I get asked this one a lot. I imagine how anxiety feels is different from person to person, but there are likely a lot of similarities.

Physically I’m anxious most of the time. From the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep.

It manifests in several different ways.

Stomach – I’d say 75% of the time it manifests in my stomach. I liken the feeling to being jump scared. Like when you walk into a room and somebody is hiding along the wall and jumps towards you and yells to scare you. After that initial rush of adrenaline there’s that kind of leftover feeling in your gut. I feel that feeling most of the day.

Breathing – This one’s fun. I’ll catch myself holding my breath as I cycle through all the thoughts my brain is stuck on repeating over and over. I’ll eventually snap out of it and internally yell “just breath!”

Teeth – My dentist told me years ago that I must grind my teeth at night when I sleep. She had me do a sleep study which said I did not grind my teeth. She shrugged at the results. Then one day when i was really anxious I caught myself clenching my teeth. It would appear that I’m a daytime grinder. *shrug*

Legs – This one is relatively new, started about 6 months ago. I’ll catch myself tightening up the quads in my leg. When I finally realize it, it almost hurts so I relax it right away. It’s only ever in my legs and it’s only ever one leg at a time.

Tinnitus – Tinnitus is a condition caused by who knows what, but it makes your ears ring. It can be anywhere from a faint ring to a loud ring that actually can make it difficult to do everyday activities. I’ve had faint, high pitched tinnitus for as long as I can remember. However, when I get hit with a bad anxiety episode, that faint rings screams at a much higher pitch. It actually kind of sucks. No matter if it’s a low or a high ring, once you become aware and focus on it, forget it. Your day is done.

Anxiety is so cool.