Anxiety Symptoms????

[Spud-29]

Are these anxiety Symptoms???...........

Extreme fatigue........feeling tired all day even having a good nights sleep.
Yawning every few minutes every day.
Shortness of breath even when just walking up the stairs or to the shop.
Gasping for air......this is something that seems to happen up to every 10 minutes everyday.
Headaches.
Throat is clogged up with mucus
Sore tongue
Feel like my mouth has excess saliva
Body feels weak
Tingling in random places.....pins and needles
Twitching that see to be widespread
Dry lips
Waking up with a dry mouth and throat
Regular sore throats
Neck pain
Stomach aches
Chest pains

Hope to get some replies..................

[daybyday]

I have had these, along with off balance sensation.

[evil monkey]

+dizzy. flakey skin sometimes. muscle ache (cortisol i think)

[Horse]

I think that if you check the 'symptoms' department on this and other sites, you will find that all of these problems can be caused by Anxiety.

I know that I have done and still do suffer from most of these, perhaps not all at once, but if one disappears then I will bet money that another will take it's place.

Interesting to hear about the flaky skin from evil monkey. This is also something I noticed if I'm particularly bothered about something. The skin on my face because very dry.

Horse.

[anthrokid]

I have had ever single one of the symptoms you have posted, all of them caused by anxiety! Lucky us! I've tried to explain some of them for you :)

Extreme fatigue........feeling tired all day even having a good nights sleep.
Anxiety uses up A LOT of energy. Anxiety puts our body on high alert, which results in constant activiation of the nervous system and body defences, which uses heaps of energy. so when we are really anxious, we tend to get really tired because any energy our body does get goes straight into running the nervous system. A lof of the time, anxiety sufferers don't get int that deep stage 3 or sleep because the body is always so highly strung due to anxiety. What this means is that even though we can sleep for 9 hours, we haven't reached the deep sleep cycle so we still won't feel well-rested.


Shortness of breath even when just walking up the stairs or to the shop / Gasping for air......this is something that seems to happen up to every 10 minutes everyday.
One big problem for anxiety sufferers is chronic hyperventilation. What happens is we tend to hyperventilate (that is, overbreathe) constantly without even realising. This causes us to always feel out of breath, needing to gasp for air and just yuck. I remember when I was suffering with anxiety at my worst, my psychiatrist asked me to breathe in for 7 counts and our for 9, with a 4 second gap between breathing in and out. I could only breathe in for 2 counts and out for 4, and I felt like I was suffocating if I tried to have a gap between breathing in and out! You might find that you are also hyperventilating a lot (most of us do). What you need to do is change your breathing patterns back to normal, which means you need to practice breathing in for 7 seconds, and out for 9, with gaps inbetween. Even if you can only breathe in for 5 and out for 7, it's still good to practise this deep and evenly paced breathing :) it will help a lot! Yoga and meditation is extremely helpful in regards to breathing!

Headaches.
Headaches are generally caused by stress and anxiety for everyone, but because anxiety sufferers tend to stress out a lot, we get more headaches than usual. I usually get them every day. A lot of the time it can also be caused by neck and jaw tension from clenching our teeth and being tense and tight around the shoulder area. Make sure you aren't clenching your teeth and jaw, and try to do stretches during the day to loosen up your shoulders.


Throat is clogged up with mucus
Sore tongue
Feel like my mouth has excess saliva
Anxiety can cause extra saliva to be produced, and actually causes mucus to be secreted at the back of the throat. You may find that you are clenching your teeth as well, and with that tensing your tongue, which will obviously make it sore. You may also be biting your tongue without realising. I do this a lot when I clench my jaw.

Body feels weak
Neck pain
Twitching that see to be widespread
These all tend to be caused by muscle tension. With anxiety, we are constantly tensing our muscles, which makes them really sore and tired! We are constantly using them to keep ourselves tense and on edge. No wonder we always feel weak, worn out and sore! Twitching is a result from muscles being too tense and tired and needing to release. Try doing stretched during the day for your muscles, or, even better, try doing a bit of exercise every day to warm them up. Yoga is fantastic for anxiety sufferers because it teaches both breathing techniques and muscle stretching and use. But you can also do these things at home yourself if you have the time to learn.

Tingling in random places.....pins and needles
A really general anxiety symptom. I think this one is generally caused by us being overly sensitive to everything due to the constant activiation of our nervous system. So whilst other people normally wouldn't notice most feelings during the dy, we tend to find feelings 'strange' even normal feelings like the absense of feeling, which we often interpret as tingling.



Dry lips
Waking up with a dry mouth and throat
Anxiety sufferers tend to hyperventilate a lot, and breathe mostly through their mouth, which dries out both the mouth and the lips (and also the throat). Try and practice some deep breathing through your nose, and also make sure you drink a lot of water. Anxiety does tend to make the bladder more active as well, so we pass a lot more water than usual. And some medications can also cause dehydration. So keep hydrated!

Regular sore throats
Because our nervous system is always active, the immune system tends to be weakened because it is so worn out from being constantly on alert. This means that we are more prone to small viruses which do cause sore throats. Also, a very common symptom of anxiety is the flare-up of the throat in response to stress in the body. Whenever I am under a lot of stress I get a sore throat. It is just a reaction of my body.


Stomach aches
Anxiety causes a lot of stomach upset. When our body feels threatened (and when we are anxious it always does) it tries to digest food faster or to take blood flow away from the stomach, both of which result in stomach aches. Nothing serious, just uncomfortable.

Chest pains
This is again related to tension. With anxiety we generally become very tenxe through the back and chest. It is more muscle related than anything else. Our muscles are always tense, therefore they get sore a lot. Try stretching and just relaxing in general. I know it's hard, but it helps. Baths are really excellent to ease tension int eh chest.

I hope some of this helped you a bit. Sorry I couldn't elaborate further, but I hope I gave you some answers and peace of mind :)

[Butterfly22]

I just wanted to say aimee that I found your explanation very informative and helpful x

[Joeturner2]

Nice post amie , explains alot, funny how though we always think its more lol

[anthrokid]

Thanks guys! It's crazy how to ourselves it always seems like something so big and serious, but when we hear it from someone else it makes perfect sense. Anxiety is good with the mind games :P