My body feels very heavy!

I have had this happen over many years.  It only happens once in a while, but when it does it is a horrible scarey feeling.  I can feel the 'anxiety' feeling come over me, I sit down and 'beg' someone to sit with me.  I then get this feeling that my body weighs a ton and is literally going to crash through the floor, because it is so heavy.  I also get the feeling of my tongue swelling, tho' I never have convulsions or anything like that.  It lasts about 5 minutes or so and when it's over I feel very weak.  Any advice?

Thank you so much!
Sandy

[Suri123]

Hi, how about your work schedule. I feel you seem to be stressed. Spend more time with your family or close friends and relatives. You can call you family physician and get checked once.

[JainMD]

Hi Sandy,
How frequently do you get such symptoms?
Do you think these could be seizure episodes? If yes, have you evaluated for it?
I think it could be due to seizure disorder. It might be absence seizure.
I think you should be consulting a neurologist at earliest and decide regarding imaging study and EEG.
Alternatively, it can also be stress and anxiety.
Yes, Stress and anxiety can do this. Stress is the condition that results when person-environment transactions lead the individual to perceive a discrepancy, whether real or not, between the demands of a situation and the resources of the person's biological, psychological or social systems. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress.
You can try yoga, relaxation and meditation to ease yourself.
Keep me informed about your ailment.
Hope this helps.
Bye.

[sapphire250]

I have the same thing happen to me. I noticed it coming on me periodicaly after I lowered the dose of my anti-depressant. I think stree and anxiety can be the cause. When you find out please let me know. I will be consulting my doctor on January 18th.
It is very scarey feeling!!
Sapphire250

[taylor32]

I have had this since i was a little girl. I call it my big hand attack. Im now 32 years old and still havnt a clue what it is. It happens most when im in bed, it worsened with stress and i seemed to have it every week when i was pregnant with my boys. But not with my girl. I had  an ecg when i was pregnant with my first. And quess what they found nothing. I have learned to live with it and when i feel an atack cUmming on i will count.Something to focus on. I never get up and walk around as it can feel like im fast forwooding my self or slowing my self right down, that is scary! I suffer with depreson and anxiaty and presently waiting for blood test as my doc thinks i have lupus. Hope my experiance helps in anyway. The only advice i can give is dont worry its not life thretening. It will not take your state of mind permenetly. And when you have it again just calm down and consentrate on someting else and it will pass. Good luck.x

[rephlexe]

Hi Taylor, I am 20 study Biology and I have experienced almost exactly the same thing as you descirbed. I used to have it whilst asleep, and wake up as if from a nightmare, but the fear was something different, much greater.
I couldn't describe it to anybody as I couldnt find the words that would be appropriate. Just now I was lying on the sofa watching Topgear, and it was a scene showing a car driving on a country road, with very peacefull music.
I then suddenly felt my body growing very heavy and instantly recognised the feeling as what you described and as i remembered having when I was younger. I have learnt to not be scared by this anymore, as I have found that as soon as I talk to another person, the feeling vanishes completely.
What I tried was to focus on enhancing the effect. I closed my eyes and found myself staring into the blackness and trying to focus on an infintely far away point, which caused my eyes to blink whilst being closed. The feeling of weight kept increasing and I kept staring further into the blackness. I felt my heart beat harder and my breathing slow down.
What happend next was a bit wierd. I felt as if the darkness itself was an entity and was slowly crushing me, which I imagine was the feeling of the extreme weight of my body. Then for some reason I can't really explain I had the urge to say "Hello" which I then did, and opened my eyes.
The whole feeling was instantly gone. Feeling very curious and slightly light headed I googled "body feels very heavy" and found this page.

I hope this description of what happend will aid in someone in "diagnosing" what this sensation is. Studying Biology myself and taking courses in Neuroscience, this topic really interests me and I kindly invite anybody with any knowledge regarding this to please leave a comment!
Thanks for reading =)

[rephlexe]

Oh I also forgot to add the fact that I also sometimes have the sensation of everything moving in fast-forward when in this "state"
Also the occurence of this "state" increases when I play computer games for an extended period of time, which leads me to believe it is caused by some sort of stress oh the body/mind
cheers

[Disa87]

i want to ask more about this, i´m having this heavy feeling right now. i was in bed, like most of the times that i get this feeling. i wasn´t feeling any anxiety, i was just thinking about my day, then started blinking rapidly and feeling extremely heavy but still a felt a little like i was barely touching the bed, like i was beeing lifted a little. I feel confused when this happens, not because i dont know what it is... just confused, it has been happening for years. and funny thing, i also remember it happening ones while i was watching top gear :P

[muse4]

I've also experienced this, while standing and while falling asleep.
I'm a pretty anxious person so i was just brushing it off as being my nerves.
But one day i checked my blood pressure during one of these episodes and i noticed my blood pressure was pretty low: 108/50. It usually is around 110/60, and i'm kind of anemic.
I'm not sure if it's connected, but it makes sense since when you wall asleep blood pressure goes down and it would give you a strange feeling, for me, there's also a ringing in the ears.
Another time i checked my blood pressure and there was a spike in it.
So i would conclude that these sensations, for me at least, are causes by sudden changes in blood pressure and a little anemia.
Also, i noticed these changes occur during weather changes: when the weather is hot my blood pressure drops, and when the hot weather changes to cloudy cold weather my pressure rises along with aches in my joints.
I should add that i'm in my 20's.