Can Anxiety Cause Swollen Lymph Nodes?

Hi Everyone :D,

A few years ago I had a bout of really bad health anxiety and a couple of lymph nodes on my neck and collar bone swelled up. I had an operation to have one out after a few months of it being swollen. It came back all clear.... I kind of forgot about them but have had a recent bout of health anxiety and the same lymph nodes in my neck have raised their ugly heads again! They have been swollen for around 3 weeks now. They ache sometimes but aren't really painful.

My question is, has anyone else experienced swollen lymph nodes due to anxiety? I have read up a bit and there is no actual medical link, but many people believe their lymph nodes to be swollen. Mind are definitely swollen, and were before too, or else the hospital wouldn't have operated and taken one out!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you :yesyes:

I don't believe anxiety in itself can cause swollen lymph nodes (I'm not a medical professional so that's just my opinion). I do know however (from years of Googling) that some people have had swollen lymph nodes for no reason whatsoever. If you've already had a swollen one removed and it be benign then I'd imagine you are one of those unlucky people who just has swollen lymph nodes for no reason.

Nodes are the "sewer system" of our bodies. They collect the nasties. So when we have a nastie like a virus or infection, they are the first line of defense. While anxiety in and of itself cannot (IMO) make a node swell, the stress biology resulting from anxiety can aggravate physiology and could contribute to swelling. Things like poking and prodding a healthy node can and will cause it to swell and in some extreme cases, can make it shotty/permanently swollen.

If your nodes have been swollen for three weeks are are painful, it's an indication of an infection of some kind your body is fighting off. It would be worth a visit to your GP at this point.

Positive thoughts

As has been said anxiety in itself cannot cause a lymph node to swell. what can happen is the lymph node swells for another reason like localised infection and then the anxiety sufferer notices it and starts prodding and poking. Prodding and poking a node will cause it to stay swollen as they don't like being prodded:)

I have had random lymph nodes well usually around back of ears on head or just under my jaw. The jaw ones are when i have injured my gum with sharp food and never found out why the ones behind my ear on skull can be raised for a few days.

Its fine to wait for a week or two and see if the node goes down itself and don't prod it, if continues to grow or stays up for weeks then its time to see the GP