AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaa... I just had to get this off my chest, thanks. Physical manifestations of anxiety cause anyone not to think strait and go to sleep? Or perhaps shut down in general? Or feel like heartbeat is so loud you can't hear thoughts? Uh, if there are any wise souls out there who will take pity and give me their two cents. Or if anyone relates, yeah. Peace.
Anxiety has caused me to feel nausea, sweating, and shaking before becoming a full blow panic attack. I have also been prone to getting heart palpitations, not always from anxiety but when I would get anxious it would usually trigger the heart palpitations. When the anxiety would get really bad I would often shut down and enter a sort of numb, depressive state. Deep breathing and meditation have helped me a lot. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal - ScienceDirect
Not a wise soul, but I'll reply anyway. Various sensory inputs can stimulate the central nervous system (including caffeine. Coffee is anxiety (or aggression) in a cup). Neurochemically there's little difference between excitement and anxiety other than our subjective interpretation of the experience (think roller coasters). We all have an individualized window of tolerance to stressors. When stress exceeds our capacity to manage it, it tweaks the sympathetic nervous system, stimulating a "fight or flight" (or freeze; "deer in the headlights") response. This causes a massive dump of adrenaline and cortisol into your system, which can definitely interfere with sleep, cognitive function, and cause spikes in blood pressure, tachycardia, and palpitations. If the stressors exceed the upper threshold of the sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in, resulting in cognitive and emotional shutdown; extreme and paralyzing brain fog, disassociation, emotional numbness, helplessness, depression, even hypotension and syncope. I hope that you can cultivate some skills and coping strategies to help you better manage your stress response. May you be free of suffering and at peace.
