What are some physical reasons for unexpected anxiety?

[DustingMyselfOff]

. . . and here I sit, TRYING to enjoy a morning cup of coffee with my laptop and TV shows, smiling at the birds at my window bird feeder, and there is so much ... SOMETHING (adrenaline? cortisol?) running through my body that I can't sit still. My body tics and OCD are through the roof, and it's making me angry. I am totally relaxed and happy..... why is something in my body causing me to not be able to sit still and stop the repetitive movements!?!?!?
Sue

[Carnation]

Because when you sit or lay, your body is repairing in the form of twitches, rushes, head jolts and whatever else it needs to do. It's not what you are doing now, it's what you did earlier/yesterday/last week/last year.
Have you heard anyone say, "she's heading for a nervous breakdown"?
When I told some of my family and friends they were not at all surprised. I give 100% in whatever I do. I've worked long hours, sometimes in to the evening. I've done the jobs of 4 people just to prove how brilliant I am when my colleagues are on a 2 hour lunch.
Years and years of battering my body and exhausting my brain.
And when I was smacked in the face with a label called anxiety, which is actually a nervous breakdown, I too would not understand why my body was twitching nervously with what felt like ants running up and down my legs and my head would be zapping me and sitting still was a nightmare.
There are things you can do to help repair the damage, but nature has to take its course and 40 years of what we call burning the candle at both ends will erupt eventually.
Taking a leaf out of a cat's life is pretty much a good guideline. Eat, sleep, play a little, a walk about, a bit of grooming and repeat.
I know you are frustrated and ask the question 'why?' Sue, but there are reasons for everything!

[DustingMyselfOff]

Such a wise woman you are. And all the replies help me feel so much better. So I guess I should stop trying to stop the tics and just let them release whatever is pent up in there.
Sue

[MyNameIsTerry]

. . . and here I sit, TRYING to enjoy a morning cup of coffee with my laptop and TV shows, smiling at the birds at my window bird feeder, and there is so much ... SOMETHING (adrenaline? cortisol?) running through my body that I can't sit still. My body tics and OCD are through the roof, and it's making me angry. I am totally relaxed and happy..... why is something in my body causing me to not be able to sit still and stop the repetitive movements!?!?!?
Sue

The normal Cortisol pattern is to wake us up ready for the day so it's much higher when we wake and reduces over the day. With my own anxiety waking has always been the peak and for several hours it would be much higher than normal. I guess when you add our higher baselines of anxiety on top of all that normal functioning this is what happens?

I find getting up and moving helps. Get something light to eat/drink, have a bit of a walk, maybe some fresh air, etc.

You will find what works for you with this even if it's only a little. I remember another member, MrAndy, saying this symptom of anxiety was something he had read was one of the last to go and he found it was the case for him.

As Carnation is saying about us being so busy too, I think like with many areas of our lives we have become conditioned to expect to be running around like a mad person earlier in the day. Rush to work, rush around at work, rush home.

That coffee is going to be adding caffeine on top of an already tweaked person. It might be worth considering whether you need to reduce it for a bit or whether it's non issue for you. I found things like caffeine difficult at the harder stages but since then I can drink it fine.

Are you saying mentally you feel like you aren't anxious but your body is just agitated?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well then I guess I already meditate successfully because I have a patch of woods behind my house with a small brook running through it, and when I venture down there, I can totally be in the moment and in my version of heaven. I hear every nature sound, I observe every movement of every creature and leaf, I am mesmerized by the way the water gushes over and past the rocks, etc. It's when I'm sitting at my desk, on the couch, or in bed that the mind races and I feel like I need to silence the noise.
Sue

Sounds nice

I think it takes time just to "get" meditation. Once you have it then it's going to mean more time as you introduce it throughout those other areas.

It can also be about certain places with struggle with more. These are more challenging to learn to relax in. I find there are places in my house where I suffered the worst of the anxiety and that memory is there so that it's a harder aspect to challenge in changing it.

There is even a form of therapy that aims to change the response to something more relaxed. NICE approve of it for GAD over here. It's called Applied Relaxation.

Have you tried to introduce exercises in those places? And have they been more than sitting with say a breathing meditation? (e.g. more tactile or even movement work)

[Carnation]

I agree about the coffee. Pushed my symptoms sky high!
Maybe you could consider a substitute like a herbal tea?
After all, you don't need that perk now you are relieved of your job. It's worth looking at.
I kicked coffee altogether, but have an occasional latte as a treat. I've also gone on to decaf tea. It's made a hell of a difference. Decaf also available in coffee. Also fizzy drinks have gone.
I know, I can hear you saying, "I shouldn't have to", but it's worth doing to get through this 'blip'. That's what it is Sue.
You've come to a point in your life where you have stopped in life's treadmill and your body is readjusting and your mind is subconsciously panicking.
Treat this time like a detox. x

[ankietyjoe]

. . . and here I sit, TRYING to enjoy a morning cup of coffee with my laptop and TV shows, smiling at the birds at my window bird feeder, and there is so much ... SOMETHING (adrenaline? cortisol?) running through my body that I can't sit still. My body tics and OCD are through the roof, and it's making me angry. I am totally relaxed and happy..... why is something in my body causing me to not be able to sit still and stop the repetitive movements!?!?!?
Sue

Coffee and anger, not a great combo.

I think that you could try and cut back on coffee for a start, or even do a 50/50 decaf mix. That's what I did.

Also, anger is a counter productive waste of time. It's a self destructive and self indulgent emotion.

By far the best thing you can do is just accept the sensations and feelings. Getting angry about them is going to keep the fire fuelled. Again, this is where meditation helps. Instead of 'getting angry' at something you have no control of right now, it trains your brain to just say 'ok fair enough, I'll just sit here with it until it passes'.

[DustingMyselfOff]

Thanks, everyone.... loving this thread and hoping some others are getting as much benefit from it as I am!

Regarding the coffee, I have cut WAY DOWN on caffeine. As you know, if you've been pumping it into yourself for decades, you can't just quit or even cut back drastically without side affects, but I am now down to 3 cups of caffeinated a day. And those three do consist of half caffeine, half-decaf. I have never found coffee to make my anxiety better or worse, but as was said, I don't "need" it much anymore so I will continue to decrease.

Yes, my body and mind are de-toxing from so many things. Maybe even past life issues that I've never had the time or energy to resolve but now have time to re-live and re-hash. And I guess a sudden lifestyle change, even a good one, takes it's toll on us.

I don't know if I will ever totally "accept" and go with the physical feelings of anxiety because I truly believe there is a physical cause for most of them, and if that's true, that means there should also be a "cure" for them. I changed my Synthroid dose again 7 weeks ago and that always causes physical and mental side affects, so maybe this will pass soon. I will have blood drawn in another few weeks to see if it put my TSH in a good place.

I'm a "fixer". I see a problem, I find the solution, and I enforce it. I've been very good at it my entire life, except, of course, when it comes to "fixing" me. So I get frustrated when I can't be a perfectly, well-oiled machine who can predict every feeling or thought and have a reason and a fix.

But.... I'm a work in progress, and I will probably spend the rest of my days trying to do better at this "life" stuff, and with this group of people helping, the journey should be very successful and rewarding.
Sue

[Carnation]

That's a more uplifting post

[Beckybecks]

I've just posted about this. I'm having horrible adrenaline surges every day at the moment. I too need to find the cause and find it difficult to just accept that it's part of the whole anxiety thing.
I don't do caffeine or anything that might stimulate me.

So how to deal with these surges; should I walk to try and work the adrenaline off? Or will exercise cause more of the same? If I sit still it gets worse!

I had bloodtests done and was told that my stress hormone level was out of balance. (I couldn’t understand the results myself)Doctor gave me Pantothenic Acid to take. Apparently that helps to normalise things. But it hasn’t had any effect yet.
I find these adrenaline rushes exhausting but I’mtrying so hard not to react to them as that obviously makes it much worse