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Physical Symptoms of Anxiety Nobody Warns You About · Bye Bye Panic

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Most people dealing with symptoms had no idea anxiety is the cause.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: You may feel lost, confused, and convinced that there is something medically wrong.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: but anxiety is more than just worry.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It hijacks your body in ways that can genuinely surprise you.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So here are seven physical symptoms, no one warns you about.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many of these symptoms were things I personally struggled with.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Symptom number one, the lump in the throat, that feeling like something is stuck in the back of your throat that just won't go away.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You try to swallow, but you feel like it's still there.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Doctors actually have a name for this.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's called the global sensation and here's why it happens.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Your neck carries your airway, major blood vessels, everything vital.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So when anxiety triggers your survival mode, your body tenses up and protects vulnerable areas.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: That area in your throat is one of the most vulnerable.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so if you feel the tightness, it's not because there's anything wrong with your throat.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's because your body is trying to protect you from a threat.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And because that sensation makes people fear, swallowing or choking, they often start avoiding certain foods, eating less, or even avoiding eating altogether, which creates a whole new spiral around health anxiety.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now while we're on the subject of breathing, the next one will surprise you.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: which is yawning constantly.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're yawning not because you're tired or bored, but because anxiety directly affects your breathing pattern.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You might notice it in mid-conversation or in a serious moment.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: And here's why the yawning happens.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: When anxiety hits, you're breathing becomes more rapid, more shallow.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You're breathing out CO2 faster than your body can produce it.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that drop in CO2 levels is what's causing the dizziness
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So your body does the only thing it knows what to do, which is to take a deep, slow breath.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is the yarn.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's essentially your nervous system trying to rebalance itself.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, your yawning might not feel like a scary symptom, but this next one definitely scared me.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: And that is brain fog.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: This is where you can't think straight.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It takes you longer to register what's going on.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Almost like there's a delay between what happened and how you react.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Your mind can go blank and you might even feel numb to everything around you.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: For me, this was the symptom that convinced me that I was going crazy.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like I was on drugs.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: But here's all that was happening.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you're dealing with anxiety, you're constantly overthinking.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Trying to figure out what's happening is this wrong.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: How do I make this go away?
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And your brain is basically running a full speed.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's always scanning.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's always worrying.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's always analyzing.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: And this exhausts your brain.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually your brain gets so overwhelmed that it begins to disconnect.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not because it's damaged, but because it's almost too battered to continue the overthinking.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: The moment that survival response comes down,
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Your brain was never broken, it was just overwhelmed.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: As your mind gets a chance to rest, the clarity comes back.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now the next symptom is often the symptom that people don't even realize is caused by anxiety.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But before we get into that, if you want to understand the chord principles of healing these symptoms and recovery, I've put together a free e-book down below that breaks it all down.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: The link is in the description.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Now the next one, most people don't even realize it's connected to anxiety until someone points it out, which is feeling worse when you finally relax.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: You would expect relaxation to decrease anxiety symptoms.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you'll notice that when you're dealing with anxiety, you'll notice that relaxation often makes things worse.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: This can be very confusing and frustrating.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: You may push through something super stressful, but only a few days later, the anxiety hits you, and your symptoms flare up.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you technically should be calming down, we have a term for this, it's called anxiety hangover, and the reason why this happens will actually surprise you.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: See, when you're under stress, your nervous system is completely consumed by what's in front of you.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like tunnel vision mode.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: fully locked onto the threat.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when you're in that state, you don't fully realize what's happening underneath.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The moment the stressor has gone, your nervous system begins to shift gears.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It begins to do what we call downregulation, where your nervous system calms down from a high alert state.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's an example of how to think about it.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine clenching your fist for hours and then finally opening it.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Even though you've let go of the tension, the release of your fist will actually fill in comfortable.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So your nervous system has been contracted for so long that the shift of relaxation feels destabilizing.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Now what makes matters worse is that your attention focuses from the stressor to inward, how you feel internally.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that inward attention is exactly what amplifies everything you're already feeling.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not like the symptoms are appearing because something new is wrong.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're appearing because your nervous system is transitioning out of survival mode.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: That transition takes time.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Once your body learns how to down-regulate and up-regulate, basically shift from one state to another, this doesn't tend to happen.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Now the next symptom can feel incredibly isolating.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I was convinced it wasn't even anxiety.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that is, crying without feeling sad.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: This one is really hard to explain, because we think anxiety is just feeling intense fear and dread.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: But when you're dealing with high emotions, it's really easy to think you're dealing with something else, something besides anxiety.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Small things that might make you feel a little sad, all of a sudden have a huge emotional punch.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But for me, I could just watch a commercial, like a watch TV, something even mildly emotional and I would feel a wave way harder than it should.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would start crying for no reason.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're experiencing this, here's what happens, anxiety is exhausting.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not just physically exhausting, it's not mentally, but it's also emotionally exhausting.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: And when your nervous system has this prolonged stress, it becomes hypersensitive.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Your emotional threshold drops.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Things that wouldn't typically affect you all the sudden hits you very hard.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so if you're dealing with this, understand that crying is not a sign of weakness.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's your nervous system releasing what it can no longer hold, allowing yourself to feel the emotions without judgments, without narratives, or without labels around them, that's how your nervous system begins to heal.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, anxiety doesn't just affect your emotions, and in fact, affects basic survival instincts, which leads me to the next point, which is sudden, disinterest, and food entirely.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You may be noticing that you have no appetite, no hunger.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, thinking about food makes you nauseous.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even if you decided to eat, you might have two bites and feel completely full.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: This symptom hit me so hard that I lost over 40 pounds, and I'm not a big guy.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, Dr. Rue very concerned because even though they knew what I had was anxiety, the fact that I was losing weight so dramatically and so quickly really worried them.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: But here's why it was happening for me.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: When my nervous system was stuck in the survival mode, it shuts down anything that's considered non-essential.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Digestion is one of the first things to go.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So your body prioritizes fighter flight over digestion.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: But as your nerves get a chance to rest, you go back into that rest and digest mode.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The hunger, the appetite, and the digestion comes back on its own.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, anxiety can affect basic survival instincts, but it can also affect your sense organs, which leads me to the next symptom, which is feeling like your eyes can't focus.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You might notice blurry vision, tunnel vision, visual snow.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Some people even experience a tint or color shift in their vision.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: For me, my left eye had a blue tint for a long period of time.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody can explain it.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: No diagnosis.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's just said it was fine.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I almost didn't have an answer for it.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: As I started healing through the healing journey, the symptoms just fell off on their own.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And this is one of the most common symptoms we hear in our recovery program where we're guiding people through the journey.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the reason why this happens with your eyes is because your eyes are one of the most sensitive sense organs in your body.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: They're directly wired into your nervous system.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So when anxiety triggers survival mode, your nervous system goes into high alert.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Your visual system responds immediately.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You'll notice your pupils dilate, peripheral vision narrows, and your brain starts scanning for threats.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: All of that puts normal strain on your eyes and your visual processing.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So the blurry vision, the tunnel vision, the strange visual disturbances, they aren't signs of something wrong with their eyes.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Their signs that your nervous system is completely overwhelmed.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: And so as your nervous system comes down, so does the vision.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So if any of these symptoms resonate with you, it's not that you're broken, it's not that you're going crazy.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Your body's doing exactly what it needs to do for stress.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: The fact that you're here trying to understand what's happening is already putting you on the path of healing.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: So remember, anxiety is not a life sentence.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You can too.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for watching.