Anxiety Affect You Subconsciously?

[ahefner33]

Hello

I am pretty new to dealing with anxiety and its effects. This has completely altered my daily life and I am working on dealing with it.
My story pretty much started having a sudden pain, numbness and fainting spell that left me with a visit to the ER. All the tests came back normal. The way I felt however did not.

After that day I have constant symptoms that I have found all on the list of symptoms of having anxiety. My symptoms include a constant disorientation (fuzzy headed), pain and discomforts in the chest, facial, arm, feet numbness, pressure in the ears, and rapid heartbeat. The odd thing with the symptoms is I can have a complete day feeling great with none of these and then a day where its constantly all through out the day. Then days where I only feel the symptoms for brief times.

I followed up with our family Dr after the ER visit which I was assured I had a healthy heart (since worried of heart attack had happen) and said he thought I had Vertigo for my dizziness and gave me medicine for it. He hasn't officially said I had anxiety. Upon further research, I realized I don't have vertigo ( I dont have a spinning sensation but rather a constant foggy headed/slightly blurry vision) and also the medicine didn't work. I have another follow up in 2 weeks.

My problem with understanding with whats going on with anxiety is my symptoms seemed to be constant and usually dont go away or come on when Im not in any stressful situation. They'll happen at randoms times such as after I eat, after working out and feeling fine before going, and even recently had a near fainting and nassuea episode when I was in a crowd, which has not ever been a problem for me in my life. I can be having a great time with friends and all these symptoms will hit me without even thinking of anything stress related. Another episode was when I was sleeping and woke up with all the symptoms at full blast and I would even sit here and tell myself that its not a real heart attack or anything else but symptoms remain.

So can anxiety cause symptoms (constant symptoms - not 10-20 minute occurences) without consciously thinking of any problem and come a go randomly with no pattern?

Again this is all new to me as of the past 2 weeks so I'm trying to better educate myself on whats going on.

Thanks in advance

[Dcoito]

Yes anxiety can pounce apron you at any time. What it is doing right now is increasing. It can be sneaky that way! I had an episode of anxiety that turned me into agoraphobic 10 years ago, of corse then I didn't know the early sings, and didn't know it was coming. This time I was a little bit more prepared, and recognized it fairly quick. Except I didn't catch it before I had a full blown panic attack. In the beginning of my anxiety coming back I just had tension, stress, inpatient , and my feet, would get numb. 10 years ago I didn't recall that so I just ignored it. Until I had the racing heart. Then I was uh huh I recognize that! Other symptoms came on quickly after that. Up until my medication started working. But I remember my first two weeks or so I had constant anxiety! All day long. I felt like I had taken shots of espresso! Just could not relax! I paced around my yard, around the house. I just had to keep moving! So annoying. Then came the pressure in the head, blurred vision. Could not concentrate, felt outside of my own body. ( derealization ) things looked fake. I couldn't even watch tv, I was jumpy, and on edge. Couldn't go anywhere. Just plain hell!
But I knew what was happening. So I had no health anxiety to fuel it ant further thank god! I didn't think I was having a heart attack, or brain tumor, or cancer, I knew what was happening!
What I needed to know was what to do to cope! So I read a lot about it, I wanted to know how it works, what goes on in your body, what triggers it, you can find videos on YouTube on anxiety. Write ups on line. This forum is helpful as well. Work with your doctor for medication, understand what the medication dose, how it works, and how long it takes to work! There is no quick fix. It took years to get here so it will take some time to heal, however the sooner you get treatment the Easter it is!

Anxiety is part of our fight or flight response. Our brain will send a single of danger. And that's normal! If there really is danger! Adrenaline is released causing our heart rate to go up in order to prepare us to fight, or run. Again normal! If there was something there! But since nothing is there we start to worry! What's wrong with me? Am I having a heart attack? As we worry, more adrenaline is produced then we get more symptoms, shaky hands, and legs. Sweat, dizzy, confused. It continues into a full circle, and at that point you are now in a panic attack! Fun huh?

The key is realizing what it is and don't fight against it. Do the opposite and try to relax yourself. You learn relaxing techniques on YouTube as well. Breathing is key too! Learn how to breath to bring down anxiety. Your thought process is also important. Do not fuel the anxiety. Think positive, and rationally! I know this sounds hard, and it is! But the more you gear up with your coping tools, the better it will get! Try and see if you can figure out the root cause for your anxiety too! That is helpful. Trauma, child hood, work stress, home stress, family history. All of the above! LOL. Lets hope not!
Good luck to you! Lots of people around here so don't be shy! ; )

KNOW YOUR ANXIETY IN ORDER TO DEFEAT IT!

[ahefner33]

..............

The key is realizing what it is and don't fight against it. Do the opposite and try to relax yourself. You learn relaxing techniques on YouTube as well. Breathing is key too! Learn how to breath to bring down anxiety. Your thought process is also important. Do not fuel the anxiety. Think positive, and rationally! I know this sounds hard, and it is! But the more you gear up with your coping tools, the better it will get! Try and see if you can figure out the root cause for your anxiety too! That is helpful. Trauma, child hood, work stress, home stress, family history. All of the above! LOL. Lets hope not!
Good luck to you! Lots of people around here so don't be shy! ; )

KNOW YOUR ANXIETY IN ORDER TO DEFEAT IT!

Hey Dcoito,

Sorry I am just seeing this reply. And thanks for the reply.

My situation is weird as I haven't fully been diagnosed with anxiety from anyone else besides myself. Seems like symptoms of any medical issue is also a symptom of anything anxiety related.

Since its been a while I can tell you my situation since. I had the same feelings for about a week after the initial onset of these occurences. However over time, everything basically just went away. During that time the Dr. actually had me wear a heart monitor for a day just to make sure my vitals were good (my initial concern that I feel the anxiety was related too). But as I waited for the next follow up which was yesterday, I was back to normal. I was back out hanging out in crowds, doing sport activities, traveling a little bit.

I then went back to the Dr. office and was told he wanted to recommend me to a cardiologists just because two instances when I was asleep my BPM got down to 35. Other than that though he said everything looked good on there and this probably wasn't anything to worry about but wanted to be sure. After learning this, it seemed like everything that was happening before came back to me. Felt really fatigued when exercising, weird skin sensations I was having before, and a small state of worry (if that makes sense). And again this was all gone until finding out these results.

So I sit here confused as to not knowing if anxiety is propelling these feelings again or if its really something else. I know I will be seeing the Dr again about this so I can see what that meant but its odd to me that I could feel great again and then BAM, get worrisome news and all the symptoms feel like they are coming back.

You asked before I needed to find the cause. Well before all this happened I wasn't under any stress really. About the most stress free time of the year for my self. But ever since all this has gone down, I can say I've been stressed. But then I got better and then came back after the news.

Thanks again for your initial response

Adam