Can people die of anxiety?

[nicole123x]

Just a random question :s ....
Do people ever die from anxiety?
Like the shortness of breath, skipped heart beats etc?
Do they happen to just scare you? Or could your heart actually stop with the skipped beats etc ?

[alankay]

No. You'll just suffer from severe distress. Your body can't self destruct from anxiety. Your glands can only make so much adrenaline. Then the anxiety goes down and goes back up...... at some point. The cycle of phobic avoidance perpetuates this. If you can tolerate anxiety to realize you won't go crazy, die or lose control you'll fear it less and anxiety usually will go away after one goes through this. But the problem is most can't tolerate that(I could not). The flight or fight response is not something we are supposed to able to ignore. But no. If you're healthy, anxiety can't kill you. It sure is awefull but just...... fear. Alankay

[sazco]

Thanks god we can't die from anxiety, if we could I'm sure a lot of us wouldn't be on this forum.

[anreider]

It can't directly kill us, but indirectly can cause it. It affects sleep, hormones, blood pressure, etc. anxiety can cause us to over eat, get fat, and obesity causes a host of problems.