Symptoms Of Anxiety

 

  • Unfortunately, anxiety can manifest in so many ways. This is one of the scariest traits about anxiety and how it warps your mind so badly. Through my journey with my anxiety disorder I thought I had developed just about every major psychiatric disorder. From health anxiety to OCD to GAD. The key is that it does not matter which anxiety disorder you have because it all stems from simply from anxiety. Take a look below at some common symptoms:

    • Upsetting/Frightening intrusive thoughts

    • Hyperawareness of thoughts and/or surroundings

    • Obsessive thoughts/OCD

    • Feeling trapped in your mind/head

    • Depersonalization/Derealization

    • Feeling like you’re about to lose your mind

    • Intense fear + anxiety

    • Catastrophic thinking + thought distortion

    • Sadness

    • General anxiety feeling (especially during the recovery)

    • Wanting to be “perfect again” and second guessing every negative thought/emotion (be careful with this as life wasn’t perfect before anxiety)

    • Developing mental rules + new fears/themes

    • Urgency

    • Irritability

    • Brain fog + headaches

    • Ruminating

    • Sleep disturbances & insomnia

    • Panic attacks

    • Racing heartbeat

    • Upset stomach

    • Shortness of breath

    • Forgetfullness

  • What you read above gives you a scientific & psychological break down of how to overcome obsessive thoughts, OCD, & any anxiety disorder. I do also want to go over one particular form of anxiety, pure OCD. I will also touch briefly on another terrifying anxiety symptom, depersonalization/derealization.

    Verywellmind.com defines it as the following: Pure O is a form of OCD marked by repeated, intrusive, and uncontrollable thoughts (or obsessions) that are usually not accompanied by outward behavioral compulsions.

    In essence, instead of your typical assumption of OCD being someone washing their hands over and over or doing outward compulsions, this is strictly in your mind. In fact you will look entirely normal to people you meet because the battle is all in your mind. Don’t be fooled because this version is particularly debilitating. I know this because I suffered from it. It is so grueling that I thought it deserved its own chapter!

    There are many pure o themes that can cycle through your brain. Here’s a list of the most common themes:

    • Harm-related obsessions

    • Religiously or morally themed obsessions

    • Obsessions focusing on sexuality or romantic relationships

    • Obsessions about acting on an unwanted impulse

    • Obsessions involving health or bodily sensations

    • Obsessions involving “mental contamination” or “emotional contamination”

    Now from my experience and from what I’ve seen other anxiety sufferers go through, pure o is simply not easy to overcome. The good news is that no matter how many themes you’ve had or how “terrible” your intrusive thoughts may seem, you can absolutely overcome this. I have dealt with a couple of the above and at the time thought I would be stuck like that forever.

    Now another aspect some people with pure ocd sufferers deal with are sensations due to anxiety. These physical sensations are uncomfortable and fear inducing, but they don’t resemble the intrusive thoughts that most persons focus on when they have OCD. Generally, these sensations give false signals that the person perceives as being important and because they are physical sensations, the person generally assigns tremendous importance and validity to these sensations, because they “feel” them. This can make it seem even worse and more real but trust me; you can overcome this completely as well!

  • This is the last symptom of anxiety I wanted to touch on just because I thought it deserved its own page as well. The reason being is because it’s also one of the most frightening symptoms you may get while dealing with intense anxiety. Depersonalization is a sense of experiencing one's own behavior, thoughts, and feelings from a dreamlike distance. According to DSM-5, symptoms include: Feeling emotionally numb, or as if the person is not controlling his or her words and actions. It likely coincides with some derealization. This is the persistent feeling of observing oneself from outside one’s body or having a sense that one’s surroundings aren't real.

    This is one of those symptoms where a google search will send you down a dark and deep rabbit whole that makes you think your life is over. The good news is that these symptoms are temporary and 100% recoverable. If you do happen to google search you will be terrified to find some people say they have it permanently. Again, this is 100% recoverable. How long you are afflicted will depend on if you focus on the steps to recovery or feed the fear. A lot of people come down with a case of this after a bad drug experience and think they have done permanent damage to their brains.

    Like I said previously I am not here to reinvent the wheel. While I was going through my journey I found a page dedicated entirely to this symptom and recovery. Please do a deep dive here if you are currently dealing with this: https://www.dpmanual.com/articles/depersonalization-recovery/