Top 10 Anxiety Physical Symptoms
Most people have never experienced a panic or anxiety attack. Almost everyone has had some of the symptoms of one though, but it never leads to a real panic attack. I am asked all of the time what are the symptoms of a panic attack and I try to explain that it isn’t one symptom; it is several. That’s one of the reasons it feels so bad is that so many things are going on in your body and mind that you feel out of control.
The other point I want to make is that I don’t get all of the symptoms ever. I usually get 3 or 4 symptoms at a time but never all of them. Or maybe even if I did have all of them I wouldn’t be able to realize it because too much is going on.
The first symptom that I will cover is the one that I notice first with me. I usually feel hot, even if it is winter outside. I can be so hot that I can stand outside in the winter without my coat. Very rarely will I feel chills, maybe after I have had a panic attack but not usually during one. Hot flashes and chills is a very common symptom.
The second symptom is sweating. This is a pain in the you-know-what, especially if you are going somewhere and you don’t want to look like you just got out of the gym. Sweating is really not that bad a symptom overall but you realize it more as you think about it.
The third symptom is accelerated heartbeat. Actually I think that it starts off more as me thinking about my heart rate and than becoming more anxious thinking that it is going faster which causes it too actually speed up due to being anxious about it. Did you ever notice when you think about something like this that you really focus on it. Like going to the doctor for a checkup and he tells you to breathe normally as he checks your lungs. All of sudden you don’t know how to breathe normally, you have to fake it. Same with your heart rate, if you think about it too much and start to worry you will definitely make it go faster.
The fourth symptom is shaking and trembling. Usually this starts in my hands when I am really into a panic attack. This always bothers me a great deal for some reason. I can still use my hands but they are actually shaking. The funny thing is sometimes this goes all the way down to my knees. I always thought that knees knocking was just in scary stories but I have actually had my knee caps jumping up and down. Never a good feeling.
The fifth symptom is shortness of breath. This one is a tough one too. You seem like you can’t catch your breath and it just makes you more anxious. This one is a bad one and the impending doom feeling starts to creep in and scare the hell out of you. I hate all of the symptoms but this one seems to especially scare me, even though I know that it can’t hurt me. The feeling of lousing control of something that happens without thought can be very frightening indeed.
The sixth symptom is nausea or stomach cramps. For me this is a symptom that I get a lot and have learned to deal with it. It makes you feel lousy of course, but it also makes you not want to be too far from a bathroom, thus keeping you from going some place. Usually I just take something for this and go on with my day but sometimes you have to take care of business beforehand.
The seventh symptom is a choking sensation. Sometimes this comes off as an inability to swallow or the feeling like you have forgotten how to swallow. I had something weird with mine in that sometimes for some reason I would swallow with my head turned and it would feel like my adam’s apple got caught in my throat. I would grab my adam’s apple and push it back into place. I now realize that my adam’s apple never got stuck or was in a wrong place but my anxiety made me think that something was wrong. This doesn’t happen anymore and I’m glad, it never totally scared me since I knew that I could breathe anyway.
The eighth symptom is tingling in the toes or fingers or both. This one did freak me out before I learned anything about anxiety attack symptoms. It makes perfect sense to me know. When you are in panic attack mode your body goes into fight or flight response. When this happens adrenalin is released as well as other chemicals and the blood is kept around your chest for you heart and lungs to use effectively. Thus your extremities are not given their normal supply and you get a tingling sensation. Not scary at all, huh?
The ninth symptom is fear of losing control. It is more than that really. It is fear of not being able to do something in case you do have an anxiety or panic attack. Like you won’t be able to walk, or you won’t be able to talk and tell someone your name. Also you won’t be able to drive or stop the car. It is all kinds of things but they all involve you believing that you won’t be able to do them. It is totally irrational and it never happens, not to anyone ever. But the mind makes you think that it can happen, and thinking bad predictive thoughts is one of the causes of panic attacks.
The tenth symptom is the fear that you are going crazy or losing your mind. I know that after my first panic attack I thought for sure that I was losing my mind. It came out of the blue and I was doing something that I had done a thousand times, just shopping. But all of a sudden out of the blue I had to get out of that store and I didn’t know why. I had to leave and I had to leave now. It felt like I was being manipulated by something and that I had to get away from it. Definitely thought that I was going crazy or losing my mind. I felt that way until I finally saw a doctor and was diagnosed with having a panic attack. That was a relief in a way and not so in another.
So there are ten physical symptoms that you may have if you are having an anxiety attack. Writing them down now doesn’t scare me but years ago just thinking about them would make me anxious. But I sought help and have come a long way. If you are having symptoms and don’t know what to do seek help somewhere. There is a lot of information and programs now that can cure you and get you back to your life. Don’t hesitate, do something now before you make this a habit that is hard to break.
