Describe your anxiety.

[Jimbo]

My anxiety has changed over the years. It used to be a feeling in my gut area with occasional panic attacks with a pounding racing heart. Then it sort of changed to this out of breath feeling still with a racing heart.

Now at age 47 it's a strange feeling in my throat and upper chest with a pounding heart that feels like a rush of adrenaline. The adrenaline is hard to get rid of once its released. There is also a nervous like feeling at the same time. Sometimes it comes on for no good reason. Other times it's when my mind is on my finances or the amount of work I have that day.

I was just wondering how anxiety feels to others?

Also are there things you do to prevent your anxiety or reduce it?

 

[toothless]

my anxiety is very high strung,it hits me in my whole body like a shock wave and makes me hit myself,speed rock,scream,punch walls,i almost go blind and all i can feel is the anxiety,i feel im in hell.
i can have panic attacks [the worst involves paramedics] or severe challenging behavior [the worst involves police and hospitalisation].
i constantly get very bad intrusive thoughts that dont go away and either happen after the anxiety or trigger the anxiety,a lot of people think i have 'pure O OCD',i want to get tested for it,ive been that way my whole life.

what can help me is using my ultra weighted blanket,using my sensory toys and focusing on the feels,stroking my support cat, and meditation/mindfulness,a support staff has been recently teaching me this and gave me a number of guided meditation sessions to use on my laptop so staff have to put that on for me when i get into this state.
i really recommend trying mindfulness,it makes you focus on each physical feeling so that you remove yourself from the anxiety.

i take a lot of medication for anxiety including lorazepam as PRN medication and i find sometimes i dont even need PRN when i do mindfulness with the right person.

 

[Judge]

For the longest time as an adult, social anxiety would manifest itself by a feeling of my temperature rising, followed by my forehead perspiring. The proverbial "cold sweat" I guess you'd call it.

Which left me at times looking as nervous as I felt around people. Where all I could do was wait in desperation until I began to feel cool again, and hope that this sensation didn't repeat itself with yet another social contact in the same place.

Eventually I sought help for it when I was diagnosed with clinical depression and OCD, and was prescribed a beta-blocker known as Mellaril, which was eventually discarded by the FDA as it caused people (and myself) to have irregular heartbeats. (PAC's)

 

[WereBear]

I am so new to dealing with my autism that I am not sure

I know when I am approaching an overload situation, I get hot/cold alternating flashes, sight gets overly bright and bizarrely distorted, and I get a kind of humming aura with my hearing.

 

[OrSomething]

Usually it's just that I'm afraid someone will say something that hurts my feelings, and that doesn't really affect me physically; I just hunch up and put my hands over my ears. But occasionally I get periods of intense obsession with a person/thing, and then I get various physical symptoms like pounding heart, feeling sick, etc.

 

[hiraeth]

Anxiety feels like chaotic swirls taking over in my body and disrupting its regular flow while my brain is like but is utterly powerless to stop it so

The main thing is that it is not really accompanied by thoughts. I don't tend to over-think very much these days. It is almost entirely a physiological phenomenon. It mostly just makes me frustrated because in most situations that generate anxiety, the likelihood of a feared outcome has some direct relation to my performance in the situation, and I'm all too aware that this body-nonsense is getting in the way of optimal performance -> increasing the likelihood of the feared outcome. And yet I still can do nothing but watch it continue. Very annoying.

 

[Storm]

I get very anxious when I feel like I have upset someone, done something wrong, or let someone down. I do not know how to deal with it. So I hide away from the world and especially technology. There's no real physical symptoms for me, all mental. I feel like I cannot get out of my bed, like something is holding me down. I'm a smoker and I dont even crave a cigarette when I'm like this. Once it lasted nearly 2 weeks until a friend tried to break into my room.

 

[texkag]

My anxiety has changed over the years. It used to be a feeling in my gut area with occasional panic attacks with a pounding racing heart. Then it sort of changed to this out of breath feeling still with a racing heart.

Now at age 47 it's a strange feeling in my throat and upper chest with a pounding heart that feels like a rush of adrenaline. The adrenaline is hard to get rid of once its released. There is also a nervous like feeling at the same time. Sometimes it comes on for no good reason. Other times it's when my mind is on my finances or the amount of work I have that day.

I was just wondering how anxiety feels to others?

Also are there things you do to prevent your anxiety or reduce it?

For me it's an overpowering knotting and gnawing sensation in my pit of my stomach accompanied by what feels like my heart trying to claw its way out of my chest. It also feels like someone is strangling me slowly while my throat turns into sandpaper and my voice trailes off into a high pitched whine. I often feel a pressure in my head as if someone is slowly crushing it within the jaws of a vice. These feelings may appear serially or simultaneously and can provoke a powerful flight response.
I try to remain as mindful as I can and force myself to stay out there in the world which helps. In my experience, as soon as you retreat into yourself then it's going to take a crow bar, chain saw or stick of dynamite to get you out.
Counter arguing the negative thoughts can sometimes help but it can also feed an overpowering inner dialogue.
If possible, I always try to give myself a restorative niche, for example cooking a meal, listening to music loudly through headphones; or something equally relaxing. If all else fails then I return to my nyctophiliac (I love the dark) ways: I will go to my bedroom, close the curtains and try to let my fears disappear into the shadowy expanse.
I hope at least some of that helps.

 

[Jagaimo]

My chest feels really heavy, I breathe faster (sometimes feel as if I can't breathe) I get flushed, feel super jumpy, gotta move around a lot like I suddenly have so much energy. This is usually accompanied with negative thoughts, most of the time though so many things running through my mind it becomes overwhelming.

If I'm at home, I will rock or squeeze things/myself or deep breathe or listen to music unbearingly loud to calm myself. Sometimes violent sobbing helps xD

 

[AutistheFrog]

My anxiety can show up in two ways:

1. Normally, my anxiety manifests as almost hyperactivity. I will have an overwhelming amount of energy that I have to release, If I am unable (for whatever reason) to stim in a way that releases this energy (such as swinging), or if it's more classic anxiety, it manifests as 2. A more "typical" anxiety attack. This means that I will experience shakiness, and a racing heart beat. This may even progress depending on my emotional state. When it progresses, I can begin to have a full panic attack, with hyperventilating, shaking, racing heart, and the feeling that I'm dying or something illogically horrible will happen.

 

[Jimbo]

Wow. So many different ways that anxiety manifests itself. Thank you all for sharing. I can really relate to the fight or flight mode that it causes. I hate that feeling. Once the adrenaline is released it stays there for up to 24 hours making my heart pounds. It happens even when I don't feel like I am worrying about anything but I guess in the back of my mind I am. As soon as the stressful situation is over the anxiety will shut off just like somebody flipped a switch.

 

[xDominiel]

It's like every human being out there is a predator and I am the prey. Logically I know this is not the case, but still, the fight-or-flight response kicks in and it becomes a horrible challenge to stay in that situation.

I become very warm, the heart pounds, I sweat, it becomes difficult to physically move, like I am frozen, so my movements become very awkward and sudden, I stutter, I shiver, and my eyes sometimes become very dry for some reason, which causes them to itch so I'll blink a lot..

 

[umbrellabeach]

At its worst, my anxiety feels like a tight and sick/aching stomach, tight chest, dry mouth, and weakness/difficulty in moving. I just want to lie still forever and not do anything, and if I'm going to get up or eat I literally have to force myself because it's so hard.

 

[OkRad]

It starts with feelings of electricity running through my arms and legs and then I feel the urge to hit my self in the head or something like that.

I have to work out for hours a day I am turning over tables. My anxiety is out of control.

 

[ExplosiveTMT]

My anxiety would take the form of acid reflux in my chest, which made it difficult for me to sleep at night. Also I occasionally would throw things in a sort of blind rage if my anxiety got very severe.

Medication has helped me. So too has talking to people in my life that I trust. Which is my mum and some darn awesome friends. And teachers in school as well.

 

[Adder1234]

My anxiety changes depending on the subject. With a lot of stressful or difficult task, it's just a nagging voice that says, "Hey, you know that thing that you want to do? It will fail horribly and destroy your whole life." I just tell anxiety to get lost when this happens. With other situations, especially related to communicating with other people, it's a violent churning feeling in my stomach that has once made me throw up. It just screams "DON'T." whenever I go to talk to someone.

 

[Full Steam]

It's hard to say. I thought I was just always stressed, but I'm now thinking that I have psychic soup of stress anxiety and overload and it's hard to tell what's what.

I also get electrical skin crawling sensations over my upper body.

Currently taking beer for that which is less than ideal.

Im wondering if it's the hops that help!?

 

[Suzanne]

Pounding heart; limbs are very weak; can't sit still; cannot think straight; go into surreal mode; can't talk properly. Feel very sick.

Always the same; age does not make a difference to me and I am also 47.

I take something called: seditifpc which is all natural, when I cannot cope any more.

Had it since I was a child.