Any1 feel like their anxiety is physical, not mental issue?

[ciaran_p]

Having been diagnosed with GAD and derealisation, from the past 7 years, I feel like my anxiety is down to a physical malfunctioning of my body. I don't have panic attacks, and I don't fear any particular circumstances( ie, flying, heights etc). But I definately have an anxiety issue. More often than not, I either feel really nervous(to the point where Its debilitating), for random periods of time. Or, like for the past couple of days, this tingling throughout my whole body, where im restless and this horrible feeling as if my body is lacking some kind of nutrient, along with a burning sensation in my head and a kind of detachment from my surroundings! Does anyone else get anxiety from no apparent trigger???

[Itzomi]

Actually, sometimes anxiety IS caused by a lack of a particular nutrient. B-vitamins, esp. B12, are supposed to be helpful. It's hard to be deficient in B12 in this country, but some people do have a hard time absorbing it. (I had my B12 checked for the nerve issues in my face & head and it's fine.) It's frustrating trying to figure out what the problem may be, though. Or, sometimes, it could be a food intolerance. Then, ongoing anxiety can cause nutrient deficiencies as well, I'm sure. You just never know!

But, at least if this is the case, it's fixable!

[andyb]

I have this too its really fuckin my head up now and feel shit more at night like now

[ThePhoenix]

There are some internal things that create anxiety. Vitamin B is one, magnesium is another, over active thyroid can be related as well but none of them are physically endangering. There is also evidence to suggest anxious people have an issue with their brain in terms of threat recognition but at the end of the day the most effective strategy is altering our thought processes!

[Robbed]

Although certain physical issues (like food allergies) CAN cause anxiety disorder, the vast majority of cases of anxiety disorder are actually the result of stress. However, anxiety can DEFINITELY feel VERY physical. This actually causes lots of problems for some people, since it can be hard to believe that something SO physical feeling could possibly be caused merely by excessive stress. Thus, you get the ever-common situation where anxiety sufferers cannot believe that the doctors 'must be wrong' because they CANNOT simply have anxiety. The key thing to remember, though, is that anxiety disorder is not really stress, but rather the body's reaction to it. And your body reacts to it is a VERY physical way. So if you are having that all too common hangup with anxiety because you feel that it MUST be 'something more', keep this in mind.

[jj1983]

If you haven't already, I suggest having blood work done to test your thyroid, diabetes, cholesterol etc.

I am awaiting mine to come back.

I also feel something is "physically" wrong with me, I always worry my heart, or blood clot, or cancer of some sort...I had an ekg which was fine, have an ecg tuesday and should have blood test come back tuesday, hope they ARE OK

[forwells]

Howdy

I Have to agree with robbed and also jj1983

I will explain as best i can and this is how i looked at my anxiety and what i disagree with with most treatments .

Treatment for anxiety with many is change your thoughts and actions and it will change . I sort of agree with this but believe it is the slow way and bloody hard way of doing things.

See thoughts and feelings are hard to change and you only have to look at the flu . Think about how you feel after a week with the flu or any illness for that matter . You start to feel down , you start to feel fustraighted . Anxiety is no different accept with anxiety you don't know when it will go so it feeds it more and then the worry becomes ingrained in your thinking and you forget that this way of thinking is not your normal .

So first you need to see it as Robbed said "that anxiety disorder is not really stress, but rather the body's reaction to it. And your body reacts to it is a VERY physical way" ( great saying robbed ) So you look at removing that stress so your body is not reacting to it . First you need to accept it , accept that you are ill and not were yo want to be . Dont name it and this is what really pees me of with most treatments . Why do we need to name each and every problem. We could have OCD phobias , agrophobias . stress , hypochondriac, social fears but all these are one thing and that is stress and the way the body is reacting to it . Can react if its not there can it .

By looking at it like this we only have to deal with one thing and that is the stress , Once we remove that stress then it starts to fade.

Now you can change your thinking and i think that it is good but what i think is more important is to acknowledge your thinking . You are going to be sad , angry etc . You know that with any illness these are seen as normal feeling but with a mental illness they are seen as bad things . I don't believe they are . I always thought that if i felt like crap and it was effecting my life and doctors get me addicted to nasty drugs then i have a right to feel sad , angry , etc but i saw it as that and didn't dwell on those feeling because i saw them as normal for someone going though a illness . As would someone that was fighting cancer for example. Ask anyone with a illness weather they sometimes think like this . People with anxiety do it more i believe because we are made to believe that these feelings are not normal . Of course there normal for what we have to go though . Eg Your depressed because its effecting your life . Well if you accept it as that then you can work on changing it and not on getting rid of it . All feelings are normal . Feelings are the way we react to our surroundings . Just think if anxiety was not effecting your life in a negative way do you think you would be feeling all these things so strong .

So that's the first step Accepting that what you are feeling in many causes is normal for what you are going though. I am lucky as i also had CFS and learnt this back then. Do not fall into the trap that your feelings are something not normal and should be squashed . You need to feel these things and that is why they are there . Its like depression . It can be a big problem in some but in most cases depression is nothing more than a problem without a answer . Once you have that answer then that depression starts to life slowly .

Ok onto your many question . Of course there is something wrong with your body . This is where i agree with many that there is a chemical imbalance in the body . I dont agree that it needs these nasty drugs to fix but it dose need to be worked on as a whole .

Look at it like i think robbed wrote once . Your body is a car . And anxiety is faulty fuel . Now you run this car for a while and it starts to play up more and more . Now you can change the fuel ( thoughts ) and keep running that car and it may come good . But you have to look at what that fuel did to the car . It now might be glazed , no doubt the timing is not working well . It might now be using more oil than it should , maybe the leads are braking down . etc etc . Can you see how one thing has caused so many other things to happen .

This is how you should see your anxiety . To simple say change your thoughts ( fuel ) and you will be right is rubbish . You need to give that car ( body ) a overhaul.

When a body is anxious yes it gets chemical imbalance but its not that there is something wrong with your body . That those chemicals are missing . It is that they are using to much of them . Same with the car when you brake a lead , run it rough it will use more fuel .

So if you look at your anxiety like this then by removing the thoughts ( fuel ) and fixing the problems that that fuel caused by running it on a better grade fuel and running it better then it will come good .

So with your anxiety you add things that the body uses when under stress , certain vitamins . Good fuel ( food) because a stressed body uses more fuel than it gets sometimes . Your sugar will play up mine was very high from a stage and now normal . Serotonin in the body will be low yes but that's not because its missing its because it using more .

So are you physically ill , of course you are but if you fix things on a complete level like that car you will get better . But to simply change the fuel and expect that car to run like it once did will never happen without some other work .

There was many many things i did to get over my anxiety and it was not just change the thoughts . I am lucky that the thoughts with me come mainly from drugs but that's not to say i didn't have to change them from what they learned on those drugs . Remember thoughts are learned and you can unlearn them . I would not wish anyone to go though what i went though on benzos but at least with the benzos it changed my thinking to be fearful but i could still see it and change it . The problem with many with anxiety is that it has gone on so long that they don't see there thoughts are not their normal self . They forgot what it was like to think normal . Anxiety and stress hormones also play a huge part in this and can make you think like that and that is why you need to accept that as it will stop feeding the little bugger

So as jj1983 get yourself tested but ask for a copy of the results because you may fall in the range but you might be 1 point above it . My thyroid was .01 point above low which they said was not a problem but it showed me that my thyroid was being effected by it and it was something i needed to work on . Remember that if any do come back low you can fix most things with natural methods and don't need to take nasty drugs to do it .

cheers kev :D