The Symptoms of Anxiety: Does Anybody Else Get ...? (Episode 05)

SPEAKER_01 0:05

We're gonna go through some of the main symptoms of anxiety, most common ones, but we'll also talk about the the uncommon ones.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Oh, it can be very scary, especially if you're new to this. If this has just started happening to you and you don't understand what a panic attack is and you've never encountered this before. For me, it was 100% terrifying. I thought I was dying. I was 100% convinced something was really physically wrong with me.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

But at the time, like Drew, yeah, it was it was the most frightening symptom for me, along with a plethora of other symptoms.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

I was always amazed at how many new ones were able to pop up over time. I would get new symptoms and then freak out because, yeah, but I never felt this before.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

That's just your body processing what is a very healthy response. Welcome to the Disordered Podcast. This is episode five, entitled The Symptoms of Anxiety. Does anybody else get headaches? Does anybody else get chest pains? Um, Drew and I can really relate to this. I'm Joshua Fletcher, psychotherapist and author based in the UK.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

And I am Drew Linsolata, graduate student and therapist in training in the United States. Welcome to episode five. Hot topic. Everybody wants to talk about symptoms, so we will.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

What would you say?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Well, I mean, I don't even know at this point. There was there, I would probably guess we can compile well over 75 of them quickly.

unknown 1:43

Quickly.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Oh, yeah. At least probably hundreds.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Hundreds. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Um, we're gonna go through some of the main symptoms of anxiety, most common ones, but we'll also talk about the the uncommon ones, you know. Uh, and the reason why this episode is called called Does Anybody Else is because um it's one of the comments that we actually see quite a lot in our in our comment sections, in our social media posts, um in Facebook groups, etc. Um, it's because when we're feeling frightened um and we don't like certain symptoms, and particularly if we're scared of uh if we struggle with health anxiety, we often see sentences that begin with, you know, does anybody else have this? Does anybody else feel this certain way when this happens? Does anybody else have this strange physical symptom that I've never really had before? Um and and it can be really scary, can't it, Drew?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Oh, it can be very scary, especially if you're new to this. If this has just started happening to you and you don't understand what a panic attack is and you you've never encountered this before, for me it was 100% terrifying. I thought I was dying. I was a hundred percent convinced something was really physically wrong with me. So yeah, it's very it'll rattle you. That's why I think understanding that you're not the only one and you're not alone and understanding what the symptoms are is really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah, and and and some people can actually fixate on symptoms. I and it's probably to do with my OCD brain. Um actually my OCD brain, not just because my DVDs are in order. It's I I remember fixating on things like tinnitus and uh or tinnitus, if if uh for the Americans, yeah. Um and eye floaters and things like this, which I think actually always I had, but just only noticed them or they got louder and uh more noticeable when I was anxious. But um, we're gonna go through there's a lot of symptoms of anxiety. Odds on we might miss yours, you know. Um, but oh that's that that's what we can do, and you can fire it in as as a as a as a question in the future. Sure. Um, what were your scariest symptoms of anxiety, Drew?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

My scariest symptoms, I think, that were there were the ones that kicked off first that started the whole nasty ball rolling for me. What deep depersonalization, derealization was terrifying to me. I thought that that meant that's what I thought it felt like when you die, like slip away. Um and the racing heart. So I think I was primarily focused on the DPDR and my heartbeat more than anything else. Um, those were the two scariest for me.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, mine were DPDR, derealization. I came to come to know it as when I was struggling. Um, to be honest, I just loved that there was a word for it. Now, if you're not sure what we're talking about, a DPDR stands for derealization, depersonalization. Um, and it's when you often don't feel real, um, you feel detached from your surroundings. You might look at your hands and not recognize them. For me, I I remember it felt like if you've ever watched the original Men in Black, and they open that man's head and there's a little alien inside controlling this automaton. I felt like I was the alien, like kind of controlling my body, this sort of like this automaton body, and it was quite frightening at the time. Now, I'm alright now, you know, sometimes I'll get it now and then, very rarely, but I'll get it, and it doesn't really bother me. But at the time, like Drew, yeah, it was it was the most frightening symptom for me, along with a plethora of other symptoms.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

I was always amazed at how many new ones were able to pop up over time. It would just blew me away. Like, oh now? Wait, what is this? Then I'd start to have some of those silly things, and we're gonna go through a list in a bit of a lighthearted way, but um, I would get new symptoms and then freak out because yeah, but I never felt this before. And then that would freak me out. Yeah. But yeah, yeah. Experience showed me it was just a never-ending game of whack-a-mole with new symptoms and new symptoms, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

The ones we hear the with heart palpitations when your heart starts. Well, it's different. You could break up the heart stuff one because um some people don't like it when your heart um is beating fast. Some people don't like just the sensation of their heart beating or thudding in the chest. Um, a lot of anxious people get um is it benign PVCs? I get that. PVCs, yeah, that's it. Um where like you just skipped beats, um, chest flutters, um, which I used to get loads of chest flutters and and used to frighten me, like this little like whoosh feeling in my sternum. Yeah, and then the chest flutter, uh, which I actually found out for me is related to when I'm um got IBS and I'm bloated. Uh took me a long time to to to to learn that. Um so that's why I can't wait till we get an IBS expert on here because we can we can talk about that more. But yeah, uh and and I used to do avoidant behaviors, you know. So, like we said in the last episode, the threat response fixated on the heart. So I do like avoidant behaviors like not climb the stairs because I was afraid it would beat too fast, avoid exercise, and eat too, even to the point where I wouldn't even lie on my side in bed because I just didn't want to feel the sensation, didn't want to trigger it.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, yeah, and and what other common ones are the oh the ones that we hear more often, or we we're gonna kind of divide them into like physical symptoms and mental symptoms and and emotional symptoms because there's a really wide range. The the breathing focus symptoms, uh balance and dizziness focus symptoms are the two that are here, and nausea GI related physical symptoms, huge. Those are probably the leading ones. Also, visual people will say visual disturbances. You mentioned eye floaters. I think in our first episode you talked about how you would get eye floaters.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

I still have them, but they just don't bother me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I I can see if in fact, if I look at the white screen now, there they are. Yeah, I could see them. Yeah, yeah. Not really. And yet for a portion of my life, it was so frightened by them. Sure. Um, yeah, okay. Should we start with physical symptoms first? And then I think some the most common ones, and then later on, Drew and I are gonna quick fire as many. As many as we can think of. Yeah, we can think of. Yeah, yeah. Uh so what's what so we talk about that one that often coincides with the not coincides, but the you know, it it it occurs coincidentally at the same time as chest, as as heart palpitations a tight, painful chest. Now, of course, what's the first thing an anxious person's gonna think when they've got a tight, painful chest and heart palpitation?

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Oh god, that was me. That was 100% me. Like I was convinced that my heart was just about to stop it or explode. I wasn't sure which one. I truly had visions that somehow my heart could explode, or like just I don't know, like a like a graphically, like onto the dinner table. Yeah, I don't know. I think I I kind of thought of it like an old engine, you know, like just throws a rod and that's it. Boom, you're done. You gotta need a new engine. And I don't know why I would I thought that about my heart. I would literally, there were times when I walked around checking my pulse, not to see if it was going too fast, just to make sure that I had one, which is insane. A person that doesn't have a pulse can't check for a pulse, but didn't matter. Anxious fear is has no rationality to it.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

So I remember having that as well, but the chest pain is particular, and then I think it was a a a physio. Just look to one look at me because all anxious people have really poor posture. Yep. And to to to process all that adrenaline and cortisol from our threat response, our bodies unknowing to us, but if you were they they they they scrunch inwards, yeah. So you'll find that you'll scrunch inwards, you'll get stomach pains, rib pains, yeah, um, chest pain, stuff like that. And what this physio did was like gave me a door frame exercise, and they said, just put your hands on the door and lean through it, and my God, the it just felt like my chest started opening up, and um, and and my there was another exercise that I still do to this day where I put my hands right behind my back and um pull my shoulders back and my and my neck back and stretch that back, and you can feel like where it's just been so tense, but a lot of tension causes anxious tension and posture, it causes all these painful things like a chest, shoulders, jaw pain. You know, the amount of times I Googled TMJ, it was you know, and if you could you might have TMJ, yeah, but I didn't. I just my jaw was just locked solid because I was just gritting my teeth all the time.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Constantly, yeah. Or I would have um the pain across the chest was true. I was scrunching that internal shoulder rotation, hunching, bracing thing. But then that was causing problems with my neck and my shoulders, and especially now in you know, 2023 in the last 10 years, we all carry these ridiculous devices around where we sometimes go for comfort. Anxious people spend so much time with their heads down, scrunched over, scroll doom scrolling that you know, those neck problems begin to happen. And then the pain gets interpreted as a heart attack or a stroke or something terrible is really happening. And I used to get the pain in my chest, I would get pain in my neck, in my shoulder, maybe in my arm. Like, oh, you know what that means. So oh, I spent far too much time having heart attacks.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Same, same. Um, my digestion was really bad as well. Physically, I used to get um constipation, diarrhea. Oh, but my bowel movement is basically all over the show. Uh, my intestinal cramps, bloat the worst, the most frequent one was but was bloating. Um, yeah, because um now we know this, and we'll get Dr. Sewell around at one point, but like I didn't know for many years, and nor did you, Drew, but that when you're anxious and that fight or flight threat response kicks in, your intestinal tract actually closes in at different pressure points, and that releases oxygen into your abdomen, yeah. Um, which causes all sorts of stuff, uh, which is actually I think it's linked to derealization as well. But I haven't found an expert to confirm that for me yet.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

It's one of the first conversations you and I ever had when we first met. I remember you asking me. Like, if you don't know this, I don't know who else to ask. And I didn't know. Like, I'm why do I want to?

SPEAKER_01 12:20

I didn't know until I found someone who an actual IBS, I mean, yeah, really good. Dr. Sula, we'll we'll get her on at some point. But yeah, that that was that was a big one. A lot of these things were linked. Um, any other kind of main physical symptoms?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Main physical symptoms, and I think it comes along sometimes with the uh sometimes with the tightness across the chest, and that is the feeling that you cannot breathe. It feels like I can't breathe. I yeah, that was a big one too. I'd walk around all day long doing these huge sighs, like I was just had all the worries in the world, which I did, you know, up here I did. And it was a constant battle to try to completely fill my lungs up to here, like my you know, like I needed the air to get all the way up to like the top of my trachea to feel like I was getting enough air. And that was a never-ending battle all day long.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

All day long. Yeah, well, of course it is because if if you have that symptom, it's because yeah, I hear that a lot. I can't get enough air, I can't get a full breath. Air hunger. Um, air hunger, that's the one. Yeah, really, and it's because you're breathing in too much. So the problem with the body is not the inhale, it's the exhale, believe it or not. Yeah, yeah, or just you've just been inhaling too much loads, or holding your breath even. Yep. Uh anxious people hold their breath unknowingly. Um, and so what the body is doing is being really clever, and it's going, Hey, you're having too much oxygen, and so if you can't kind of catch your breath, it's like because you've been breathing too much. Yeah, that's fine. You've got more than enough oxygen in there, and you'll find that anyone listening to this that has this problem, they'll be like, Oh yeah, it always just passes. Of course it does, because your body will bring you back to a state of homeostasis. Yeah, obviously, if you've got like conditions like um uh uh is it COPD? COPD asthma, uh uh asthma, stuff. Yeah, you've got you know, you do do your due diligence and look after yourself. But in general, with anxiety, it's like you know, your body will bring you back you back to that state.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Yeah, but that shortness of breath or feeling like you can't get a deep enough breath, that's a huge symptom that I hear every single day. That's a big one.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Um the one I hear. Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

I was gonna say, I was gonna ask you about dizziness. People say all the time, I'm dizzy, I feel dizzy, or that off-balance, yeah, de key disequilibrium thing, or whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Put that put that all under one roof, uh, under one umbrella that's dizziness, lightheadedness, yeah. Um, and lopsided feeling. I used to have this thing where I just it just felt lopsided like I was about to fall over. Um, I know there's quite a lot of people that I've seen in this practice that have actually been misdiagnosed with labyrinthitis.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Because the lopsid you would drift to one side when you walk. Did you ever have that?

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah, yeah. That's what I mean. The look the look the lopsided is like a yeah, um, and and lots of people have that. And I found when people don't get me wrong, labyrinthitis is a thing, but like uh and there's another one as well. What was it? Uh many airs disease. Many airs, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

But many airs are so impactful, you know when you have that.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah, but lots of people misdiagnose with it as well, like because of because of this anxiety. Yep. Um, don't get me wrong, it's possible to have many airs and have anxiety, but you know, um, in general, uh I I hear that a lot. Yeah, it's a big one, lightheadedness, stuff like that. And again, usually linked to what the other symptoms like breathing. If you're breathing in too much oxygen and hyperventilating, you're gonna feel lightheaded.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

You know, if your blood, if your fight or flight response is kicking in and the blood pressure is shifted from your brain to the major muscle groups, you're gonna notice that change. You know, the blood has been distributed, your blood pressure is different in different parts of your body compared to when you're sat relaxed.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

And the tension in the core of your body matters. That's that proprioception thing. Your balance is coordinated by the your inner ear, your brain, and your the core muscles. Those things have to work together. It's a it's a balance is an amazing thing, it doesn't take much to throw it off. So bad posture to create that. Like, yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

But yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah. Do you ever do you ever get those weird thoughts, Drew? Like, not weird, but just like existential dissociative thoughts by very kind of like Jean-Paul Sartre, where you just walking along, and I'm just walking I was walking to Wembley Stadium. I just saw people walking. I was like, We are weird, yeah. We are creatures just walking on two legs, yeah, with arms and ears. Oh my god, wow, god, we're weird. Why have we all got hair hair on just our heads and not our faces, bits above our face and whatnot? And yeah, I mean, we'll we'll talk about that. Those are part of the mental symptoms, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Those those thoughts that get so loud and pronounced when you're anxious, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah, and and again, they are loads of them link. Derealization, DPDR. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

If you have existential thoughts, existential thoughts. 100%, yeah. Perfect combination.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

It makes it worse, doesn't it? You know that chest pains and heart palpitations. Oh my god, it's making it worse.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Um, you know, uh headaches and dizziness and migraines.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Oh my god, there must be something really wrong with my brain. Sure, sure. How about the the old well you talked about bloating and things of that nature? There's the nausea. So many people will deal with nausea, but and really be afraid of it, especially if you are dealing with emetophobia. Then if you get nauseous when you're anxious, which is very, very common, you know. We all know all my stomach was a knot. So there's a reason why we say things like that, then that will trigger you even more. If you're afraid that you might vomit, it gets really tough. But nausea is an incredibly common the need to run to the bathroom, incredibly common. So to be expected. Yeah. What about um what if we move on to some thought symptoms?

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Yeah, well, you know, um, you know it's an anxious thought symptoms when it begins with what if.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Thoughts that I would have would be focused often on death and and existence and things like that. What what if I lose my? I had this amorphous fear, and it was attached to DPDR that I would somehow just sort of fade away. And that was physical, but it was also mental. I'd have that thought again, like it feels like I'm just slipping away, and I just wanted to hold on and nothing to hang on to. I didn't know what to hold on to, but there was a thought that I was sort of just slipping away. To what I don't know, death, I don't know. But uh that was very sticky, very sticky.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah, yeah. Actually, you're reminded of my my scariest one was that what if I never feel like me again?

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah, yeah, it's funny. I never really followed it too much.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

What if this is what if what if this is now me forever? Yeah, they were the two big ones, particularly when I first started planning disorder. What if I am never calm again? What if anxiety never goes away? What if I'm gonna have a heart attack? Yeah. What if people judge me? What if people think I'm crazy? What if the medication makes me worse? Yep. Um, yeah, they're all coming back now. Yeah. You know, what what if my um twitching muscle is the sign of a neurological disorder? Sure. What um what if my dry mouth means something bad? I don't know. What if I get depressed?

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Yeah. And do something silly. The fear of the fear of getting depressed, sure. Um other thoughts to me that would get really loud. My own mortality, but also I would look at like my kids and and think, you know, in a really anxious state, I would have this storm of thoughts about one day not only will I be gone, but so will they. And it was just crushing. Like here I am sitting at the kitchen. Yeah, I'm sitting at the kitchen table and I'm looking at them, and they're four years old and six years old, but one day they're not gonna be here. Well, none of us will. And that was such a loud thought when when I got amped up, it would yeah, that thought would get louder and louder.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

So, yeah, and it's exactly everyone has those thoughts, but yeah, when you're anxious, it's like putting them through a megaphone and projecting it onto the side of the Empire State Building. You know, it's like, oh my god, it suddenly feels real now. Um in a better place with it though, though, because you have those thoughts because you care and you love, yeah, you know, you can't have one without the other sometimes, and they're reality, care and love.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

So some of those anxious thought symptoms I think are just real life, real issues, or things that you know one day will happen that we all have to face unpleasant things, and they just front and center, like they're happening right now, they become super important.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh someone with OCD, I get intrusive thoughts, um, and thoughts on such high hyper repeat that you know it's just over and over and over and over and over and over again. Oh, actually, one of the while we're on thoughts, one of the scariest ones for me, and this is always happens when I have a panic attack, is which is good now because I can recognize it, but my thoughts race so much that I can't quite catch a single thought.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

So it's just like and it racing thought, like literally racing thoughts. I never had that to begin with with anxiety. It was like one that it was a symptom that came up, but I was like, oh my god, this is so overwhelming. What if my it and then that ties in with thoughts like, what if I'm going crazy? And then when you feel detached and derealized, you feel like, oh my god, I am going crazy. Actually, I'm just experiencing an adrenaline rush, it's fine. You know, it always passes. And actually, I got pretty good at just being like, Oh, I'm having an ad. Yeah, I don't I don't even call it panic attack anymore. I'm just like, ooh, you know, body's having that adrenaline rush. Let it get through. In fact, the more intense it is now, the quicker it'll pass. So um, but yeah, that was a big yeah. The racing thoughts was a big one. It was like they felt like they were taking place like above my brain. I'm just watching this carnage of um like a fast-forwarded uh VHS.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Yeah. I used to literally call it's funny that you say that. I used to literally call it brain race. I would say I'm having brain race again. I prefer that. I'm having brain race. And it was very disturbing and disconcerting. And when I started practicing meditation and relaxation and focus exercises, it was like learning to take my foot off the clutch or to press the clutch. The engine is really spinning. But oh wait, if I just if I just hit the clutch, anybody's who's listening to us that actually knows what a clutch is at this point. But you know, it meant the engine can really race as long as much as you want, but then the car would just coast or not move at all. So um that was really helpful. But yeah, that's really common. That's a common symptom also, that brain racing thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Yeah, it's a big one. And uh emotional symptoms. Where would you start with that?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Emotional symptoms. I've heard a lot of people that say that one of their anxious responses is anger. They get very angry to the point where they feel like they might not be able to control it. That's one. You know, anger is a common anxious emotion, I think. Um how about crying? Have you ever people talk about crying?

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Crying, um anger, uh dread, doom. I don't like the doom one, the nihilistic stuff. Um when you're anxious a lot. And that's usually when I'm in that state, that's when I get the thoughts of like you said, you know, like all about your kids and and loved ones, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Because I'm in that state of threat. You know, it's uh it's gotta find a my brain has to find a threat somewhere. Yep. Um I get um quite anger sometimes, uh irritability, massive one for me. So irritated. Um I would have misophonia and stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

I I would sometimes experience what the only thing I could think of would be anticipatory grief. Nobody was dying. Like anticipatory grief is pretty well known. Like with your loved one with a terminal illness, you begin to grieve often before they pass. And I would have anticipatory grief about being old and alone. Things I don't ever really think about, and I don't necessarily fear, but in that state, I would I would that would come up like and uh it would really throw me for a loop. But yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

That's right. Um yeah, and freezing as well, just like freezing and feeling numb. Like actually, I'm I'm I'm anxious and then I'm so exhausted, I actually feel numb. Maybe there's some coexisting depression there as well and stuff, and it's like, yeah, I'm just feeling completely numb. I know um some people either on or off medications feel numb. Sometimes the medication can make them feel numb, sometimes it's coming off them, they feel that. Yeah, um, what's what's the um the Brene Brown thing? She says she says uh like a general sense of foreboding. Yeah, that's and I look I read when I was like, oh yeah, that's a really good shout.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Yeah, I like that better than impending doom. Everybody always says it's a feeling of impending doom.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

But it it doesn't quite feel like impending doom. I'm not looking up at the skies for the meteorite to clean me out, right? But it just feels like a slow march, uh, which we often joke about. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, how's a Tuesday? Another step towards that's exactly right. Yeah. One step lesser to death. We need to cheer this podcast up now and immediately. We do. Uh I suggest playing a game.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

We could totally do that. I I think just the the point is going through all this, and it does sound really depressing and down, but like uh whatever your symptoms are, and you're gonna see in a second as we start rapid-firing symptoms out there, that it's all normal. It's normal. It doesn't mean something is really wrong, it's really scary. Hopefully, you will take that out of this podcast that, like, okay, I'm not alone in this. This is normal, it's to be expected. I don't like it, but maybe I can understand it a little bit more and start to work with it a little bit differently.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

And the common, and you need to realize that anxiety uh with the adrenaline in the cortisol and all that, and your sensitized nervous system, it has a big effect on your body. Now, it's not a dangerous effect, but that discomfort or that energy has to have an outlet. Yeah, and that outlet for our ancestors, if you tuned into last episode, was great. I can run with my spears, I can hide, I can do all these things and engage with it. But a lot of people have anxious responses sat at the desk, sat at the office, doing all these things, and so there isn't that adequate outlet, and so the body will find a way to process it. So if you get headaches, tense muscles, pumping hearts, derealization, stuff like that, that's just your body processing what is a very healthy response. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

And when you're starting to get the ball rolling that way and starting to try to get better, it's that mistrust. But what if it's not anxiety? I get that. That's the hardest part of dealing with symptoms, whether they be physical, emotional, mental. But but there's always the doubt. Maybe it isn't anxiety. I get that. That's a hundred everybody's been through that. Everybody. I was, I know Josh has.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

It's a tri it's an uncertainty, isn't it? Uh and also if the you know, disclaimer, common sense. If you have got a symptom and stuff and you are concerned about it, go talk to your general practitioner or your doctor. Yeah. Um, but in general, kind of, yeah, yeah, obviously look at that.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

I get it. So, should we play a little game?

SPEAKER_01 27:49

I cannot wait. I'm gonna win.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

You might. This would be a tough one. All right, ready, guys? Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Okay, yeah. Welcome to Anxiety Symptom Hotshots with your hosts, Drew Linsolada and Anxiety Josh.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Take it away, Josh. You're the first up.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

When you it's like, did I just buy Mario on Wish or something? Well, let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

It's it what is it we say is a pirate of a pirate of a pirate of Mario?

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Yeah, that's a I don't think we're in any danger from Nintendo with that that that uh that attempt at uh at a soundtrack. Okay, let's go. Anxiety hotshot symptoms are gonna keep going. First person to not get an answer in five seconds loses. Okay, I'm gonna go straight in and say dizziness.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Uh I'm gonna say neck tension, heart palpitations. I feel like I can't breathe.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Heart flutters.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Constipation, feeling hot or cold. Brain race. I've just taken that off you. Oh, brain race is a good one. Um, I'm gonna go with um feeling like I'm unsteady or off to the side. Benign fisculations, also known as muscle twitching. Oh, I had muscle twitches. I freaking hated them. Very good, very good. Um, PVCs, flutters, heart flutters, skip beats. Um, back pain, particularly around the ribs. And so we can go jaw pain from clenching and clenching all the time. Dry mouth. Yeah, visual disturbances, floaters.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Pain on my eyebrows because of my facial scrunching of my face. Ringing of the ears, a sensation of pressure under my ribs.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Oh, that's a good one too. Hated that. Um stalling, Drew. No, no, I'm stalling compliment. You're striking nerves here. Um the other one I would say would be um, well, depersonalization, feeling like you're not real.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Uh yeah, feeling like the room you're in is far away. So it's a bit of like a branch of depersonalization, but it's more like dissociation, dissociating from the room you're in.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Yeah, can't concentrate, can't concentrate on what people are saying. Hearing your voice. Oh, your own voice, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Yeah, but like, is that my voice?

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Does it sound like or uh looking at people that you see every day and not recognizing them, or suddenly they look weird. Yeah, yeah. Um poor posture. Very good. Uh forgetting, being forgetful.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Uh Google searching. Oh, Google searching. Everybody Google searches. Dr. Google.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

The symptom that's a symptom of anxiety is when you're constantly Google searching.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Yep, you're 100% right. Um lose manual dexterity goes to shit. Like I can't hold a pen, I can't write, uh, I'm fumbling with my keys, like in a horror movie.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Every brightness is turned up everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Oh, so good. Uh, or being really sensitive to sounds or change else just leave it at sounds. Sensitive to sounds.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah, like when they're like kind of too like close and far. Yeah, I'm gonna add to that as a separate answer. Uh, when sounds, uh the the ri the the proximity of sounds is all muddled up. Yeah, yeah, that's definitely like near and far. Like, well, does that is that near?

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Is that far? Yeah, yeah. How about changes in light? Sun goes behind a cloud, panic. I'm sensitive to that. I hear that. Appetite loss. Oh, very good. Uh, I'm also gonna say then sensitivity to temperature, a hot or cold blast. Too sensitive, too much. Yeah. Insomnia. Oh, insomnia. Um, I'm gonna go with uh, well, we talked about the emotional ones, anger or irritability.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Yeah. Um, a band around your head, feeling like there's a band around your scalp and around your forehead.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Um, I'm gonna go with extreme sadness or bursting out into tears.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Yeah. Irritability.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

We've not said that yet.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

I could ding you on that one because I think I said it, but I probably used two. Did you say it? I did. I said anger and irritability.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

No! Anger and irritability. Well, no, you can't have two. I can't have two. You can have what? I was just I'm still in this game, and I also don't like losing.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

You're still in it. Um acid reflux. I used bad heartburn when I was anxious.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Yes, and I and I'm not gonna follow on that with trapped wind, because I didn't realize trapped wind can actually go up behind your ribs, like into your back and stuff, because I was getting all these weird pains and tingles.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Oh crap, I've just given you one. You just gave me one. Um, but I'm gonna go with numbness in the face around your lips and nose, which is you hyperventilating, by the way. Tingles in the extremities, particularly in hands and feet. Uh, another one would be claw hands and feet. When your hands and feet lock, that's also you hyperventilating.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Yeah. Um blocked nasal passages, particularly in the morning. Oh, dry mouth. Didn't I already say dry? Did you say dry mouth?

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

I did suck. I'll give you gave me a pass, I'll give you a pass. That's it. Next person loses. Um sore throat. Sore throat is a good one.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

I'm gonna go with you know what? I don't want to go there on that one. Uh it's a little too sensitive, I think. But uh well, I would say the need to run to the bathroom, but because you have to pee.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Yeah, frequent urination. Yeah, yeah. Um difficulty swallowing.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Oh, globus hystericus is a real thing. Tough one.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Globus sensation. Yeah, the globus sensation. Oh, that's actually one of the common ones we missed. I know something stuck in your throat.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

There's a lump in my throat. Yeah, it's exactly right. Yeah, um, I would say flip-flopping of the stomach, which is not necessarily no, it was that feeling like your stomach is literally flopping around, like you're on a roller coaster. Yeah, yep. That's a good that's a good one. Um uh loss in your libido. That's another good one, too. Yeah, okay. I would have the that visual these are hard to sometimes explain, but that thing where you turn your head and your eyes and brain don't match, so you try and just look straight ahead.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Oh, yeah, like visual kind of disturbances, yeah. Um uh hypersensitivity to hypnogogic sleep. So that when you're about to fall asleep and you can hear like the dream voices in your head, and you're like, oh my god, is that me going insane? Uh or when you wake up. Uh, I that was a big one for me, actually. I was like, that's the first sign of me going insane. Yeah, clearly. It's not, it's just really it's just really normal something I've had all my life.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Okay, so one along the lines of going to sleep would be if I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep, I would feel my heart pounding against my spine. Wow. It was such a strange sensation, like I could feel it pounding in my back. Ooh, hated it. Yeah. Sweating, perspiration. Very good. Oh, I'm starting to run out of them. We've been at it for like five minutes here. Um I would say the change in your taste of uh uh taste sense of taste gets altered. This doesn't taste right. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Yeah, the the need to self-medicate. So I used to go for beer and stuff like that. Yeah, or on the flip side, completely avoiding that because we don't want to feel any more anxious.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Yeah, yeah. Um another symptom that I used to feel. Oh, I would feel like the ground was unsteady under me, but we've already kind of said that I'd be duplicating.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Oh, should I just keep going? You know, I'm the champ. I think you're pulling, biting of the skin, small self-harm, um like in terms of uh as a release, not necessarily depressive, but depression, but you know that uh I did a thing where I'd bite bite my lip, and I think that's actually to do with lots of uh an anxious response to my neurodivergence. Yeah, um, because I'm slowly learning that um I'm quite um autistic, but that's that's cool. Uh but autism and anxiety go hand in hand. Um just things like uh things like I smell more because I because I'm more anxious and sweating quite a lot. I know that sounds I'm not now, I smell amazing by the way now. Just to throw it out there. Weight loss, weight gain. Yeah, yeah. Um many things, and I think I have yeah, we're gonna call we'll call it.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

We'll give it the give this one to Josh.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

I'm I've yeah, I've done that. I'm the champion.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Ding ding ding ding ding.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Of that weird Mario anxiety hot shot.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Good job, Josh.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

We could probably just you know, I win, and I hope Carl the Critic is absolutely slamming you right now.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

Yes, in my head, I am completely like it just doesn't work anymore for me. I I can't do this anymore. I'm clearly inadequate. So it's Craig the Critic. Yeah, there you go. Oh, Craig the Critic.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Craig the Cricket. Why did I call him Co. I don't know. That was our original concept was Carl the Critic.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Yeah. Oh, God. Anyway, the point is there are so many of these symptoms, and I know we made light of it a little bit. We're not trying to minimize the impact on anybody. We've lived all these things, but just understand, we could have probably kept going for another 20 or 30 minutes if we wanted to give it a lot of deep thought. But this is what bodies and brains will do when when faced with a threat. Things don't get logical, they get very illogical really quickly.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

So absolutely. Absolutely. Should we do a question real quick to end it? Yeah, answer the question. I've got another did it anyway that was sent in. And um, but yeah, you answer the question, and I'll uh ask the question. Sorry, no, uh let's see.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

I asked my uh my Instagram audience to send us questions, and boy, there are a lot of questions since the last episode recorded. We got another 25 of these or so. Um let me just pick one really quick. This one would be This is a good one. Can one panic attack last an hour?

SPEAKER_01 37:27

I think you can be anxious for an hour, definitely. Um what I don't what I don't think helps people is that I don't even use the word panic attack anymore, but we'll talk about that later. Can an adrenaline rush and the effects of the adrenaline rush, both the build-up and aftermath last an hour? Yeah. Yeah. Can the acute fright and terror at the very peak of a panic attack, adrenaline rush, last for an hour? No. Yeah. But if you're looking, if you look at look at it on a hypothetical graph, the the parabola would be there'd be a peak and then it'll come down. Whereas some people misinterpret a panic attack as either all the anxiety is gone, and then I'm either I'm scared or all the anxiety has to go. Uh, but no, it's it's physiologically impossible to do that. Uh could you be could you go from like four out of ten fear to ten out of ten fear back down to four, then maybe six, and then four, and then five, and then four, and then maybe eight, and then four over a course of an hour. Yeah, you you can, yeah, but it will never be constant. And or take reassurance in the fact that it will pass.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Yeah, your body does not have the capacity to to stay at full tilt panic for an hour, just or days. People will say, I as soon as I wake up, I'm panicking and I panic all day long. You probably it's undulating. I usually call it just undulating panic. And that comes from is it is it gone? Is it gone? Is it coming back? Is it gone? Is it coming back? And boom, then it comes back because is it?

SPEAKER_01 38:52

I really like that. Undulating panic. I can I can really wreck. Yeah, you never get down to zero. Resonate with that.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Yeah, but your your it was good. Eight to four, eight to four, ten to four, ten to three. Yeah, it happens.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

Yeah, good question. I've got one. My did it anyway. Um, I haven't been able to sit in a salon for long enough to get my nails done until yesterday. An hour and a half, smashed it, booked in again for two hours tomorrow for a different treatment. My husband isn't so sure these are actually exposures or me pampering myself. I'll tell you what, you can do both, and you deserve to pamper yourself. That's excellent. Uh, I remember similar I I didn't go, I went without a haircut for a very long time, so I was afraid I'd panic in there. And uh now actually I enjoy the haircut because I yeah, it's you know, I like chatting and uh being there. But yeah, that was one of my exposures. Well done. Well done to that person.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Very good. I know that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

It's a very big deal. So yeah, super.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

We need to get our. Yeah, send them over any way you can. We'll we'll end every episode with a question, or at least most episodes with a question and it did it anyway, so we could cheer for each other. And I think we covered it. 40 minutes worth of anxiety symptoms.

unknown 40:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

We know that we you know afterwards we'll be like, oh, I wish you would have said that. But yeah, whatever. We get it. You get the truth, you get the point. Thanks for tuning in, guys, to this episode of Disordered, and we'll catch you next time. You keep well out there. Absolutely. See you next time.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Hey, it's Drew. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Disordered. Josh and I both hope that you're finding it helpful in some way. For more information about Josh or me or the Disordered Podcast, find us on the web at disordered.fm. That's disordered.fm. Hop on over and find links to our social media platforms, join our mailing list so we can let you know when new podcast episodes are available, and we'll send you easy ways to ask us questions and share your wins so we can answer questions on the air and share your successes with the community. And if you're listening to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any platform that lets you rate a review, do us a favor and leave us a five-star rating and maybe write a review if you're digging disordered. It really helps us out and we appreciate that. Thanks again for coming by, and we'll see you in the next episode.