normally a really rational person! So when I started with all these symptoms out of the blue, It's hard for anyone to think they are not health related...

I used to sit on here for hours reading posts of people with teh exact same symptoms but I still think well they've got anxiety but mine can't be! I HAVE to be ill!

I keep going through phases where I totally forget about my symptoms but as soon as I think for a second I FREAK out again! And then spend days unconciously/consiously thinking about my body ect!

Over the past few months my HA has gone from the main things I suffer from..Then out of the blue a New (just as scary symptom) will arise..So I'll do the same thing...come on here, see it's not just me, feel better... Then Think that actually I am ill...OMG! It's a horrible vicious circle!

It is nice to know that theres everyone on here going through the same thing (not that I want everyone to be like this..I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy)

Does anyone take medication? I daren't and to be fair because I'm 22 my Doc never acknowledges anxiety! he just says I'm fine...Bye! I had to mention I was anxious..He said it will pass in a week or so?? I bloody wish!! lol xxx

[evil monkey]

I got to bad stage in a 6 months period a while back. work + digs life were both a nasty place to be. I got to the stage where i was lying on a bed, and body had an aching/pins and needles sensation. At the time didn't know what it was, but I think it was down to cortisol. i decided somewhere else that cortisol is the body's rev limiter.

it's meant to be detrimental to muscle (mainly in burn patients i think) which is why it might make them feel weak. i spose in the same way if an engines rev limiter kicks in, its going to stop the pistons working as hard

[paula lynne]

Hi evil monkey...weve spoken about the rev limiter on pm, but im not sure i get it...Help? xxxx:)