Heath anxiety causing symptoms, or symptoms causing health anxiety?

[Nico]

I have reached a point where I do not know whether I have physical symptoms e.g breathlessness, chest pains, racing heart etc caused by anxiety. Or the symptoms cause my anxiety. I don't really worry about other stuff and sometimes just wonder how? I see other people who are stressed and they do not get these symptoms. My doctor always says anxiety blah blah, but I wonder if sometimes I only have anxiety because of my symptoms which is probably some terrible illness. Does anyone else feel this way?

[almamatters]

I have posted about this in the past, I get very confused about which comes first , the anxiety or the symptoms. I have given it a lot of thought and usually with me I get the symptoms first which then causes the anxiety. I can be doing things, then the breathlessness hits me or the blurred vision etc and I start to feel the anxiety creeping in. My doctor also says it's anxiety first, but I have trouble believing this and constantly think I have some undiagnosed fatal illness.

[Mr m anxious]

I have often wondered this but for me I think I had a issue first which caused my anxiety and then anxiety caused other issues. I had a drink of coffee one morning after worrying a little about my aching chest and right shoulder blade felt tender then all of a sudden I felt dizzy and had palls. After ECG, blood tests and and chest x ray I was passed as being ok. Since then I have been very anxious worrying about all sorts of things what could be wrong, this has given me other issues like burning skin on my chest, shoulder aches, neck aches, dizziness, weak jelly legs and pins and needle feelings in different areas. So I think that something that has happened to you that was probably nothing triggers of anxiety which then makes you worse and then of course you worry about them. Stuck in a horrible visious circle !

[Nico]

Oh I am the same as both of you, all started with stress about life, then the symptoms came. Now I am fine until I get a symptom which sets it off again, it definitely is a vicious circle.

[bibliophilic]

I'm constantly asking myself this! My big issue is the inability to swallow solids properly/tight neck feeling. I've gone to a few doctors who all kind of laughed at me and said probably just anxiety or acid reflux since I'm young. Of course, since the problem started, I've had a lot of anxiety and even some obsessive thoughts over it. How can we not get anxiety when we have symptoms? It's our bodies and we have to face the issues whether we like it or not! My swallowing problem started one night when I coughed really hard--which makes me think that anxiety isn't the cause and that anxiety is just a RESULT of the problem.

But, then I think back and realize that I was under a lot of stress before it started. And, I've always had anxiety problems. My tendency to feel anxious about things may not have started the problem (or it may have), but it certainly exacerbates it to a nearly intolerable level. I was reading an article about how our brains are hardwired to focus on the negative, because it was a survival technique for our ancestors (ie focusing on the possibility of being attacked by predators).

Anyways, I think it's just a loop, really. But I also think that we'll all be okay!

[panickyme]

Ughhhh, with me it is definitely the symptoms. I get one pain in the chest, I go into panic mode instantly. If I didn't get weird symptoms, I would be fine.

[Lilharry]

For me it's definitely symptoms then the anxiety. But I think you also have to remember that you are probably super vigilant so assume the worst when you get a pain or a niggle, whereas other people might just be able to ignore it. Also, I'm sure being tense creates a lot of these symptoms, so it really can be a vicious circle.

[Nico]

But I can't make the symptoms go, I can be fine, and then a weird symptom, then my anxiety starts. I'm glad to know it's like this for a lot of people. If only those damn symptoms would go!!!!