Dealing with the Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

Question: “Does anxiety as well GAD make you feel sick all day like you’re going to pass out or going to vomit or have a heart attack and does it cause chest pain all day and headaches?”

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Answer: If these are your physical symptoms then your first step should be getting checked out by a medical doctor.  Once a physical check-up rules out a physical cause then the rest of this installment is relevant which concerns the physical symptoms of anxiety or panic attacks. 

An abundance of research on anxiety and panic attacks demonstrates that such related symptoms can bring on or contribute to many physical issues / symptoms such as vomiting or pain in the chest, headaches, other pains, heaviness in chest, nausea, etc.

Not everyone who has anxiety or panic attacks experiences such symptoms but it can be reassuring to know that they can be related to anxiety. 

Even famous actors have discussed the anxiety they experience before going on stage, some even have diarrhea.  These people have situational anxiety but, again, I think it’s reassuring that many people get these symptoms even those who do not have panic attacks. 

The key though is that the non-anxiety sufferer works through these symptoms or merely lets them pass.  Through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) you too can learn to no longer be immobilized by them.  I have discussed Cognitive Therapy before, but for those who need a quick refresher on what CBT is, in relation to anxiety, here we go:

CBT is a process whereby the anxiety sufferer analyzes his/her thoughts to locate the Cognitive Distortions present.  These Cognitive Distortions cause our emotions and thus symptoms of anxiety.  Cognitive Distortions are errors in one’s thinking.  Once these distortions are located, a healthier thought can be substituted in their place so that you can start to feel better. 

A list of Cognitive Distortions can be accessed in a seperate window by clicking here. 

I would encourage you to go through the below example with me and then look try to apply this process to your own thoughts by, again, using the list at the end of this installment.

Looking at the Physical Symptoms of Anxiety utilizing CBT

Let’s say that we have the thought that we might be having a heart attack and we might get nauseas. 

We then need to consult the list of Cognitive Distortions below and locate the distortion.  You need to have a pen and paper handy to write down everything – this is extremely helpful.

Well, having consulted the list I see that there is some “fortune telling” going on and also “disqualifying the positive.”  Now right these down. 

Okay, now that the distortions have been located, you need to locate a healthier more realistic thought.  If you think about it, there have probably been other times when we’ve had these feeling and did not either get sick or, worse yet, have a heart attack.

You might write down that you can think of other times in your life when you didn’t have heart attack or vomit despite feeling you would.  You can actually go on to write more than that, but I think you probably get the idea now.  You should start to feel better once you work through your thoughts every time they come up. 

As you can see from this example CBT can be helpful with a wide range of issues related to the physical symptoms of anxiety and much more.  

Please note, though, the process won’t be instant; it does take work.  In future installments of the Panic Attack Recovery Newsletter, we will look at more examples using the list of Cognitive Distortions.  If you're not already a subscriber you can become one now by entering your email in the box below.