Can Anxiety cause these symptoms? Anyone relate?

[grump123]

Hi,
I have been stressing out over my health (muscle twitching) only to find out it is benign.  I literally worried about it every minute of every day for a month.  I am also getting married in a month and have that anxiety going as well.  A couple days ago I began to have nausea, bloating, acid reflux and loss of appetite.  Can this be caused by all my anxiety?  Its been three days and still have bloating and loss of appetite, of course ive been worrying about it constantly.
Can anyone relate and give me some advice.  Ive seen doc and gave me antacid and gas-x. thanks

[Crits]

Hi,
Alot of those symptoms and scenerios does describe anxiety related conditions.
Here's a thought..............have you ever had your thyroid level checked?  A simple blood test that takes a few minutes.
Alot of anxiety related conditions are not necessary psychological........could be physical.
Good luck and congrats on your upcoming wedding.

[spade22]

" i think a good first step would be to stay off the internet searching for symptoms and realted stories for now"

LOL!  Good idea! Googling symptoms can DEFINETLY make things worse especially if you are a little anxious to begin with and suffer from a little health anxiety.

After experiencing stomach problems it best to start on a bland diet and eat some quantities of things such as: toast, bananas, rice, applesauce.  Essentially things that wont "upset" your stomach as much.  Also, drink plenty of gatorade to ensure your electrolytes dont get out-of-whack.

Doing things to minimize your stress will do you good.  Make sure you have some "you time" each day where you can unwind and do something your enjoy.

[grump123]

thanks for the help.   I do think i have gastris caused by whatever bug i had.  hopefully it will clear up on its own.  but for the mean time i am trying to focus on minimizing my stress, at least as far as my health is concerned. i think a good first step would be to stay off the internet searching for symptoms and realted stories for now.  what do you think?

[franceslee]

Do you ever feel like your not normal, like something is wrong somewhere in your body but you just don't know what it is?  I feel like this a lot.  I experience a lot of the symptoms you have mentioned  and I wish I knew how to not worry about any of them.

franceslee

[spade22]

"Ate dinner that night and afterwards began to feel little nauseated and slightly feverish.  That night i woke up with feeling i was going to throw up but didnt.  Had mild fever 99.8 for the next day.  Fever went away friday as well as majority of nausea but feeling of bloating and loss of appetitie remained and still remains today.  I am able to eat and hold down food but i have to force myself and cant eat as much as usual.  I am wondering if i got a bug or if it can be all the stress ive been having."

In my opinion, the fact your nausea came on suddenly and was accompained by a fever is indicative of gasteroentritis. Gasteroentritis (stomach "flu") is an inflammation of the stomach lining and can be bacterial/viral/or parasitic in nature.  Depending on what agent caused it and the degree to which it was present, you may experience mild to severe symptoms which may include some or all of the following: nausea, vomitting, fever, headache, chills, diarrhea, stomach cramps, bloating, loss of appetite.  Sometimes it takes several weeks, after a bout of gasteroentritis, for all the digestive tract to get back to "normal" - it this is the cause of your symptoms, you will likely see a gradual improvement over the next week or so.  

That being said, you wrote in your initial post: "I have been stressing out over my health (muscle twitching) only to find out it is benign.  I literally worried about it every minute of every day for a month".  When anxiety is effecting your quality of life (worrying about something every minute of every day for a month qualifies) it is time to do something about it.  Lifestyle changes, medication, and therapy are all things that can improve your quality of life.  

[fluffyrabbits]

ok i meant to say the medicine "pamprin" lol not pampring and also like "heartfluttersflyawayplz" i found that yogurt also helps out alot. since plain yogurt doesnt have so much sugar in it and has all those little active cultures in it which are really good for your digestive system. it balances it out and helps you feel better if you eat it every day for at least like two weeks. try the dannon activia challenge :)

[fluffyrabbits]

The first time I ever had a panic attack was just a couple weeks before I got married. I didn't even think I was stressed out at all, but apparently it had a lot more of an impact on me than I thought it did. So it's completely normal for that to just add to all the stress you're probably already going through. Just last year I was going through alot again and I ended up having horrible bloating and felt nauscious all the time and lost my appetite entirely. It lasted so long I literally thought I had some horrible disease and my stomach was rotting out. Turned out of course that it was just stress. I tried everything from pepto bismol to a home remedy or warm water and lemon juice and nothing seemed to work. Eventually I found that surprisingly pampring seemed to help out alot, and during that time of not being able to eat anything, I found that fruit and pasta were the easiest things to get myself to eat. Mostly I lived on crystal light and apple slices. Just ate tiny little bits throughout the day. Also found that simply going out alone for a long walk got the digestive system moving and helped out a lot with the gas and stomach pain. It will go away I promise, you just have to be able to belive that nothings seriously wrong with you and that the life change youre about to experience has your stomach in knots. I also experienced my muscle under my right eye twitched a lot off and on just randomly when it felt like it. sometimes it will last a few weeks, sometimes it completely dissapears. nothings wrong, its just a nuiscance more than anything else. hope that helps at least a little ;)

[grump123]

thanks. i totally agree that my stress could be the culprit here but let me explain the whole scenario and let me know what you think.  It started on Wednesday afternoon late.  I felt completely fine all day.  Went to gym to lift weights and felt a little tired and nauseated.  Ate dinner that night and afterwards began to feel little nauseated and slightly feverish.  That night i woke up with feeling i was going to throw up but didnt.  Had mild fever 99.8 for the next day.  Fever went away friday as well as majority of nausea but feeling of bloating and loss of appetitie remained and still remains today.  I am able to eat and hold down food but i have to force myself and cant eat as much as usual.  I am wondering if i got a bug or if it can be all the stress ive been having.  Just want to feel hungry again, you know.  Im beginning to get depressed and its only been 4 days!  You ever have anything like this?  Sorry for all the questions, just helps to talk about it sometimes.  By the way i went to dr. and gave me pill for acid reflux, which by the way i had too and gas-x for bloating ( which doesnt seem to be working at all).  I am going to go back tommorrow if not better.
thanks again

[suzi-q]

My stomach problems didn't go away until I started medication.  I wish I could say I did it on my own, but that wasn't an option at that time.  I was just too sick from the anxiety at that time.  I dealt with those symptoms for a few months.  I lost lots of weight and just couldn't eat.  See if you can get an anti-anxiety med to help you.

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

i lost 21 pds in 4 weeks woke up sick stomack every morning, i went dr got a pill help settle my stomack it helps a lot ate little meals at times of day when ever i felt my stomack could handle it , i drank insure and ate lots yoguart my stomack is back and am eating now . good luck. yes it was all caused from anxiety.

[grump123]

thanks for the help.  I assume youve had the digestive symtpoms i mentioned.  How long did they last for you?  I just want to feel hungry again.  What did you do?  thanks

[suzi-q]

oh yes!  Those definitely sensations and symptoms from anxiety!  Your symptoms are identical to what I used to feel when I started with my anxiety many years ago.  If your doctor states that there isn't anything physically wrong with you, maybe he can prescribe an anti-anxiety medication to help you through the next month...Anxiety can really kick your butt both physically and mentally!!!

[treeman]

Yes indeed anxiety can cause the symptoms you mentioned. I worried constantly about my muscle twitching I thought I had some weird disease but it turns out to be caused by Anxiety. The physical problems are many. But the key for me is the worry. This I think  is the root of my problem. I have been on Clomipramine and clonezapam for 17 years . I am alot better but still worry from time to time.