Can stress symptoms begin weeks after you had stress?

Having a bit of a relapse at the moment which is making me ill and anxious. I seemed to be doing well for a about 6 weeks. I started a new job that I loved, had money again and seemed to be sorting myself out. I hadn't even felt the need to go on here!!

That all changed when I had a bad time with my ex partner. The emotional stress got to me and 2 weeks ago, I resigned from my job. Things have calmed down and I should be feeling a lot more relaxed but only now am I having feelings of dizziness, chest pain, left arm and neck pain, indigestion pain, burning leg pain and nausea. It started yesterday and stupidly I googled so now it must be my heart and circulation etc etc.

Has anyone had 'late' symptoms of stress, after the actual stress has been and gone?

I was told that my panic disorder was not necessarily from one thing. It usually is an accumulation of stress, even over a couple of years. You just deal with the stress, it accumulates, and then you start having symptoms of panic/anxiety. Mine started with tachycardia, that I ended up in the ER over a few times which the EKG's always showed a normal heart, just fast, from panic.

Hi there,

I've often wondered this? Is there truth in it? See I was having a really crappy time with my job at the time. The travelling was a nightmare. I was also having some self concious issues and beat myself up; however got on with it. Was also a stressful time with my partner. In that 6 months I look back and was far from happy and relaxed! But soildered on! Then march I had a mole scare - this sent me into a 2 week self distruct/panic mode. I practically lived as if I were dying of terminal cancer. It was an horrendous time only brought on by myself!

Anyway I got the all clear and thought it was going to help. It did allot; however then started thinking about death/dying/suffering/ etc, etc. And was still a very 'worried' person (still am to a degree) so that was all in march of this year. Come April I started to feel the 'lump in my throat' and it hasn't left since! 3 months now. This has added to my anxiety thinking I have oral cancer, head and neck cancer. So it has worsened the whole situation and only now am I feeling anxiety symptoms! 3 months after the big, actual panic attacks and mole scare.

So does it all come out later? I'm really suffering with neck, shoulder, head pain all on the right side. I'm constantly tired, always wanting to sleep. Feel detatched from the world. Weird sensation and have the feeling of something in my throat! This is driving me nuts. This is affecting my life, career, relationship. I just find it hard to believe these are symptoms of anxiety and can be felt weeks after the actual incident????

Nina xx

Hiya. Yes, they can. My therpaist describes it as an iceberg. Over periods of times of stress in your life, it builds up and builds up until you reach the tip of the iceberg and and this is when all your symptoms come out. For me, I experienced a particularly stressful time in my life 5 years ago when my parents split up. I was just turning 13 and was going through loads of changes. At the time, I didn't feel anything but over time - particularly in the last year - I started to begin to feel anxious and my emotions were running riot and that's when it was said that I had GAD which led to me not being able to do the things I used to. I'm only 18 btw. As I began to gradually visit my Dad again a couple of years ago, we had many falling outs and I do not see him anymore and this has also affected me and plays a part in the way I am now. I used to build things up and never tell anyone how I felt, thinking that I could sort it out myself but it ddn't do me any favours.

Anyway, I'm probably babbling on here and practically giving you my whole life story, but I'm just giving you an insight into what my life is like with anxiety and how it all started with events that happened 5 years ago.

If you don't already, I think it would be good for you to attend CBT sessions. These realy helped me and I'm slowly but surely getting back on the right track again.

Take care x

Thank you for your replies. It appears that it really can be delayed reactions to stress and yes Natalie, I agree CBT would help all of us. xx