Your Anxiety Symptoms

[Ness_is_a_mess]

Everyone responds to stress in a different way.  When I was younger,  my heart would race and my hands would feel clammy.  Now,  as an adult and at my worst, I get stomach aches or nausea, pains radiating down my arms, sweats/ chills,  and pressure in the chest.  I do not get all of these symptoms at once but they are definitely present when I am feeling anxious.  Lately,  the pains in my arms have been most significant---my doctor tells me that body aches and pains are associated with anxiety.  

Since my grandmother's death I have been suffering from nightmares and my husband tells me that I sometimes scream in my sleep.  I noticed that her death has triggered a new set of feelings and fears.   The depression that is attached with the loss of a loved one is expected so I know that crying is a healthy and natural part of the grieving process.  I do not cry often but once in a while I will let the waterworks cleanse my soul.   But,  the thought about losing another loved one (or the general fear of death) is paralyzing and the fear can be a bit frightening.

I am just wondering what kind of anxiety symptoms do you have and what is the trigger?  How do you cope with it?

How bad has anxiety been for you?

[cj29]

My original experience with anxiety came after my grandfather passed away.  We were very close and shared some common experiences.   He was a WWII vet who had been shot down 3 times and lived to tell about it, so naturally we bonded when I entered the military after college and deployed a couple of times.  I would talk to him on an almost daily basis while I was over there and we became very close especially over the the past few years before his death....in fact my wife and I named our son after him.

Dealing with a death of a loved one is hard enough.  I had my first panic attack a couple weeks after my gradfather's death and it was related to concerns with my heart...my grandfather died after complications from bypass surgery.  I had severe depression to go along with this.  And of course, it scared me to no end that I would lose someone else close to me.

Counseling and talk therapy worked the best for me.  I realized that death is a part of life and that I was so scared of dying, I was actually afraid to live.  I had panic attack after panic attack and it definitely was an uphill battle.  I had a myriad of symptoms from shooting pains in my arms to chest pains, but the docs repeatedly told me it was anxiety.  It is very hard to believe them when we don't think that they are right.  

The good thing is time does heal wounds in my experience.  Greiving and worrying is a part of what we do.  You will learn about your anxiety and you will confront it...keep us posted!

[erin626]

My anxiety got really bad after my grams death too.

I get nauseous, upset stomach, diarrhea sometimes, dizziness, lightheaded, depersonalization and headaches.

I'm slowly coming to terms with these symptoms and trying to recognize that its just my anxiety but soimetimes when they get really bad its hard to do that.