Awareness, in my opinion, is the key to properly managing anxiety. Without knowing what it is you are dealing with, how can you expect to manage it? The first and most importing thing to be aware of are the various symptoms associated with anxiety. When you become aware of the symptoms, it gives you the power to start managing your anxiety and start living!

There is a great quote I found recently that sums up the idea of knowing the truth about your symptoms . The quote is by Ansel Adams, an American Photographer, best known for his black and white photographs of the American West.

“There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept.” Ansel Adams

For years I had a brilliant image of what was happening to me; however the brilliant image I had about what was happening to me wasn’t the truth. It was, like Ansel Adams said, a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept.

A fuzzy concept indeed! For years I thought I was going to die, had breathing problems, felt “out of it” in a way where I felt detached from my surroundings — I wondered what was going on. There were times where I felt like I may lose control and be embarrassed. And other times I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat; shaking uncontrollably. It was a scary feeling.

Not being aware of the symptoms of anxiety would make my mind race, as I thought of all the the negative things that could be happening to me. Am I having a heart attack? Am I going to die? What is wrong with me!? Am I going to lose control? Why do I feel “out of it” or spacey?

I’m you are or have suffered from anxiety you can definitely relate with some or all of the above. However; I wanted to list other symptoms that you may experience when dealing with heightened levels of anxiety.

The common symptoms of anxiety disorders can include:

• chest pain or discomfort
• choking
• chronic and exaggerated worry and tension
• dizziness or faintness (actual fainting is extremely rare)
• fear of dying
• fear of going crazy or losing control
• feeling a lump in your throat
• feelings of unreality, strangeness, or detachment from the environment
• feeling tired
• flushes or chills
• inability to relax
• headaches
• hot flashes

• irritability
• muscle tension
• muscle tension
• nausea or diarrhea
• numbness or tingling sensations
• palpitations (”fluttering” in the chest) or accelerated heart rate
• recurring unpleasant thoughts
• repetitive habits (e.g., washing hands)
• shortness of breath or smothering sensation
• startling easily
• sweating
• trembling
• trouble concentrating
• trouble falling asleep or staying asleep

Looking over the list, I experienced 23 of the 27 symptoms during the time I suffered with the mismanagement of my personal anxiety.

When you understand the symptoms of anxiety it gives you power. It gives you the ability to stop thinking negatively about what you are experiencing. It gives you the strength to look at what in your life may be causing you to experience these periods of heightened anxiety.

The next step is to uncover what’s triggering your heightened levels of anxiety? I’ll explore this idea in my next article. stay tuned.

Jason Herrington
Knowing Thy Symptoms

Here is a list of 16 anxiety symptoms commonly associated with your mood, as compiled by the anxiety center.

1. Always feeling angry and lack of patience
2. Depersonalization
3. Depression
4. Dramatic mood swings (emotional flipping)
5. Emotionally blunted, flat, or numb
6. Emotional “flipping” (dramatic mood swings)
7. Emotions feel wrong
8. Everything is scary, frightening
9. Feeling down in the dumps
10. Feeling like things are unreal or dreamlike
11. Frequently being on edge or ‘grouchy’
12. Feel like crying for no apparent reason
13. Have no feelings about things you used to
14. Not feeling like yourself, detached from loved ones, emotionally numb
15. Underlying anxiety, apprehension, or fear
16. You feel like you are under pressure all the time

Here is a list of anxiety symptoms that are commonly associated with sleep, as compiled by the Anxiety Center

• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Frequent bad, bizarre, or crazy dreams
• Hearing sounds in your head that jolt you awake
• Insomnia, or waking up ill in the middle of the night
• Jolting awake
• Waking up in a panic attack
• You feel worse in the mornings

Here is a short list of the top 15 symptoms of anxiety commonly associated with fear as compiled by the anxiety centre website.

1. A heightneed fear of what people think about you*
2. Afraid of being trapped in a place with no exits*
3. Constant feeling of being overwhelmed*
4. Fear of being in public
5. Fear of dying*
6. Fear of losing control*
7. Fear of impending doom
8. Fear of making mistakes or making a fool of yourself to others*
9. Fear of passing out*
10. Fear that you are losing your mind*
11. Fears of irrational things, objects, circumstances, or situations*
12. Fears of going crazy, dying, of normal things, unusual feelings and emotions, unusually frightening thoughts or feelings*
13. Heightened self awareness, or self-consciousness*
14. Need to find nearest washroom before you can feel comfortable*
15. Need to sit near exits*
    * denotes symptoms I have personally experienced

I wanted to do a quick post today to share with you two great resources I found, regarding finding other people who may have had side effects due to the medication they are on for anxiety or other ailments.

You can also use these resources to report any side effect you may experiencing from any medication you are taking as well.

I only search for a couple of known medications used to mask anxiety, what I found interesting is besides the various side effects people listed as having ( which are bad enough), most of them were able to eliminate their anxiety without the prescribe medication.  This is interesting and is inline with my belief that medication for anxiety disorders do nothing but cover up your symptoms and do not deal with the root cause of the problem.

Here are the two resources, one for the USA and one for CANADA. Search for the medications you are on and read what other people have posted.  Its interesting.

Canadian MedEffect System
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/medeff/index-eng.php

USA VAERS SYSTEM
http://vaers.hhs.gov/

I recently responded to a blog post over at AnxietyGuru.com about how it is important to identify the trigger(s) that cause your anxiety symptom(s).  Kelly commented on the blog post as well and wondered, but what if you don’t have any triggers that would make trying to manage your anxiety hard to crack.  Here is the response I left…

An important thing to understand is that all symptoms are simply that – symptoms! They are symptoms of a deeper root cause.

Identifying the triggers that cause your anxiety symptoms aren’t as black and white I have made them seem. Because anxiety is a mixture of both the disorder of the psycho and physio it can be much more complex than simply identifying a certain stimulant like caffeine and concluding it is the be-all end-all of your mismanaged anxiety.

In order to get the right answer and identify your anxiety trigger(s) you must ask yourself the right questions. You  need to start at the very beginning and work your way to the present moment to find what may be causing this heightened and mismanaged anxiety.

Questions you may ask yourself could be….How was the environment you grow up in? Was there constant chaos in your household as a child? What beliefs have you gained through your upbringing…beliefs about money, status, and self? What about elementary school? How was that for you? And high school? Did you have many friends? How were those relationships? If some relationship broke down, why did they? What may have caused them to do so and how did that make you feel? Did your parents express some of the symptoms you are currently experiencing? How was the over all mood in your household? What major events may have happened throughout your lifetime that may have left you feeling different?

These questions are the tip of the iceberg, but they should give you an idea as to how in depth you really need to look in order to pin-point the root cause of your symptoms. Other great questions can be….

What do you think about most often? Are you getting proper amounts of sleep and do you have a set sleep schedule? Do you work night shifts?  What about your diet… what do you eat most of the time? Is it simple sugars, processed foods, foods with a lot of chemical fillers like aspartame or modified corn syrup? Are you overweight for your size and age? If you are, how does that make you feel? Do you exercise regularly? Are you consuming enough water for your body to properly function or are you mostly dehydrated ( if your pee is yellow… even a little, you need more water. Contrary to the belief that pee is suppose to be yellow…it isn’t.)

You can also start looking at other areas of your life too.  How is your social life? Do you have a circle of friends? If so what do they think about most? What are their beliefs or values? How was their upbringings? Are they mostly positive or negative or are they depressing, what do they talk about most often?

Another area to explore is something know as “status anxiety”. Is what you want to be doing with your life aligned with what you are currently doing? Are you trying to impress others by trying to be successful but haven’t been able to make it? Do you tend to look at others and use them as a measure of judging yourself? If so, how does that make you feel? Are you happy with the place you live at, the car you drive, the things you have or do you desire more or something newer or better?

You can also look at your the financial aspect of your life.  How are you financially? Do you struggle month to month or is money plentiful and easy for you? If it isn’t, how does that make you feel?

I could go on and on, but as you can tell the process of identifying your trigger(s) is a long, intense process… in which you must go through your life with a fine tooth comb and ask yourself the right questions to find the right answers.

Remember… your symptom(s) are simply symptoms not the root cause themselves. Therefore there is something that is out of order ( hence disorder) that is causing them. Finding your trigger(s) may be the hardest thing you ever do, but once you do… everything else falls will fall into place.

Awareness, in my opinion, is the key to properly managing anxiety. Without knowing what it is you’re dealing with, how can you possibly expect to manage it?

The first and most importing thing to eliminating your anxiety is to become aware of the various symptoms associated with it.  With the knowledge of knowing what the symptoms are, you’ll be better equipped to handle them when they appear. Both mentally and physically.

For most of my childhood and young adult life I thought that there was something seriously wrong with me.  When I experienced difficulty breathing, I would think that maybe I had some sort of respiratory problem.  When I would wake up in the middle of the night, trembling in a cold sweat, I thought I was having a heart attack and was going to die.  It was a terrible way to live, but for a good part of my life it was my reality or so I thought.

Out of the possible twenty seven anxiety symptoms, I had experienced them all.  So, when I talk about them, I don’t talk about them in terms of theory or how I think they would feel, but rather from experience.  I know first hand the dreadful feelings of  each and every symptom associated with anxiety. It’s scary. frightening, and tiring.  But it doesn’t have to be that way, and it all starts with knowing what you are dealing with.

Let’s take a look at the twenty seven most common symptoms associated with anxiety.  I have listed them below.  Take a moment to go over them and make a mental note or better yet grab a piece of paper and jot down the various symptoms you too may have experienced.  This will give you a starting point in knowing what it is you are dealing with.  Here is the list:

1. chest pain or discomfort
2. choking
3. chronic and exaggerated worry and tension
4. dizziness or faintness (actual fainting is extremely rare)
5. fear of dying
6. fear of going crazy or losing control
7. feeling a lump in your throat
8. feelings of unreality, strangeness, or detachment from the environment
9. feeling tired
10. flushes or chills
11. inability to relax
12. headaches
13. hot flashes
14. irritability
15. muscle tension
16. muscle tension
17. nausea or diarrhea
18. numbness or tingling sensations
19. palpitations (“fluttering” in the chest) or accelerated heart rate
20. recurring unpleasant thoughts
21. repetitive habits (e.g., washing hands)
22. shortness of breath or smothering sensation
23. startling easily
24. sweating
25. trembling
26. trouble concentrating
27. trouble falling asleep or staying

How did that go? Have you expereinced some or many of these symptoms?  If you have,  feel free to leave a comment and tell me about your situation.  By sharign your situation as a comment it gives other people the chance to read it and see that they aren’t the only ones experiencing these types of feelings.