Can all of these physical symptoms really be caused by stress and anxiety? I don’t know how to snap out of it

[Zaina89]

So back in September I started feeling lightheaded as if a boat was moving or as if the floor dropped beneath my feet, went to the gp a number of times who eventually put it down to it being viral but it’s never gone away since then. Some days I’ll be fine, if I’m happy I’ll forget about it it kind of goes away. I do need glasses and my prescription is 0.50 both eyes I last had them tested in June 2024 and she said I don’t need glasses all the time but when I feel comfortable like I need them, my eyesight has been feeling more blurry and I’ve also found when I permanently wear my glasses the “dizziness” also resolves completely. During all this time I’ve been using my phone for about 8 and a half hours each day googling my symptoms and thinking I’m dying.I’ve been under a lot of stress, always suffered with anxiety but after a 6 year age gap I had another baby. My kids are now 9,7 and 18 months and I am a stay at home mum with no support and my toddler is absolutely killing me. She has never slept through the night, even at 18 months she won’t be put down on the floor or entertain myself so I cook, clean and do everything with her attached to my hip and she is so heavy now and this has been going on since she was 7 months old. I’ve tried letting her cry it out but she just doesn’t quit and give up she will continue screaming until she’s red in the face and exhausts herself. Husband doesn’t help much and I never get time to switch off and I do all the school runs and care with my children and home care and I’m so so so exhausted. On top of other daily life stresses we have recently gone through a stressful time of buying a new house. I’ve always suffered with some kind of anxiety but since my pregnancy with my 18 month old I’ve felt my health has declined so much, I had such a difficult pregnancy with her which resulted in hyperemis, depression during pregnancy, a difficult birth with a lot of blood loss, suffered with post partum depression to some degree and also it took months and months to get my iron levels up to standard. And now the dizziness that started in September before she turned 1. Doctor did a blood test and my iron levels had come back to a couple of points below average so he considered it now to be normal. Due to all these symptoms of lightheadedness I started having severe panic attacks which I never had before, these have now eased off and are much better than they was before but they were so bad. I’d have them whilst waiting for my children at school and the dizziness feeling I was getting was even worse during these moments. I’d wake up in the middle of the night with these
panic attacks for a couple of months, racing heart, tingling feeling, the dizzy feeling being severe during these times. For the last couple of weeks/days though I’ve had other symptoms of numbness in my face and arms and I feel as if one side of my face is dropping so I start panicking more and keep checking in the mirror to see if my face is “normal” I keep getting these sensations at certain places like when I get into bed at night and the school play ground and end up having a panic attack from it. I’m scared I will end up having a stroke or something, I’m worried the dizziness feeling is something nurological. I don’t know anymore. Can stress and anxiety and sleep deprivation really cause all of these symptoms ?

How old are you ? What was your blood iron result?
Have you been offered antidepressants?

As I read, I thought: perimenopause (dizziness was one of my clearest definitely-peri symptoms that has gone away completely with HRT).

Then I thought probably iron, and probably physical exhaustion. 3 kids after hyperemesis? I’m amazed anyone feels well after that!

Yes to PP asking about your iron level. Is it just below average, or just below the population normal (not optimal) range? Because low iron will make you feel all the ways you’re describing.

I think you should see the GP again, ask for repeated iron tests (and probably B12). Ask how to rule out neurological problems to put your mind at rest.

Get on iron supplements, maybe consider some HRT.

Good luck, OP

As soon as I started reading this I thought perimenopause too. I had very few symptoms, luckily, but the kind of dizziness you desribe was one. As PP said, HRT often does the trick. I hope it’s resolved soon.

All these symptoms can be attributed to low iron. (Not minimising the stress you are under, you sound like you have a HUGE amount on your plate with little to no help 😞). The dizziness, the panic attacks and anxiety. Do you get breathless too?

GPs in the uk have a very low benchmark for ferritin levels. They will say it’s normal when it’s extremely low. Do you know what your results were?

I would also ask for your thyroid hormones to be tested.

When you take iron make sure you take it at the same time as vit c as this hugely helps absorption.

The very first thing you need to do for anxiety is to have a phone detox. They are awful for anxiety. Get a dumb phone and use that. Or put a limiter on your phone for only half an hour per day.

Get out the house as much as you can. Join all the playgroups etc. The kids will be more stimulated, more calm at home and you will meet people who eventually will become your support network if you stick to it.

Tell your DH you need more support and be very specific about what. A lie in once a week. A night off to go to an exercise class/out with friends etc. Helps with housework etc.

Yes, definitely can be caused by anxiety and from the pattern of your symptoms it sounds like it is (but maybe also hormones, see below). The best thing you could do is to focus on working on that, accepting the panic and riding through it instead of spiralling into more panic (hard I know but loads of resources available to find something that helps).

Did you breast feed, as I did and had a strong spell of dizziness and panic attacks around the time I stopped, the change in hormones was a big anxiety trigger for me (same postpartum). I also had quite severe dizziness when I stopped taking contraceptives without the anxiety, so think I am sensitive to changes in hormones (also severe pregnancy sickness).

Did the blood test check for vitamin deficiencies like vit d and B vits? If not, get a more thorough blood test done. Did you get any iron supplements?

You sound exhausted. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you eating enough high quality food - protein and veg? Just start taking iron and vit b now - it can only help.

Yes that happened to me while breastfeeding! Drs were miffed but it seemed like dehydration (also was privacy in peri too). Weirdly eating fish or shellfish I could link and still avoid as happens again. Antihistamines might help too… keeping a diary is a good idea

Stress and anxiety absolutely can cause physical symptoms like you describe, the body keeps score and all that, BUT, that should be a working diagnosis after physical issues have been excluded.

I had a similar experience to you after the birth of my daughter and ended up just putting it in the category of ‘one of those things’ for (8) years. Then I started experiencing an escalation of the symptoms and had to go to the GP. I’d avoided it for years because being treated like a hysterical time waster wasn’t on my list of favourite ways to spend my time. I approached the GP with a list of diagnoses I wanted excluded (off the top of my head I think I listed thyroid, B12, anaemia, MS and MND) rather than presenting them with symptoms and trusting them to put them together. The GP I ended up seeing was really good and completed the tests needed to exclude/diagnose.

as it turned out I have MS and moderate hypothyroidism. That’s not to scare you, but there are so many causes and crossovers of symptoms that it needs a thorough assessment. There is very little that can’t be treated and the earlier caught the better. What caught my attention is you saying how some issues had worsened/presented after birth. Autoimmune conditions are well known to have a tendency to relapse after pregnancy because your immune system is repressed and as it returns to normal the condition announces its return with a bang which isn’t what anyone needs when they need to recover from the pregnancy itself!

go back to the GP and specifically state which conditions you’re concerned about, even better if you can complete an e-consult and have your concerns in writing. Either something physical needs addressing or your anxiety can be reduced by excluding them.

it’s also worth taking some iron and vitamin d supplements, it’s generally not a bad idea for any menstruating woman to be taking those.

It sounds like textbook low B12 / low ferritin/iron.

See a different GP and insist on being treated not fobbed off if it's borderline.

Hi everyone.
thanks for your replies.
im only 28 so I don’t think it could be perimenopause but I guess anything’s possible.

i was diagnosed with a slight iron deficiency and vitamin d deficiency in August 2024, I had a brief spell of this dizziness and the doctor said this was causing the symptoms, I got put on iron tablets for 3 months, started feeling better for the first 3 weeks then the full dizzy vertigo symptoms started in September. Every time I went back to the gp about the dizziness feeling one gp told me my iron deficiency was only very slight so wouldn’t cause these symptoms and neither would vitamin d deficiency. Another doctor in November 2024 told me the iron tablets may not be working and sent me for another blood test where he said they came back as within normal now so that couldn’t be causing it. I don’t take vitamin d regularly but I try to.

these are my last blood tests from November 2024 when I was told I had low vitamin d and iron deficiency anemia and in November 2024 when they said it had come back up.
I haven’t had any further blood tests since then.
but I still had all these symptoms whilst taking the iron tablets and they obviously helped to bring my numbers back up even if they were still a bit low.

my symptoms do seem to be so much worse when I start thinking about them,noticing them and during times of panic.

Blood test results from November 2024 and August 2024. Haven’t had any since November when they told me I was fine.

Agree with PPs about perimenopause..I have felt very similar symptoms to you and it was just anxiety. I found Claire Weekes books comforting although some see her as a bit old fashioned now. Stop googling symptoms and do try to set boundaries with your toddler.. you can’t keep carrying her while you do everything, I know easier said than done though. Hope you get through this OP

Your last paragraph sounds like this is down to anxiety.. try to stop worrying

Yes, absolutely they can. And you don't even have to be consciously aware of feeling stressed or anxious.

I was perfectly healthy, fit and in my early 30s, and would not have described my day to day life as particularly stressful or difficult, when I started having violent palpitations and weakness. I genuinely thought one night (when DH was away for work) that I was experiencing some form of heart failure that was going to kill me (and I'm not a nervy or hypochondriac individual at all I don't think I'd ever given my health any thought before this.) I saw my GP, who sent me straight to the cardiac unit. ECG was clear. GP said 'Tell me about your life because these seem to me to be palpitations and panic attacks ' and I said 'Nonsense there's nothing especially stressful in my life'. He listened and said 'Actually, your life sounds challenging by most people's standards' and sent me away with a prescription for beta-blockers.

It took me absolutely years to be able to grasp that actually, yes, my life was very difficult at the time, but I was genuinely unaware of this, and was somatising it.

Your life is currently difficult, OP, and it sounds as if your body is telling you this loud and clear. I'd advise therapy, and getting back into the workplace as soon as you feel able. Being a SAHP isn't suiting you. It doesn't suit a lot of people.

Sorry -- unintentional strikethrough!

Have you looked into ear problems ? Known cause of dizziness.

Eg ( not saying it is I am not a doctor) benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) ? Treated with the Eply manover ?

You might be too young to be in peri but you might have fluctuating oestrogen at any age especially as your body recovers from pregnancy

Your ferritin and vitamin d are too low
vitamin d you can take 4000IU daily
iron you need a proper supplement like ferrous fumerate, take it every other day with vitamin c (the fizzy tablets are cheapest I think)

they’re not absolutely dire levels but you’re nowhere near optimum
I had a vitamin d level of 9 and it took me a YEAR to get it up to 66 which isn’t even high

my routine now is to make the vitamin c tablet in the morning, I drink it to take my multi vitamin, iron and vitamin d all in one go

Your anaemia markers are all low or borderline low. Your haemoglobin is low at 111 as well as your ferritin. This in itself will
make you feel dizzy and anxious.
Iron tablets are notoriously badly absorbed by most people. A liquid iron supplement is usually better but they are very low dosage. Something like Floradix or Ferroglobin are good. But I bet you’d feel amazing after an iron infusion.
But like others have said your symptoms could be anxiety related, or could be a combination of both. For anxiety hypnotherapy is great.

I could’ve genuinely wrote this post myself.

I’ve had all these symptoms for 4 years.
I’ve had multiple blood tests, echocardiogram, holter machine, tilt table tests.

all clean. If you ever need someone to DM, I’m free

Sounds like classic chronic sleep deprivation to me exacerbated by low ferritin.

You need to get some sleep. Any grandparents that can have the kids? Is the 18 month old in nursery or can you book a cm so you can rest during the day?

your results also show that you have b12 deficiency (high mean cell count and low haemocrit) so they should rule out pernicious anemia as well, plus you have anaemia (low red blood cell count as well as low ferritin) plus awful vit D levels.

you have anxiety because you are stressed and tired and your body is not functioning optimally