Could Stress/anxiety manifest itself as these physical symptoms?

[Cubedg]

I'm a 19 year old, 5'11, 285 lbs (trying to lose weight though) college student, and I've been experiencing a myriad of different strange pains and symptoms. I've had pain in my shoulders (mostly left), knees, legs occasionally, sometimes wrists, even in the tip of my penis (sorry, full disclosure) and most noticeably in my chest. All of the pain tends to be on the left side more than the right, but that isn't always the case either. I've had headaches on different parts of my head, sometimes right behind my eye, sometimes in my temple (where I have also had off and on tingling sensations), and sometimes in in the back right. I've also had excess gas and stomach upset to an extant, although it isn't as common as the pains, but is very prevalent when there.

I'm a self-described hypochondriac, who didn't feel particularly stressed until all of this started to happen. I have since been to the doctor to check for heart issues and had EKGs, chest x-rays, a blood test, and a stress test all come back fine. I usually don't have any shortness of breath (except for maybe when I'm bloated or thinking about it too much) and I participate in a club sport without any real noticeable issues. So basically, can all of this be stress/anxiety? Or should I look at some other physical symptoms? This is really killing my focus on work right now and waking up to pain/ having pain throughout the day is a major nuisance I need to clear up

[Paxiled]

Keep in mind, Lexapro might make you feel better because of what it does without treating the problem you actually have.  Nor did I say being overweight necessarily is the cause, but perhaps the cause of you being overweight is something that is also neurological.  Diabetes, for example.  Not that you have it, but I'd certainly want to know given your physiological symptoms before I took an antidepressant that might be hard to stop taking, might not treat anything you have wrong with you (again, anxious people, and I'm one of them, feel anxious -- they don't just have physical problems).  Given your level of activity, being overweight might be due to something other than what people usually and often wrongfully attribute it to.  I have no idea what's really going on, but you just don't describe yourself as an anxious person.  At any rate, I hope you feel better soon.

[Paxiled]

First, why did you go on Lexapro without a diagnosis?  From what you say, you don't fell anxious, so you're not suffering from anxiety.  You don't mention depression.  You're suffering the kind of symptoms commonly associated with being overweight and the reasons why you might be overweight, which could include hormonal issues, thyroid issues, overeating, blood sugar imbalances, all of which are physiological problems, not mental problems such that an antidepressant will treat.  So again, why a drug?  Why not change your lifestyle, and if you feel the need, talk to a therapist?  Drugs are no picnic even when you have the condition they treat, and at least from what you say so far, you're concerned about real things you're feeling physically, not unexplained fears.  Not every problem we have in our thinking rises to the need for a drug that alters the way your brain works.  That's how I see it, anyway.

[Cubedg]

I didn't ask for the drug, the doctor offered it as a potential help seeing as my father also had similar symptoms he attributed to stress and worked through. I saw it as a way of determining whether it is physical or mental without having to continue to put my family through the burden of going to eight more specialists so they could potentially all tell me that it's in my head. I still don't know what's going on and that in itself is very stressful, so there, that's why I'm on this drug. I've never had issues like this, and it's not that I'm not decently active, still doing sports and walking all over my college's massive campus, so hearing that this might just be because I'm overweight just seems unlikely to me. Although you might be right, hopefully with weight loss the pain will clear up and I'll be feeling better!

[Cubedg]

Oh, I should also mention that I got on Lexapro when this all started, and I really haven't noticed much of a difference so far