Physical symptoms of Anxiety (A Twitter Reaction Post)

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(Edited)

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Depression vector created by pch.vector - www.freepik.com and Inkscape.org

I hate that you can feel anxiety in your stomach and chest.

— cun-t (@ehlboogie) August 22, 2022

In my last post, I wrote about Anxiety and flashbacks, even though the text was not very specific and did not directly imply flashbacks, there were memory symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that are related to flashbacks. Flashbacks were defined as relived traumatic experiences by mind.org. The symptoms of PTSD were divided into physical symptoms, memory symptoms and symptoms related to thinking. It is important to note that children may also react to traumatic events by reenacting the trauma or having vivid nightmares about the traumatic event.

In this post, even though we already have seen that anxiety can present this way, I would like to examine and find out just how many types of this disorder present with these physical symptoms. I would also like to know if physical symptoms are more common in some than others.

If you are new to this blog, I would like to welcome you, I hope you have a nice time reading, my name is Dr Ebingo Kigigha, and I am a medical doctor and creative. I write here on Medic Vibes. I wrote a month's worth of knowledge on depression last month. This month I will be writing about anxiety.



Anxiety disorders are a group of disorders that have fear and worry as their defining symptoms. Anxiety is more common in younger people but it can affect any age group. A few days back we reviewed a study done in a youth camp that had levels as high as 50% prevalence. Anxiety yearly affects 3% of people the world’s population. In Nigeria, 1% of the population is dealing with anxiety.

The anxiety issue is that everyday life experiences cause worry to the person affected by anxiety. Being anxious about exams or school performance is normal. The criteria for anxiety is that it has to present on most days for 6 months.

People who have anxiety have these symptoms:

They could be jittery, feel tense, have abdominal pain, fast breathing, sweating and tiredness, these are physical symptoms.

They could have symptoms of insomnia, difficulty paying attention, having nightmares

They could also have abnormal reactions like being bothered.

According to the diagnostic and statistical manual for mental health diseases, Anxiety has to be about a variety of things and is present most days in 6 months, The worry is uneasy to control, and can move from one thing to the other. The worries are in addition to jitteriness, fatigue, difficulty paying attention, muscle pain, and insomnia, one of which is important for a diagnosis of anxiety in children.

Anxiety causes depression in many people. It is important to be vigilant about these changes to take prompt action. Read my posts from last month to know more about depression and the warning signs.

Physical symptoms of Anxiety

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People illustrations by Storyset

Anxiety can have physical symptoms that affect health and daily life.

Specific types of anxiety might have additional physical symptoms.

According to Healthline, in an article titled

Physical Symptoms of Anxiety: How Does It Feel?,

They describe some of the physical features you might find in an individual dealing with a panic attack.

The person, first of all, feels like they are about to die. There is difficulty breathing or this painful feeling in the chest. They may complain of tingling feelings on the hand with lightheadedness and the person may even faint. There may be changes in the body's temperature sensation, feeling hot or cold.

The reason for this is that the body during anxiety is preparing the body for fight or flight. It includes an increase in heart rate, preparing the body by sending blood to skeletal muscles, the body also prepares this way by increasing oxygen delivery by increasing the respiratory rate. All these responses further worsen the panic attack. These are mostly a result of adrenalin.

The human body was designed to deal with frightful situations this way, but because we are not under constant threat, we can’t last very long this way before we start feeling the weight of these responses on the body. The results are pains, fatigue, and headaches.

Cortisol, a hormone secreted in times of stress is overly secreted in a panic attack. This hormone can have adverse effects, especially in blood glucose regulation and other chronic changes that can result.

Tips

Those who are dealing with these symptoms will usually need either psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy or a combination of both. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the mainstay of psychotherapy but there are also options for pharmacotherapy. The drugs used for anxiety are called anxiolytics.

Hive Stories

@passenger777 describes the school activities starting a school session. In the story is the undertone of anxiety in children as they start school. check out the post here

I have written before about how food is a good tool to help deal with anxiety.

Check out her post here

Questions

  • What did you learn about physical symptoms of anxiety?
  • What did you learn about anxiety?
  • How are physical symptoms related to anxiety?
  • What methods are used for the treatment of anxiety?

Conclusion

Physical symptoms of anxiety exist and can present like the tweet said, with chest pains and abdominal pain. These symptoms of pain are all due to the preparatory mechanisms that the body uses for fight or flight that sustain over a long period leading to adverse effects

I hope that you learned a lot from this post.

References



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13 comments
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Excellent post my friend, Are the drawings made by you?

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Some of them. But this one, no.

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I didn't know that anxiety can be this bad that it will affects us physically this bad too.

On the topic of adrenaline, I heard more than once that some martial artist and monks can freely control their adrenaline to boost their physical strength. I am just wondering if you have encountered any study related to this?

Thanks for sharing.

!1UP

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Hi @ebingo in your next post please use education tag or post under the education community. More people should learn about the things you write about. Have a great day!

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Noted, I'll add that to my tags...Thank you for showing up here.

Posted via D.Buzz

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Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!

Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).

You may also include @stemsocial as a beneficiary of the rewards of this post to get a stronger support. 
 

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Congratulations your publication has been chosen among the best of the day.

KEEP CREATING GOOD CONTENT.

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Thank you very much...I am very grateful

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What I have particularly interesting with this blog, is to think about how something psychological (this works with anxiety, but also with other issues) could affect humans physically. That's sounds crazy to me (although I know this definitely happens very often).

Those who are dealing with these symptoms will usually need either psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy or a combination of both. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the mainstay of psychotherapy but there are also options for pharmacotherapy. The drugs used for anxiety are called anxiolytics.

That's definitely terrible. I have seen good people really collapsing under stress... and refusing to see a specialist on the other hand.

This being said, thanks again for this blog.

Cheers!

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