If you have an anxiety disorder chances are that you have trouble sleeping sometimes or maybe all the time. This is because if you have insomnia you are predisposed to developing anxiety and depression and vice versa. As we all know insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by your inability to fall asleep and or stay asleep. Learning to cope with insomnia is important for your long term health and does not necessarily require that you pop pills to fall into a soporific sleep state. Whether you have an anxiety disorder or not all people
Hot and Bothered: Anxiety and Irritability
Lately the temperature has been increasing and my temper has been headed in the same direction. Whether it's an anxiety disorder or PTSD, irritability is a very common symptom of people under stress for long periods of time. Sometimes this irritation is such a part of how you feel that everything bugs the hell out of you. It could be your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse or even your dog that just drives you up the wall. Clearly all people become irritated from time to time, but irritability related to anxiety disorder can be intense. I have
Belly Fire: Anxiety and Heartburn
If you have dealt with anxiety symptoms for any amount of time you may have battled with heartburn. This is annoying and disruptive but not specific to you since heartburn is very common among people that suffer from anxiety disorders. Although some say that stress and anxiety have not been directly linked to heartburn, let me just say that those folks are wrong. I have read opposing positions that point out that when the body goes into fight or flight the ensuing flood of adrenaline causes blood to leave the stomach and this causes the muscles
Headbanger: Anxiety and Headaches
One of the the symptoms that you are bound to develop if you have an anxiety disorder are headaches. The headaches themselves are as varied as all the other symptoms. In other words, you can have different types of headaches of varying severity and frequency. The most common is called a tension headache. This kind of headache typically makes you feel like you have a metal band around your head. The pain is mild to moderate and it bugs you because it feels like something is touching your head from the outside. These can occur frequently and
Palpitations
Of all the symptoms that anxiety produces in anxiety sufferers, palpitations have to be one of the most hated. This is mainly because palpitations can make you feel like you are having a heart attack and being that people with anxiety frequently feel as if their going to die, palpitations just fuels more fear, anxiety and panic. What is a palpitation? Simply put, a palpitation is an awareness of your beating heart. In 'normal' people there is not much notice of the heart beating, whereas people with anxiety tend to be hypersensitive about
Brain Fog: What is it?
photo credit: goossmurf What is Brain Fog? Brain fog is a condition were you basically feel confused, forgetful, detached from your surroundings and you simply cannot concentrate. It is similar to depersonalization, but with a feeling of slow thinking. Don't worry if you have experienced this mental cloud machine, your not dumb or slow. It is your fatigued mind slogging through the motions. Today I had a particularly nasty case of brain fog. I felt a dull ache around my head, I felt like I was thinking slowly, and I had a severe feeling of
Symptoms and Sensations
photo credit: Kevin N. Murphy Now, if you have anxiety disorder, or a related condition such as panic disorder, what are some of the symptoms and sensations you might experience? Let me just say that the list is long, very long. The number, frequency, and type of symptoms you experience will vary. But there are a few that are very universal. Here is a short list of some of those dreaded symptoms. Palpitations Racing thoughts Cold or Hot sweats Dizziness Malaise Urgency Depersonalization Obsession Depression Muscle