Subconcious Anxiety: How to deal

[rmp984]

I'm not saying that I don't have conscious anxiety, but for the most part, or I'd say around 75% of the time, I won't feel anxious at all but my body still feels funny.
Now by this I mean I have no worried thoughts, no irrational fears going on at all, but I have the buzzing/tingling sensation going on through my body. Buzzing in my arms and head and tingling in my legs.
I was wondering if anyone has gotten over this? This is my main issue when it comes to conscious anxiety, cause I can't think of any reason as to why this would be happening and then it at times causes worried thoughts and fears. The only way i seem to be able to get rid of the buzzing and tingling is to sit in a hot tub/go for long walk/take a hot shower... or at times if the physical symptoms get bad enough I take a 1/4mg of klonopin and that will get rid of it for basically the rest of the day. Any thoughts on that matter would be nice.


A little history now: About 5 months ago out of the blue my body and mind started freaking out on me and I started having panic attacks and constant anxiety and constant chest pain. I was prescribed zoloft 50mg and that got rid of the panic and anxiety but the chest pain remained. Due to complications of turning me into a zombie I tried to get off the zoloft and 3weeks after dropping to 25mg the chest pain went away. I would have actually stayed on 25mg but I had one withdrawal effect that no one could tell me was withdrawal and was switched to celexa 10mg and then 15mg. After 3 weeks on that I though it was goign to work great but started having complications with the celexa with muscle tension.. My pdoc then prescribed me lexapro hoping that would get rid of the muscle tension... it didn't and actually added some stomach pain issues. 25 days ago was my last dose of any SSRI and so far i've dealt with all the withdrawal effects you read about. But this buzzing sensation with no conscious anxiety is really starting to get to me... I am seeing a therapist too, but she doesn't seem to know what to tell me about all this other than just accept it... sorry easier said then done.
I don't want to go back on drugs especially since I haven't had a panic attack since i've come off the drugs yet, but this buzzing feeling is getting to me, even though i've tried to accept it...
I don't want to feel like I have to go for a walk/take a hot shower/sit in a hot tub everyday/night.

[MMA_Matthew]

Hi rmp984, first of all i was reading your post and your therapist has made me quite angry. In my opinion this is her telling you in a subtle way she has given up and she does not know how to help you in which case i hope you are not paying to spend time with her. Do not accept it you can limit it at the worse and cure it at the best! with that rant out the way i would like to address a few things you have said. You stated "I'm not saying that I don't have conscious anxiety, but for the most part, or I'd say around 75% of the time, I won't feel anxious at all but my body still feels funny. Now by this I mean I have no worried thoughts, no irrational fears going on at all, but I have the buzzing/tingling sensation going on through my body. Buzzing in my arms and head and tingling in my legs." When i had my first few panic attacks and my anxiety was just starting out i used to have similar feelings in my head and chest. It is not caused by your subconscious it is due to your adrenaline system been activated by an over stimulated CNS (central nervier system) the reason you are able to stop the sensations by walking/shower/hot tub are because you are affectingly shutting down your CNS and calming your self down by relaxing/burning off excess energy. With your type of anxiety it is difficult to deal with as their is no obvious trigger sometimes your body just decides to trigger the adrenaline system. try noting down when your having attacks where you are, what you was thinking about at the time, any sensations. My guess is that you start to have the sensations and then your worry about what it could be what is wrong with you and then that leads to having an anxiety attack. I got over this part and then my anxiety manifested into something else but that is another story for another day and may not even happen to you. Here is how i did it. First of all if it was me i would maybe drop the klonopin it is a benzodiazepine this chemical works by enhancing the effect of the neurotransmitters in your brain which in turn produces a sedative like effect. The problem with this is that is after a period of time the brain and body will get lazy Example (in simple terms) Brain: "I'm having a panic attack i best try to calm down !" this is your brain with out the drug. Brain: "i'm having a panic attack ! ah its okay she/he will pop a pill and everything will be fine". The later one is your brain on the drug after a period of time ruffly 3-4 weeks of occasional use. By taking your drug your brain will stop trying to cope with the attack and their for when you completely stop the drug it won't have the nessercery defenses to combat an attack successfully. I would suggest SSRI but as you have mentioned they do not agree with you. Maybe try saint johns wort?. Second of all i tort my-self slowly that the tingling sensations don't mean anything try to rationalize it. Sit tier close you eyes and say to your self this doesn't mean anything to me. Try not to take a shower or a walk the first couple of times try to just ride it out after all you have been in this situation before? you know hat is going to happen its going to go away eventually? i am confident after you can the worried thoughts your having your sensations will fade quicker. I would also like to re alliterate about writing down where you are what your thing what your doing when these sensation occur. Just my 2 cents on that matter. I know you didn't ask for help on how to deal with it per-say but thought i would throw in my experience of how i coped with it just if you felt like trying something new. hope I've gave you something to think about or research.

[rmp984]

MMA_Mathew. Thank you for your response.
I was a bit vague with some of my questions and whats going on with me. The part about the therapist was probably the most vague. She doesn't just say "accept it." She provides me with ways to handle it with breathing and ways to acknowledge it with out panicking, she's actually been very helpful.
As for your other advice I take klonopin as little as possible, even when dealing with major anxiety i try to refrain from taking it, and so far since i've been off the SSRI's I average maybe a half mg a week.
As for the body buzzing, it just doesn't go away for me, there is no real wave to ride out with that. If it ramps up it sticks around. Now i don't have it horribly everyday, but to a small extent everyday. But the bad days like when i wrote my previous post even the hot tub and shower didn't help, the moment I went to bed i started to feel it again.. was able to get to sleep, but woke up an hour later with it really bad along with some very bad light headedness/dizziness and borderline panic. I was up for 3 hrs trying to talk myself down saying it was nothing and trying to rationalize with it, even showering again at 3am which helped enough to get me to sleep again the rest of the night. If the body buzzing came in waves and only lasted for so long I could easily rationalize with it, but when it starts at say noon, and never goes away or usually gets worse its tough. Today I only went for a walk and not to get rid of the buzzing but for some light cardio while i'm sick, and even as I type this I probably wont even shower or use the hot tub tonight as I don't feel like I need to use it to calm down to sleep.
I will not be returning to SSRI's however I do have a script for Remeron in my back pocket to use if I deem that things have gotten bad enough, but I want to do this with therapy if i can.
The other thing at this moment too is I'm dealing with a really bad cold and i'm not sure how much the meds i'm taking for that are affecting this. Zpack (antibiotic), Fluticasone (nasal spray), robitussin, and benedryl or claritin. I'm sure they are affecting me in some way and increasing my anxiety along with the frustration of just being sick.

[Lin]

It sounds to me like you have anxiety and effects of anxiety are showing in the buzzing in your body. It sounds like you are getting something from visiting your therapist, but not getting rid of all your symptoms like the buzzing, so that you feel completely better.
Anxiety can be based on worry about a lot of things, based on true or false things, and it shows in all of us in many different ways.
If I was you I would go back and talk to your GP about what is still happening to you and how you are feeling and see what suggestions they give you.
There are lots of different tablets you can take for anxiety if the ones you have tried have given you side effects, or you can ask for alternative help like accessing the services of your mental health team in your area. As well as therapy there are courses you can go on which help you to handle anxiety and to try to understand what is causing yours.
There are also other things which your therapist has probably mentioned like meditation, alternatives eg reflexology, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, herbal tablets etc.
So I should try and talk about what is available and what you would like to try, if just seeing a therapist is not enough to get rid of all your symptoms at the moment.