Anxiety Support Group

Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...

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Anxiety Disorders
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stomach discomfort and anxiety

anxiousone
anxiousone
Hi everyone.. I realize that anxiety can manifest itself in many different ways including actually physical symptoms. I have had anxiety and panic disorder for over 5 years now..off and on i have stomach problems for longer than this..the docs say that it is ibs..but for the past couple of weeks i have had this sensation that there is a huge knot just under my sternum putting pressure there..docs still say that its just my nerves acting up..i get so tired of hearing that its my nerves and being handed another bottle of pills..does anyone else ever get this feeling in their stomach..i mean docs say i have classic ibs symptoms and im being treated for that...but im convinced that there is something else to it..it doesnt help that both my parents died of cancer, my dads being in his stomach, my mothers being in her liver and kidneys, so of course i worry that i must have the same thing...i have two young children to take care of and can barely care for myself..i really need some advice and to hear if anyone else ever feels this way with there stomachs..sometimes it feels as if it is hard to take in a deep breath because there is something there stopping it...i dont know what to do...the meds dont seem to help much anymore..i feel like im losing myself...
deleted_user
deleted_user
My mom has the same problem. She has anxiety/depression, but won't take meds. So, her tummy is always in lots of pain. Past tests revealed nothing and it seem like they had put scopes from one end to another. Finally, a specialist took a deeper look and found that when she was really ub=nder alot of stress and anxiety, her intestines would do a kind of twist. It's like they would tighten up. Anxiety does so many physical things to our bodies, tho relatively harmless. But can cause REAL pain, real heart flutters, etc. Me and my daughter get the "hot earlobe " thing..seriously. You can actually see our lobes turn red and are actually hot to the touch. ha, wierd, huh?
deleted_user
deleted_user
Well, I have had anxiety on and off for about 3 years now, middle of July it came back. For about 5 weeks after that I had major stomach problems, so much that I had a case of the dry heaves every time I got nervous. This did go away after the medication kicked in though.
Zoloft.

I also have pain in my chest, it is in my diaphragm.
It hurts now and then, sometime worse than others.
I have talked to my Dr about this.
I have talked to my counselor about this.
I talked to my Physical Therapist about this.

They all said yes it is your diaphragm, and nothing to worry about.
My counselor even said this muscle across your chest is very sensitive to anxiety.
DogCrazy
DogCrazy
yes i get tummy pain and nausea, when the anxiety is really bad i do end up vommitting.
The vommitting is a new symptom for me, iv,e had anxiety for 12 yrs now.
I find my cllonopin in small doses throughout day help kep me even, allthough im sure id need bigger doeses if it gets bad again.
IBS can be typical for many people who suffer from anxiety.
anxiety really can manifest itself in many physicall symptoms, im lucky as i dont really worry about my health, i just tell myself it,s just an unpleasant feeling from my anxiety.
deleted_user
deleted_user
I too get really bad stomach pains with anxiety. It happens right when I leave the house to go somewhere. I end up having to use the bathroom so much, I sometimes don't even end up going wherever I was going. Sometimes it happens when I get where I am, so embarrassing! I wish I could control my stomach ache, I know its all in my head, because when I'm home, I'm just fine, but even the thought of going somewhere, like the dentist, where I'm trapped in a chair, sends me in a panic. I tell myself it's so ridiculous! It all started with menopause. I would have never dreamed this was another symptom of it. Xanax doesn't help the stomach ache. I was never like this before.
deleted_user
deleted_user
I can so relate to all this. My question is how do you all hold down jobs while dealing with it? I'm between jobs now and don't have any idea how I can hold a job while feeling like I do.
deleted_user
deleted_user
On a side note I am taking Prilosec OTC, Zantac 150 and Promethazine 25mg all for my stomach. How can I possibly still be having stomach problems?
deleted_user
deleted_user
OMG, YES I UNDERSTAND!! My stomach gets in KNOTS!! I was reading a book once that said getting butterflies in our stomachs are because our stomache is like our "second brain".

Has anyone heard of Wayne Dyer? I just love him & have read just about all his books. Anyway, he says, "there isn't any anxiety out there waiting to attack you... there's just people thinking anxious thoughts". Sometimes I KNOW I create by my thoughts, but sometimes I really believe it just comes over me like some physical imbalance. I am so sick of it... I'm really grateful I've found all of you because I don't feel so alone anymore. I've had it 4 yrs. and thought it would eventually disappear? Am I wrong?
4mytasha
4mytasha
Happy, I'm sad to say, yes, you're wrong.
Just like the depression I've had my whole life has NOT gotten better.
With or without meds.....

Maybe if you find the right counselor, the right med combo, whatever...
I never did but I wish you nothing but LUCK!!

Then again I only tried for TWELVE years.
Maybe that wasn't enough?
Yes, it WAS.....it was also a huge waste of my time and money.

Sorry so negative but for people that think 12 years is not long enough,(PLUS 13 anti-frickin'-depressants) try it and come back to me and tell me how wrong I am. :(
deleted_user
deleted_user
I definitely have this symptoms. If there is a time that makes me really nervous and anxious I end up having irritable bowels for about a day. I usually don't have anxiety that last for a long time so I'm not sure if there may be something else to your own problem Anxiousone. My own anxiety problem comes from when I can't reach my best friend in the world and I start to worry about what bad things could possibly be happening. She is almost always alright but I can't stop worrying about her until we talk. A simple text from her saying "Hi I'm fine ttyl" and the anxiety goes away. I looking to find ways to help myself with not be so anxious with her all the time. She needs her own space and my anxiety is getting in the way and hurting our relationship.
deleted_user
deleted_user
I'm wondering if anyone knows of anything to take that will stop the stomach pain and having to urgently use the bathroom. It happened again yesterday the minute I left the house with my husband, I couldn't even tell him because he already thinks I'm a freak. We were just running errands and its like I suddenly remind myself that uh-oh I'm out of the house, time to panick! I absolutely hate it! I need something to calm the jitter in my stomach, I can deal feeling nervous and all that, but the bathroom issue is a problem.
Ian12
Ian12
Unfortunately IBS tends to be linked directly to anxiety more often than not, and in my case I've had to come to terms with it as the main cause of all my stomach issues. The Xanax substitute that my doctor prescribed for me does help but I use it so rarely because I don't want to depend on the meds. To be fair though in the last two months since coming to terms and facing my anxiety issues my stomach condition has been better, but I'm sure it still needs work.