Can anxiety only be mental and not physical?

[rwturner05]

Hello all!

I have been reading the posts in these forums as I have searched the Internet for some type of explanation as to what has been going on with me lately and I thought it be best if I asked the community to see if anyone can relate.

I am a 24 year old male. I have just graduated college and moved to Florida with my sister, which is something I, for all intensive purposes, was happy about. I started an internship in my field and was told there would be a job opportunity for me with the company in the next few weeks. While I do the internship, I also work a full-time retail job and am a freelance writer. While I know it seems I may have a lot on my plate, I was doing just fine with balancing everything until this past weekend.

It started Friday evening. Now I will note, I was anxious about having an STD, but on Friday it was confirmed I did not. Friday night I ate shrimp that my sister cooked, which is a meal I have had at least five times since living here. However, I have an allergic reaction in my mouth and took to 25mg Benadryl to relieve the pain. I was working on a script, but was naturally dozing in and out of sleep because of the Benadryl. I also have routinely smoked marijuana on a daily basis since I was 19 to help alleviate stress and for an increase in creativity when writing. I smoked the night I took the Benadryl, but I fell asleep with no worries or concerns.

When I awoke Saturday, however, my head began to feel cloudy and it honestly felt like I was in a high state. I smoked before heading to work, thinking it would alleviate the pain, but it did not. Instead, I went to work that day with a headache and still feeling like I was high and my cognitive thought process was not all the way there. Work did not help either. It was only a 5hr shift and my head was pounding because there was added stress going on at work.

I got home Saturday night and smoked, but again coming down from the high only made my head feel worse. I took an Alieve PM to relieve the pain, and it did the trick and put me to sleep. Sunday, I woke up with the same cloudy feeling and this is when I guess you could say I became anxious. I still had the head high and I had no idea why, but I pushed through work and made it home.

I explained my symptoms to my sister and father and they both said it is most likely anxiety because they both have experienced anxious moments out of nowhere. However, I began taking my blood pressure on Friday night and each time I have checked it, it is slightly high. Hypertension runs in my family on both sides, so the possibility of why my head feels so groggy is because I could have prehypertension. Yet, on Sunday when I checked, it was 113/77, which is normal.

On Sunday night, however, I was able to only get 2hrs of sleep and tossed and turned through the night. My sister immediately concurred it was anxiety and advised me to seek the core of my symptoms. However, I have no idea. On Monday, I worked a 12hr shift, which is normal, but confirmed work was a stress trigger. At the same time, I still felt anxious talking through the problems at work and my head hurt either from sleeplessness or anxiety, or a mixture of both. I did not smoke marijuana Monday night, but I did take an Alieve PM to ensure I went to sleep. Again, I was in and out of sleep for the first couple hours on the couch and I was sweating in my sleep, but then slept until 5. Woke up and went into my bedroom and was in and out every two hours, still sweating but not as bad as I was on the couch, until I finally got up at 10:30 this morning. I still felt slightly clouded in the head, but not as bad as Sunday or Monday. I took my blood pressure again this morning, and once again it was high.

Note: everytime my blood pressure was taken, it was taken twice for an accurate reading.

Like I said, I am happy with where I am in life and I am not discounting the possibility of me having anxiety, but I have no idea where it is coming from or how to get back to my normal cognitive thinking. I feel slightly disassociated with reality when I wake up, but as I progress through the day, the feeling wears off until I get back home and go back to my normal routine. My sister says it could be I am experiencing loneliness because I have very little friends here and rarely go out and socialize. I am an introverted person so I appreciate my alone time, but I did go from an environment where I always had something to do (college) to now focusing on work and achieving my career goals as a writer. On the other hand, I do not feel a panic attack or a sudden rush of adrenaline anywhere in my body. The uncertainty of what's happening in my head is what is distracting and causing me anxiety, and I'm not sure if it is anxiety or symptoms of prehypertension. I have a doctors appointment scheduled next Tuesday, and to be honest, I know whatever anxiety I have will be alieviated after my visit.

However, what advice can you spare me on handling my condition until I see my doctor?

Thanks!

[rwturner05]

I have realized it's more of a high feeling than anything else. My coordination is slightly off, my vision slightly blurred, it takes me a second to focus, and smoking pot or drinking intensifies it.

I am still in control in everything I do, but when I try to focus a slight headache comes. However, my pulse is normal & I do not feel all that anxious.

[AnxiousNoMore]

You are over-analyzing your body to the point you are even studying it when stoned or drunk. Everyone's coordination is worse when doing those 2 things but you indicated this is an notable finding. ,

So you might want to consider the rest of your analysis might be overdone as well, just to see if things aren't as abnormal or frightening as you think they are.

[ambermana]

Do you think it could be an adverse reaction to your night time medication? I don't know how long ago you took the Benadryl, but I react very bad to it. One time I had to take Benadryl for a few days and my entire week was ruined from that stuff. It could be anxiety (which can cause your bp to rise) but it could be an imbalance in your body, or both. Just definitely go to your doctor and you will get it sorted out :)

[Paxiled]

Anxious people feel anxious.  Your heading indicates you associate anxiety with physiological symptoms, but you can have anxiety and not have a lot of physiological symptoms, especially when you're still young.  Anxiety doesn't cause high blood pressure in everyone.  A lot depends on lifestyle -- people who meditate or exercise a lot won't experience as many as the usual physical symptoms as someone who is sedentary, but can still get panic attacks that only they notice.  It is mostly a mental thing.  Now, the fact you're testing your blood pressure indicates something -- most people don't do that.  The fact you say you smoke pot every single day and have for five years to combat stress and make yourself more creative suggests a problem, no?  If anything, drugs inhibit clear thinking, that's why they're fun.  You can fool yourself into thinking it makes you more creative, but it probably doesn't -- you just like to be stoned and want an excuse for it.  Which would be fine by me and everyone else if it didn't appear the drug is turning on you.  You are getting older, however, and you've been medicating yourself for a long time.  Your brain is now trained to work only while stoned, the same as people who regularly take antidepressants or any other drug that affects neurotransmitters in the brain.  As you age, you will have a harder and harder time overcoming the sedation of the drug, just as people I'm sure you know who drink too much become pretty unbearable as they age.  No doubt there are people who live like this and are very successful -- Willie Nelson and Bill Mahr come to mind.  Most of us, though, quit using pot regularly about your age or a little older because it stops being fun.  Many get their first anxiety attacks while stoned.  You're not getting high anymore, you're just using the drug to maintain.  It's not an addictive drug, but you've got a pretty strong habit.  Here's what it sounds like to me:  either you got a pretty big weedover from some weed you weren't used to or you might have some kind of virus.  But at some point, you have to consider it might be time to stop using the pot and see if it hasn't run its course.  If you look at the archives on this forum, you'll find a ton of people who ran into this problem.  I did.  I grew up in the Sixties, and don't know anyone who kept smoking regularly.  We got older.  (Then we just got old).  Life changes.  Of all the things you're mentioning, if you're getting stoned to handle stress, yeah, you've got some anxiety.  If you're smoking because you don't trust your natural curiosity and creativity that got you interested in writing in the first place, that's insecurity.  I hope you find the right balance for you, and if that's smoking pot every day the rest of your life, hey, okay by me.  But that's the thing that stands out to me given the symptoms you're describing.  Maybe time to go back to just getting high for fun again, not using that as your natural state, and maybe aim for a more healthful lifestyle so you sleep with your normal brain, if you can.  Again, there are people who can do this, so don't take this as Gospel truth -- I'm just offering the thing that came to my head.