Stress Center Peer Support

I get odd pains from time to time in different parts of my body. They come and go and seem to be different each day. Dr. says everything seems to check out. Does anyone else get this? I'm guessing it's stress related that turns my anxiety up. I'm getting better at knowing what it's from, but every now and again it can get the better of me.

Well, well, well.

Kodiak, I do say that you sound like myself.

I thought that I was the only one who has had every pain imaginable as a result of anxiety.

I call my anxiety a "rolling" anxiety, as it literally "rolled" to a different part of my body as I began to cope with the discomfort. its 2 favorite places to reside are in my head (symptoms of disorientation, cloudy head, obsessive thoughts) and in my chest (chest tightness, etc).

my panic attacks started this past march, and have since dropped off and become more of a generalized anxiety, but at times i had pains in my back, pains in my low back which made me think that it was kidney, pains in joints, muscles, you name it.

i had a period of about 1-2 weeks whereby i had to constantly urinate. based on the prior lower back pains (that i thought must be my kidneys failing ), i would actually be scared to go to the bathroom because actually said to myself at one point: "What if there is blood in my urine? what would that mean?"

Seriously, man.

It got so comical, that- no joke- on 2 separate occasions my big toe on my right foot throbbed for no reason...i laughed and as if talking to my anxiety said: "Now that is good. Now i can say that even my big toe has been effected by anxiety." Since then, as if the anxiety realized the strategical blunder of picking with my big toe, has since abandoned the area completely and has never returned.

the really funny thing was, it is almost as if the physical symptoms are looking for a place or a home to really bother me. to really demand all of my attention. i think that is why it has settled in my chest these days. kind of a Custer's Last Stand if you will. As if the anxiety knows that its days are numbered, but wants to really get "at" me by bothering my chest/heart area.

So trust me when i say this, i know what you are feeling. i have been there AND done that.

Oh yes,,,how I can relate. And really I had to laugh at myself...which I guess is a good sign considering what state I have been in latetly. But, the other day I got the hiccups and I was terrified they would not stop....started obessing about what that would mean....when they finally stopped...I just laughed at myself and was like wow!!! what I can do with my anxiety. I can also relate to the rolling pain...as it tends to be a different part daily. So, in essense you are not alone.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! My "rolling anxiety" tries to get the better of me as well. The best way I have found to combat this is to remind myself that it's just anxiety; otherwise, it the pains/discomforts wouldn't be showing up in different places all the time. The ones that bother me the most are the chest pains, but I really like Paul R.'s analogy about Custer's Last Stand. I'll think about this the next time the rear their ugly head.