How does anxiety present to you?

[weneedhelpandlove]

My anxiety causes constant nausea. Stomach gas, chest pains and struggling breaths. I also find that my teeth can hurt sometimes so I clench a lot. What do you experience daily due to anxiety?

I feel like I have a kind of surging acid scream that is present in my head like a bissecting slice of metal. I also have tooth and jaw pain fom clenching , and neck and shoulder pain from general tension.
Sometimes I feel the acid scream through my whole body - a kind of corrosive fizz. That makes me worry about high blood presssure, though I don't know if they are really connected.
I never have panic attacks. Apart from the jaw clenching and neck/shoulder tension, the 'physical' sensations feel almost like they are metaphors for mental pain. A bit like experiencing numbers as colours, etc: the sensory element can't really be there but it is.

Thank you so much for sharing and being open! Anxiety and mental health is such a bloody scary and frustrating thing! Especially the physical responses our body goes through due to our brains. You're strong and awesome for being open!

I get quite severe nausea. I can't breathe properly sometimes. When it's bad I get panic attacks. Can get diarrhoea. I can feel so overwhelmed my head hurts. My tongue sticks to the top of my mouth. I hunch my back so I get neck, shoulder and upper back pain. Just awful tbh 😂

Anxiety is awful. I’m on top of it most of the time and have never taken meds but when it comes it can be scary; especially panic attacks. It’s taken me a long time to understand that panic attacks are not something that just happen when you get nervous , but can happen out of the blue even when you are feeling well. When I get one of these I genuinely feel I am going to die as my heart races and I struggle to breathe. I have learned that I will not die and have taught myself to breathe through them which helps to reduce the terrible fear. I also struggle with severe insomnia due to intrusive thoughts but again have learned to cope relatively calmly. The insomnia is the only symptom I struggle with on a daily basis. Threads like this help because it stops you feeling that you are on your own with these symptoms. I live a normal life and very, very few people are aware that I suffer from anxiety.

Physically - racing heart, feeling short of breath, panic attacks, generally feeling tense in my body, tiredness/fatigue, urgent need to wee, itching all over, lump in throat, heartburn/indigestion, headaches, dry mouth, sweating, nightmares, disassociation, weird visual issues....the list goes on (not all of these are every day but they happen frequently)

Mentally - irritability, crying, obsessive thoughts, racing thoughts, 'what ifs', feeling overwhelmed, unable to make decisions, wanting to be alone

Ruminating thoughts, irritability, neck and jaw tension from teeth clenching particularly at night. A butterfly type feeling right up and down the centre of my abdomen to my throat.
Panic attacks are palpitations, sweating, dizzy and a horrible sense of doom.
For about 5 months 2 years ago I was bedridden with them. Could barely stand to make a sandwich for my children. I couldn't bare to hear people talking, all I could do is lay in bed and listen to bird sounds on my phone, it was the most awful experience of my life and I've not properly recovered from it.