Anxiety causes head twitches

[Raynefaerie]

Lately everytime I go into public I notice that my heart starts racing and I get this huge brush of adrenaline throughout my body. I went to the hospital the other day to have a pulmonary and I had to breathe into a machine for 45 minutes. My head started twitching and my whole body started trembling. The lady asked me why I was so shaky. That didn't help at all because she called me out on it. I eventually calmed down a bit. This isn't the first time I've had these head twitches and body trembles. I've had them for quite awhile now and I can't control them anymore. I was on Paxil for about three years and then was put on Effexor XR for about another two. I don't take any medication anymore because I thought I was fine but things have gotten worse. I don't see my therapist anymore because of some disagreements. I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how I could control these head twitches and body tremble.

[ToeKnee]

I really don't have much 2 say but I have a bit of a head twitch too pretty often. Are your SSRI's working for you? I've heard that only help like 10% of people with SA. You might want to check up on some other meds. Just my 2 cents, probably worth about .5cents.

[Auron]

I guess i can related to that because i used to have head twiches, which i still have but very rarely. before my body started twiching when i was sleeping and couldnt sleep well. the symptoms became very regular and i became very worried.

i started relaxing and just try getting over myself and thinking "why should i be scared? they are just people like me...in fact, i've done alot more in life than these **holes"

I kept on relaxing and practicing body movement to get rid of the nerviousness. Move "fluently" without firing that annoying nerve feeling in my body. after a while it helped on little things, like i no longer had this extreme fear of sitting in front of class and my head twiches decreased. I was in taekwondo and we did plenty of meditation, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT!

Is a matter of trying things out, and yet when they didnt worked i had the worst days of my life 'cause i made a fool out of myself. but regardless, is worth having days of embarrasing movements than years of living in it. Confront your fears by moving towards it...and most importantly, believe in yourself, because in my past experience it worked.

[irish_guy_erin]

I don't know if you and I have the same problem, but most times that I get anxiety I feel like my brain is shaking, not my head actually, and I feel like I can pass out at any minute.

I too was on meds before. I was on Zoloft. It worked for a long time, and then I stopped taking it because I hadnt been anxious in such a long time. That was about 7-8 months ago and I was fine until the other day when I was driving home from a friends house and felt like I had to pull over. I thought I would pass out and crash my car....then two days later I was called into the office at work, and half way through the meeting I started having a really bad attack....

After the meeting I was forced to go into the bathroom and try and relax. It didnt work, and I even thought of calling an ambulance....thats how bad it was....I havent been back to work since and am unsure if I can return until I get back on some kind of medication....

But YES I know what you mean about the Head Shaking sensation.

Erin

[Steve_P]

While I haven't had the exact symptom, a few times in my life when I've been under tremendous anxiety and on edge with panic attacks, I'd get tension headaches and my eyelid would often twitch.

A doctor told me the eye twitch was from the body being so overloaded with stress that it's sort of a 'misfiring' of the nerves, he said think of the saying 'your nerves are frayed.'

Tension headaches were a much bigger problem for me, for weeks at a time my head would feel as if it were being squeezed incredibly hard from both sides. This always made me feel dizzy and as if I might faint (I never did btw). However, this was the worst symptom for me, I just felt awful and spacey.

The amazing part though is that when I finally did stop worrying so much and reduced the amount of anxiety in my life, all symptoms like this began to melt away. I absolutely believe they were both tied to my anxiety, and when one of them begins to come back into my life, I know it's my body trying to tell me to slow things down.

[irish_guy_erin]

I'm glad you got past your symptoms but they really are not what I was describing, although the feeling that you are going to pass out might be......it's more of a head shaking, or brain shaking.

Erin

[Steve_P]

I'm glad you got past your symptoms but they really are not what I was describing, although the feeling that you are going to pass out might be......it's more of a head shaking, or brain shaking.

Erin

Thanks and I hope you get past your symptoms as well! :)

I will say that I did try Zoloft as well as many SSRIs and each one of them intensified the feeling that I was going to pass out.

Your description sounds a lot like what I felt - heavy pressures in the head, huge adrenaline surge as a reaction (because I was scared to death!), and then the utter fear that I would faint in front of everyone, or even behind the wheel of a car.

I don't know if you're up for it or not, but meditation is something that has helped me tremendously. Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and Lucinda Bassett have some guided meditation tapes that are wonderful at helping us relax. When I was in a bad way with my panic I would listen to such tapes over and over again and they really did wonders for me.

Good luck, you can beat this thing! ;)

[irish_guy_erin]

No offense, and I hope you take none.....but you seem to be just here to promote your website.

Erin

[Steve_P]

Sorry you feel that way, I was answering honestly based on my own experiences with anxiety and trying to help.

The point I was trying to make is that your symptoms are likely nothing to be feared and are almost certainly related to stress and anxiety. If you understand and believe that, the next time the symptoms come, you will know you don't have to be scared by them. This in itself decreases the intensity of your fear until the sensations eventually go away.

Hope this helps.

[The Melody of Rain]

I had a rather lengthy reply written offline for you at some point last week Raynefaerie but I unfortunately deleted my entire windows partition (along with two years worth of photographs, diary entries etc) so its lost to the shifting hands and drifting sands of time unfortunately enough, although you can of course always add my msn for chats should you wish. I mean, I certainly understand. Jesus do I understand...

I find myself in this precise predicament unfortunately. Personally I suspect its down to the anxiety causing muscle tension, and the tension in turn causing your muscles to contract involuntarily.

Three words: swimming or cycling.

I always found twitching to be hilarious looking, but indeed no longer. I find it extrordinarily humiliating...which causes me futher anxiety.