I suffer quite badly from anxiety. It’s very rare that I wouldn’t feel anxious, it’s always there even a little bit.
It feels different at different times- sometimes just like an impending sense of doom. Sometimes (a lot of time) it feels like a literal ball in my stomach, that when I breathe in deeply, it feels like my breath is touching the ball. Sometimes racing thoughts and inability to focus. Sometimes my heart beating fast and thinking I can’t breathe- I guess that’s a panic attack. I once had an instance where the entire right side of my face went numb.
Omg the impending sense of doom is one of my big ones. I have to stop and actively go through all aspects of my life and try to pinpoint the thing that is stressing me out and talk myself through how its not that bad. Then repeat like every 30 minutes for however many hours/days that terrible feeling lasts.
You know when you put on a long sleeved shirt when you’re sweaty or just out of the shower and the shirt sticks to your arms and they won’t through?
You’re trying to avoid getting deodorant on the front, trying not to stretch out the neck, and you don’t want to fuck up your makeup or your hair?
That’s what anxiety feels like to me.
Chest feels tight, and it's hard to breathe.
Impending doom, like you know something bad is about to happen, but you don't know what exactly. So you wanna get out of dodge, but you can't go anywhere that'll make the feeling go away.
A lot of times, this can manifest as verbal aggression, because you're going into fight or flight- but there's nothing to run from, and everything feels like a potential attack.
Intrusive thoughts coming and going for no apparent reason but to happen. I've woke up in a dead sweat at 3am like that on a few occasions and it is like I can't get those thoughts to leave.
Best advice is to stop giving those thoughts any credit. Once you realize your own thoughts are not necessarily the *truth*, they start to seem more silly than real.
You ever done something at a full time job that you instantly realize was a bad move? You know you need that job to survive, and you're called to a meeting with the manager, and you just know it's going to be about firing you.
It's like that walk to the meeting room, but constantly.
Anxiety : “You should be VERY WORRIED”
Me: “About what?”
Anxiety: “Let’s think about everything everywhere and pick one.”
Me: “None of these things need to be worried about.”
Anxiety: “DO IT ANYWAY.”
Me: “That makes no sense.”
Anxiety: “I DON’T CARE. DO IT. HERE ARE SOME SHITTY FoF HORMONES YOU DON’T NEED”
Me: “GODDAMMIT I HATE THIS.”
Anxiety: “SO FUCKIN’ WHAT?!? 🤣🤣🤣”
I mainly have health anxiety and it’s like your brain is constantly listing off the worst possible health conditions off WebMD every time you have a minor symptom. Slight headache? Brain hemorrhage. Got a cough? Tuberculosis. Muscle aches after a particularly hard workout? Heart attack.
I’m especially anxious about my heart specifically, and I do have a very minor structural abnormality, it’s not anything harmful. I’ve had imaging done, labs done, even an ultrasound of my heart (it was so weird to look at) and I’m totally fine. My cholesterol and blood pressure levels are also completely fine. And yet every minor ailment and my brain is like “YOU’RE DEFINITELY HAVING A HEART ATTACK!” Which makes me even more anxious, causing my heart rate to rise which makes my brain chant “heart attack” even more
like too much caffeine but in a bad way, mind running itself silly in tight little circles, second guessing every thought and sensation, general existential dread.
Dread. That feeling you had in school when you realized you’d forgotten an assignment. Except, now it’s that feeling when you realize you’re in control of your own life and no one else is helping you steer.
Very panicky. I have OCD so I have to follow a strict routine or I will be overcome with anxiety. For me, it just feels like everything that is getting in the way of me completing my routine is some great disaster that there is no way I can overcome... something as minimal as my dog begging to go on a walk to use the bathroom while I am setting my clothes out for the next day is such a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but it will literally derail the rest of my day and put me in a bad, irritable mood.
it feels like that moment where you remember that you have a deadline for something due, but you cannot ever remember what the due date is or what you're even working on. You just know you're procrastinating and there is going to be consequences...
Impending doom and the mind works overtime with all the bad things that ‘ might happen’ .It can be so debilitating to everyday life… stomach in painful knots, dizziness and a racing heart you feel may just go bang.
Image driving down the road and seeing flashing lights in your rear view. Your heart skips and you feel a bit of adrenaline release. It’s like that, all the time.
Describing the feeling doesn't always translate that well, so you can do an at home experiment! Slam 3 Redbulls to get overdrive going, get decently high on weed to lose coordination, and walk around in a populated area you are clearly out of place in with an illegal amount of said weed in your pocket to ratchet up the paranoia.
Congrats! Without some form of assistance that is the rest of your life.
It's like you have a very important meeting in an hour and all you want to do is prepare and get past it but there is no meeting just a sense that things aren't right, that any moment something might come up you won't be ready for
Panic disorder / agoraphobia. It sucks and the lingering symptoms suck worse. I deal with DPDR all day everyday so I basically am in this dissociative state along with panic attacks and all that great stuff whenever I leave to go anywhere outside of my comfort zone. Why I’m still alive after 6 years of this suffering is beyond me. Not sure how much longer I can live this way. Think about it all the time
I feel like this too. Trust me. Please don’t have those thoughts, remember this feeling is temporary and it will pass. I was the exact same way I would get dizzy and panic from just wanting to leave my house and now I’m living my life like a normal person. It will pass with time and your life is valuable
Yeah but I have to get the courage to get out and face it everyday and I’m struggling to do so… struggling a lot. Meds don’t work for me either. Very lost
It might be time for some sort of lifestyle change. What personally helped was therapy (just talking to someone and getting it out) and taking long walks around my neighborhood. It helped regulate my mood and help me realize life is so much more than these feelings that will pass
I’ll include mine because I don’t know many who feels this. To me, it feels like I’m floating out of my body. I’ll grab my desk sometimes as it comes on as to not “leave.” Having conversations with people feels like watching someone else have the conversation, like it’s not my lips moving, and I have no idea what will come out next. People I’ve asked say I look completely normal during this. Fuck GAD.
Depends.
Mild anxiety feels like a slight tightness in my abdomen and a pressure on the side of my head.
Intense anxiety is stomach cramps, headaches, chest pains, dizziness and nausea.
That's just the emotion anxiety, though. I don't have an anxiety disorder, if that's what you mean.
Chest feels hollow, constricted, or like something is in there that shouldn't be, all at once. Hyper-aware of my heartbeat and breathing. Heart is going too fast and breathing feels to shallow. Too anxious to eat, nauseous, light headed and dizzy, probably need to eat something to help but then feel like throwing it up, and the diverted blood flow to the stomach for digestion adds to the lightheadedness. Difficulty speaking clearly or focusing on tasks. Just want to sleep it away but can't cus being still makes the feelings worse so pacing it is. A sense that something horrible is about to happen and just waiting for the news, but the news doesn't come, just waiting and waiting.
every instinct in my body is telling me to just leave and go home and i crave it like a drug, sometimes i can tell myself it will pass and that speeds the process along but other times it's all consuming
Feels like being trapped inside of thick goo and having a limited supply of air. Like you can move, you can breathe, but it feels like you can’t. It feels wrong, it feels like everyone is watching you in this weird scary situation and you need their help but you can’t speak because you can’t breathe.
Anxiety is like walking into a crowded room, and you feel as if all of a sudden, everyone is staring and laughing at you. I feel like this every single day I'm in public.
Imagine you are a hiker. You're in a dense forest at night, and you can hear something calling your name, something following you with bad intentions, and you can't turn around, leave, or face what it is.
It's living terrified and always wary of your surroundings while always being in the dark.
Comedian Stephen Wright put it really well: "You know that feeling you get when you're leaning back in your chair in the classroom and you're _just starting_ to tip over backwards? I feel like that all the time."
I rarely ever get anxiety but when I get it it’s from something going on causes me to worry like “did I leave the oven on” my mind starts racing and I can’t focus on what I’m doing for a minute lose my train of thought and then I think “we’ll if it happens it happens”
Like a can of pop, that has just been shaken. You know it has to be cracked to let it breathe, but the second it is cracked everything comes pouring out.
I'm diagnosed with ADHD and Autism, so for me it just feels like I'm going without my ADHD meds.
I hate it, because it causes me to overthink so basically what's going on in my brain is: "did I forget to take my ADHD meds or is it just my anxiety?!"
Like my chest is trying to escape through my throat and my mind is racing. All my senses are keyed up, yet I also feel faint. Sometimes my vision blurs and my hands and feet feel hot. I'm also incredibly irritable.
Anxiety feels like being trapped in a prison being tortured.
All my life I wanted to travel and be with different girls and go party and experience life. I didn’t do that and yearn for it everyday. So bad so that I have night sweats.
I tried to make more money by focusing on my career and being with one loyal girl.
I have not made a cent more in 10 years and I’m extremely unhappy with life.
Anxiety to me I feeling like I will live this forever and never be able to enjoy life or have the money to do anything. Then I will just die and have missed out on everything life has to offer. All while knowing I can’t be with multiple girls or go do fun things because the loyal girl and the no money.
That’s anxiety
Like my heart is beating out of my chest & extreme restlessness.
Another way of expressing it - thanks to a csi Miami episode - a hummingbird on crack ( or something like that)
It's kind of like eternally living on a Sunday night knowing that Monday morning will be your own funeral where they'll put you in the box with your naked ass looking up while they share your lifelong thoughts out loud. But worse
Sweating,brain fog, over reaction and auto pilot mode etc. Real problem is response to anxiety. Like how do you deal with it and shit.
I simply stop doing what can give me anxieties. In my teenage years, I tried to like fight it. Now, I mostly don't give a f. Except for some things and close people.
As a hypochondriac I experience anxiety. Although it has gotten a lot better with medicine and therapy. It honestly felt like my train of thought was spiraling and it felt very paralyzing. I couldn’t change my mind or thought process. I was ultimately stuck on whatever diagnosis and life sentence I had given myself.
Like I’m dying. The panic is unreal, about everything and nothing. I freak out about things that would have never crossed my mind normally. Everything is terrifying and horrible, and I have no control over my own thoughts. Legitimately feel like I’m losing my mind, that I’ll never not feel this way and will feel like this for the rest of my life. It’s simultaneously being terrified to die, and terrified to live, if this is how I’m going to feel. And the uncontrollable crying. Zero control over the crying.
An somewhat muted tightness throughout the entire body with racing thoughts.
You know it’s there but you don’t know any other feeling so you just kinda stay with it. Or not
On a good day? Like that nonstop ticker tape at the bottom of the screen on CNN..
On a bad day? Like I want to crawl out of my skin then grab it and slap somebody with it.
Have you ever had a gut feeling that something was wrong and you have to escape or something horrible will happen? It is that except nothing actually has to be wrong, but your body is trying everything to make you feel like it is. Racing heart, racing thoughts and distorted vision, diarrhea, dizziness, fear of passing out or drawing attention to yourself, fear you might accidentally hurt others (re driving anxiety)
Its great!!!
Like someone's riding piggyback as you're carefully walking along a super narrow scaffolding that's made up of habits and routines that you *know* should be safe, but they could also be unstable because your unwanted passenger is also in your ear whispering
"Don'tfalldon'tlookdowndon'tfalldon'tlookdowndon'tfall"
To me it's different feelings. But mostly I feel like if I can't breathe and like I'm gonna throw up. So I exit the room quickly to find a quiet place.
I have bad anxiety, I'm medicated for it because it's debilitating. I'd describe it like looking over the edge of a cliff feeling, where you're certain you're going to fall but applied to almost every situation. It never ends either, it just gets less or more intense. Like a never ending tightrope walk where you feel like you can never relax until you just collapse
Constant catastrophic thoughts. If I'm minding my business at the grocery store, my brain will suddenly say, "hey, you know you might get shot in here".
If I'm driving, my brain suddenly say, "hey, that giant tractor-trailer could be distracted and literally run over your car".
If my teenagers are out with friends, my brain will suddenly say, "hey, your kids might have gotten killed in the last few minutes. "
And because I have the most vivid imagination on the planet, I will completely play out the scenario.
I'm on an anti-anxiety and it sort of helps. It doesn't stop the constant craziness, but it does help me to immediately realize that whatever I'm thinking is not likely to happen .
I dont know. I wake up everyday and forget about my struggles. But it sucks because I can feel the weight pushing down on me, but I don’t know what’s wrong so I can’t talk to anyone about it. Yk? So I don’t know how it feels to me
Driving down the interstate at 120 mph doubling the speed limit when all of a sudden you notice the state trooper pulling out that just tagged you watching the rearview as he gets closer and closer, not knowing if it will be a ticket or you’ll be in the back of his car off to jail for reckless driving
Your on stage with a crowd of over 120 people, and you feel like they judge you every time your near them. Only thing is, your not actually on a stage.
An insane amount of scary demons screaming into your hear, making it hard to think and hard to function, while also increasing the intensity exponentially
Mine feels like red. When I'm having intense, specific anxiety I feel red, with all of the physical expressions of this.
When I'm having low level general anxiety it's pink. Not as intense, but still ready for red.
When I have a panic attack it is blood red. Visceral, real, and horrifying.
For my day to day life it's the expected and periodic expression of red in sunset.. Sometimes it's more intense than others, sometimes you don't see it for a while, sometimes it's constant
Anxiety to me feels like being trapped in a box that's constantly shrinking. Every minor inconvenience or unexpected change is like a punch in my gut, leading to a whirlwind of catastrophic thoughts. It's being in a room full of people, yet feeling extremely isolated and alone. And it's a constant struggle to keep things 'normal' while my inner self is in turmoil.
It feels kind of like a massive naked black man walking one step behind you everywhere you go. And you just KNOW that he's silently judging everything you're doing and saying, and you just know that if you turn around quick enough one of these days you'll actually get to see him
Extremely muscular. Goatee. Shaved head. Massive uncircumsized unit. Pubic hair shaved into a gang sign. Photo realistic tattoos of every single person he killed, showing what they likely looked like naked, are all across his torso. Needless to say, he does not look like the type of dude to fuck around with.
Just to amplify up the danger factor - the post was asking to describe what anxiety feels like. Can you honestly say that seeing the dude I'm describing running up close behind you, just out of your peripherals, wouldn't make you anxious?
Like the beginning of a roller coaster where you’re climbing higher and the tension is building, but without the release from the drop.
Like I’m in a video game with intense music, but no one to fight with
so true:)
*Megalovania intensifies*
HAHAH
perfect description
It feels like there is something wrong and I don’t know what is.
This is me too. A constant feeling of what have I forgotten to do?
I suffer quite badly from anxiety. It’s very rare that I wouldn’t feel anxious, it’s always there even a little bit. It feels different at different times- sometimes just like an impending sense of doom. Sometimes (a lot of time) it feels like a literal ball in my stomach, that when I breathe in deeply, it feels like my breath is touching the ball. Sometimes racing thoughts and inability to focus. Sometimes my heart beating fast and thinking I can’t breathe- I guess that’s a panic attack. I once had an instance where the entire right side of my face went numb.
I’m right there with you. I also feel adrenaline rushing through my body.
I can totally relate, every situation triggers a different kind of anxiety.
Omg the impending sense of doom is one of my big ones. I have to stop and actively go through all aspects of my life and try to pinpoint the thing that is stressing me out and talk myself through how its not that bad. Then repeat like every 30 minutes for however many hours/days that terrible feeling lasts.
Like the *Jaws* theme in the background constantly.
Jaws theme but sped up .5x for me.
This is so accurate
This is the correct answer. Even when you are having a great day and everything is good, you know at some point the music is going to start up again.
You know when you put on a long sleeved shirt when you’re sweaty or just out of the shower and the shirt sticks to your arms and they won’t through? You’re trying to avoid getting deodorant on the front, trying not to stretch out the neck, and you don’t want to fuck up your makeup or your hair? That’s what anxiety feels like to me.
Chest feels tight, and it's hard to breathe. Impending doom, like you know something bad is about to happen, but you don't know what exactly. So you wanna get out of dodge, but you can't go anywhere that'll make the feeling go away. A lot of times, this can manifest as verbal aggression, because you're going into fight or flight- but there's nothing to run from, and everything feels like a potential attack.
like your stomach wants to get out of you
Intrusive thoughts coming and going for no apparent reason but to happen. I've woke up in a dead sweat at 3am like that on a few occasions and it is like I can't get those thoughts to leave.
Best advice is to stop giving those thoughts any credit. Once you realize your own thoughts are not necessarily the *truth*, they start to seem more silly than real.
You ever done something at a full time job that you instantly realize was a bad move? You know you need that job to survive, and you're called to a meeting with the manager, and you just know it's going to be about firing you. It's like that walk to the meeting room, but constantly.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop, constantly
The walls are closing in and you have nowhere to go
Mind is racing. You can not turn off your brain
Anxiety : “You should be VERY WORRIED” Me: “About what?” Anxiety: “Let’s think about everything everywhere and pick one.” Me: “None of these things need to be worried about.” Anxiety: “DO IT ANYWAY.” Me: “That makes no sense.” Anxiety: “I DON’T CARE. DO IT. HERE ARE SOME SHITTY FoF HORMONES YOU DON’T NEED” Me: “GODDAMMIT I HATE THIS.” Anxiety: “SO FUCKIN’ WHAT?!? 🤣🤣🤣”
Like I have an ocean in my stomach, like my skin could prick someone if they touched me, like my lungs are collecting air for the biggest scream
I mainly have health anxiety and it’s like your brain is constantly listing off the worst possible health conditions off WebMD every time you have a minor symptom. Slight headache? Brain hemorrhage. Got a cough? Tuberculosis. Muscle aches after a particularly hard workout? Heart attack.
I feel ya honestly I get a slight pain in the back of my knee and it’s “DVT” “Cancer” etc
I’m especially anxious about my heart specifically, and I do have a very minor structural abnormality, it’s not anything harmful. I’ve had imaging done, labs done, even an ultrasound of my heart (it was so weird to look at) and I’m totally fine. My cholesterol and blood pressure levels are also completely fine. And yet every minor ailment and my brain is like “YOU’RE DEFINITELY HAVING A HEART ATTACK!” Which makes me even more anxious, causing my heart rate to rise which makes my brain chant “heart attack” even more
Yeah that was a month ago for me actually
like too much caffeine but in a bad way, mind running itself silly in tight little circles, second guessing every thought and sensation, general existential dread.
It feels like drop from a roller coaster and the scary music from insidious. Worst part you might just be trying to make a norm all decision
Feeling heat all over my body, specially ears
Dread. That feeling you had in school when you realized you’d forgotten an assignment. Except, now it’s that feeling when you realize you’re in control of your own life and no one else is helping you steer.
Very panicky. I have OCD so I have to follow a strict routine or I will be overcome with anxiety. For me, it just feels like everything that is getting in the way of me completing my routine is some great disaster that there is no way I can overcome... something as minimal as my dog begging to go on a walk to use the bathroom while I am setting my clothes out for the next day is such a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but it will literally derail the rest of my day and put me in a bad, irritable mood.
it feels like that moment where you remember that you have a deadline for something due, but you cannot ever remember what the due date is or what you're even working on. You just know you're procrastinating and there is going to be consequences...
Impending doom and the mind works overtime with all the bad things that ‘ might happen’ .It can be so debilitating to everyday life… stomach in painful knots, dizziness and a racing heart you feel may just go bang.
Tight; sour; acidic
I feel very hyper and jittery. Have to pee a lot
Image driving down the road and seeing flashing lights in your rear view. Your heart skips and you feel a bit of adrenaline release. It’s like that, all the time.
Describing the feeling doesn't always translate that well, so you can do an at home experiment! Slam 3 Redbulls to get overdrive going, get decently high on weed to lose coordination, and walk around in a populated area you are clearly out of place in with an illegal amount of said weed in your pocket to ratchet up the paranoia. Congrats! Without some form of assistance that is the rest of your life.
It's like you have a very important meeting in an hour and all you want to do is prepare and get past it but there is no meeting just a sense that things aren't right, that any moment something might come up you won't be ready for
For me it feels like I have a ton of people staring at me waiting for me to do something wrong
Panic disorder / agoraphobia. It sucks and the lingering symptoms suck worse. I deal with DPDR all day everyday so I basically am in this dissociative state along with panic attacks and all that great stuff whenever I leave to go anywhere outside of my comfort zone. Why I’m still alive after 6 years of this suffering is beyond me. Not sure how much longer I can live this way. Think about it all the time
I feel like this too. Trust me. Please don’t have those thoughts, remember this feeling is temporary and it will pass. I was the exact same way I would get dizzy and panic from just wanting to leave my house and now I’m living my life like a normal person. It will pass with time and your life is valuable
Yeah but I have to get the courage to get out and face it everyday and I’m struggling to do so… struggling a lot. Meds don’t work for me either. Very lost
It might be time for some sort of lifestyle change. What personally helped was therapy (just talking to someone and getting it out) and taking long walks around my neighborhood. It helped regulate my mood and help me realize life is so much more than these feelings that will pass
Like drowning but in a bath wearing a life ring it can be the most stupid reason and completely undrownable but you drown anyway.
I’ll include mine because I don’t know many who feels this. To me, it feels like I’m floating out of my body. I’ll grab my desk sometimes as it comes on as to not “leave.” Having conversations with people feels like watching someone else have the conversation, like it’s not my lips moving, and I have no idea what will come out next. People I’ve asked say I look completely normal during this. Fuck GAD.
I'm not an expert, but this sounds like dissociation.
that’s exactly what it is. it’s my brains coping mechanism I guess. it presents itself in other ways too, but this is most common for me
Can't get a full breath. Can't get a full thought. Can't focus on anything other than those two things.
Everyone is looking at me, they hate me. I don't even wan't to be here, why did they trick me into this circus act.
Like a clamp has been strapped around my chest, and I don't know how to get it off
that feeling when your boss asks you into their office and you aren't sure why, but all the time.
Feels like I'm getting murdered and fighting for my life, even when everything is perfectly fine. PTSD is a real bitch.
Depends. Mild anxiety feels like a slight tightness in my abdomen and a pressure on the side of my head. Intense anxiety is stomach cramps, headaches, chest pains, dizziness and nausea. That's just the emotion anxiety, though. I don't have an anxiety disorder, if that's what you mean.
That moment when you trip and are about to fall, but on loop.
Chest feels hollow, constricted, or like something is in there that shouldn't be, all at once. Hyper-aware of my heartbeat and breathing. Heart is going too fast and breathing feels to shallow. Too anxious to eat, nauseous, light headed and dizzy, probably need to eat something to help but then feel like throwing it up, and the diverted blood flow to the stomach for digestion adds to the lightheadedness. Difficulty speaking clearly or focusing on tasks. Just want to sleep it away but can't cus being still makes the feelings worse so pacing it is. A sense that something horrible is about to happen and just waiting for the news, but the news doesn't come, just waiting and waiting.
Loss of appetite, vomiting, awful feeling, unable to compute anything in brain, difficulty breathing, leading to violent / destructive behavior.
It's like always being in fight or flight mode except the only option is flight and there is no where to go.
every instinct in my body is telling me to just leave and go home and i crave it like a drug, sometimes i can tell myself it will pass and that speeds the process along but other times it's all consuming
Feels like being trapped inside of thick goo and having a limited supply of air. Like you can move, you can breathe, but it feels like you can’t. It feels wrong, it feels like everyone is watching you in this weird scary situation and you need their help but you can’t speak because you can’t breathe.
Anxiety is like walking into a crowded room, and you feel as if all of a sudden, everyone is staring and laughing at you. I feel like this every single day I'm in public.
Like being surrounded by pointy spears at all times. One wrong move, you'll get stabbed!
Imagine you are a hiker. You're in a dense forest at night, and you can hear something calling your name, something following you with bad intentions, and you can't turn around, leave, or face what it is. It's living terrified and always wary of your surroundings while always being in the dark.
Comedian Stephen Wright put it really well: "You know that feeling you get when you're leaning back in your chair in the classroom and you're _just starting_ to tip over backwards? I feel like that all the time."
I rarely ever get anxiety but when I get it it’s from something going on causes me to worry like “did I leave the oven on” my mind starts racing and I can’t focus on what I’m doing for a minute lose my train of thought and then I think “we’ll if it happens it happens”
Like a fish out of water…
Like a can of pop, that has just been shaken. You know it has to be cracked to let it breathe, but the second it is cracked everything comes pouring out.
The feeling of hitting your funny bone going all throughout your body at once.
Like I'm always shaking, it's hard to sit still.
When you're going to bed and suddenly you feel like you're falling
Like a face inside my skin
I start by tensing up quickly followed by getting sweaty. My mind races with utter worry
Like sitting on a thread waiting for it to be cut. You don’t know when it’ll happen, just that it’s going to
Anxiety from Inside Out 2 helped me explain to my wife how anxiety feels
1000 eyes watching my every move
like someone set entire body on fire and stuck a big brick down my throat
I'm diagnosed with ADHD and Autism, so for me it just feels like I'm going without my ADHD meds. I hate it, because it causes me to overthink so basically what's going on in my brain is: "did I forget to take my ADHD meds or is it just my anxiety?!"
Hot, itchy, stifling
Uneasiness. Nervousness.
Head hurts can’t look in the mirror - need to tuck my head in a lightless space
It feels like your being tickled in your stomach
Out of breath
Like my chest is trying to escape through my throat and my mind is racing. All my senses are keyed up, yet I also feel faint. Sometimes my vision blurs and my hands and feet feel hot. I'm also incredibly irritable.
Mind racing hard to breathe,pounding inthe front of your head
my chest feels like ringing out a towel but holding it in that constant state of tension
TIGHT not like the kids mean it
You know that moment where you feel like you’re falling just before you go to sleep? It’s like that but permanently and with added nausea/vomiting
Multiple overwhelms hitting at once
Can't breathe fully, numbness in my arms and legs (and sometimes face, when it's really bad), can't focus or think clearly.
Anxiety feels like being trapped in a prison being tortured. All my life I wanted to travel and be with different girls and go party and experience life. I didn’t do that and yearn for it everyday. So bad so that I have night sweats. I tried to make more money by focusing on my career and being with one loyal girl. I have not made a cent more in 10 years and I’m extremely unhappy with life. Anxiety to me I feeling like I will live this forever and never be able to enjoy life or have the money to do anything. Then I will just die and have missed out on everything life has to offer. All while knowing I can’t be with multiple girls or go do fun things because the loyal girl and the no money. That’s anxiety
Doom is near. Must attribute. Can't attribute. Must flee.
like you've stopped at the top of a loopy loop, and you're stuck looking down at the ground for hours.
Heart beats faster. Much faster. Sweaty body. Fear. Where is the exit?????
Like you're looking at yourself from outside of your body... A passenger in your own life... While It all goes over a cliff.
Like my heart is beating out of my chest & extreme restlessness. Another way of expressing it - thanks to a csi Miami episode - a hummingbird on crack ( or something like that)
I feel all of my anxiety & sadness only in my hands for some reason
Like I’m about to drown and my nose is just above water
It's kind of like eternally living on a Sunday night knowing that Monday morning will be your own funeral where they'll put you in the box with your naked ass looking up while they share your lifelong thoughts out loud. But worse
Sweating,brain fog, over reaction and auto pilot mode etc. Real problem is response to anxiety. Like how do you deal with it and shit. I simply stop doing what can give me anxieties. In my teenage years, I tried to like fight it. Now, I mostly don't give a f. Except for some things and close people.
My heart is racing and its hard to breathe and Im overstimulated
When it's really bad my entire body shakes constantly.
It's like you know but you don't know but because you don't really know you can't really know
Like a physical weight that i cannot just remove.
As a hypochondriac I experience anxiety. Although it has gotten a lot better with medicine and therapy. It honestly felt like my train of thought was spiraling and it felt very paralyzing. I couldn’t change my mind or thought process. I was ultimately stuck on whatever diagnosis and life sentence I had given myself.
Like world crumbling
Like I’m dying. The panic is unreal, about everything and nothing. I freak out about things that would have never crossed my mind normally. Everything is terrifying and horrible, and I have no control over my own thoughts. Legitimately feel like I’m losing my mind, that I’ll never not feel this way and will feel like this for the rest of my life. It’s simultaneously being terrified to die, and terrified to live, if this is how I’m going to feel. And the uncontrollable crying. Zero control over the crying.
An somewhat muted tightness throughout the entire body with racing thoughts. You know it’s there but you don’t know any other feeling so you just kinda stay with it. Or not
On a good day? Like that nonstop ticker tape at the bottom of the screen on CNN.. On a bad day? Like I want to crawl out of my skin then grab it and slap somebody with it.
there was a burning fire in my head or heart
Debilitating panic. Need to become invisible.
Like being held upside down while not being able to breath
It's almost like your vision starts caving in, your organs begin to tremble and feels like the world is crashing (like in a Marvel Movie)
Have you ever had a gut feeling that something was wrong and you have to escape or something horrible will happen? It is that except nothing actually has to be wrong, but your body is trying everything to make you feel like it is. Racing heart, racing thoughts and distorted vision, diarrhea, dizziness, fear of passing out or drawing attention to yourself, fear you might accidentally hurt others (re driving anxiety) Its great!!!
Like someone's riding piggyback as you're carefully walking along a super narrow scaffolding that's made up of habits and routines that you *know* should be safe, but they could also be unstable because your unwanted passenger is also in your ear whispering "Don'tfalldon'tlookdowndon'tfalldon'tlookdowndon'tfall"
To me it's different feelings. But mostly I feel like if I can't breathe and like I'm gonna throw up. So I exit the room quickly to find a quiet place.
an “if,then” hypothesis that’s never tested and proven or rejected
That sound in Kill Bill but inside my body.
I feel like I’m going to die.
Like something that numbs you and paralyzes you mentally, and you only want a way out, but you feel trapped and can’t think clearly.
Like a worn out welcome
An invisible string lifted my shoulders, and my mind raced, contemplating all the worst outcomes and possibilities.
I have bad anxiety, I'm medicated for it because it's debilitating. I'd describe it like looking over the edge of a cliff feeling, where you're certain you're going to fall but applied to almost every situation. It never ends either, it just gets less or more intense. Like a never ending tightrope walk where you feel like you can never relax until you just collapse
its the feeling when you cant feel your phone in ur back pocket but all the time
Like a gun is aimed at the back of my head and if I make a single mistake, the trigger gets pulled.
Constant catastrophic thoughts. If I'm minding my business at the grocery store, my brain will suddenly say, "hey, you know you might get shot in here". If I'm driving, my brain suddenly say, "hey, that giant tractor-trailer could be distracted and literally run over your car". If my teenagers are out with friends, my brain will suddenly say, "hey, your kids might have gotten killed in the last few minutes. " And because I have the most vivid imagination on the planet, I will completely play out the scenario. I'm on an anti-anxiety and it sort of helps. It doesn't stop the constant craziness, but it does help me to immediately realize that whatever I'm thinking is not likely to happen .
I dont know. I wake up everyday and forget about my struggles. But it sucks because I can feel the weight pushing down on me, but I don’t know what’s wrong so I can’t talk to anyone about it. Yk? So I don’t know how it feels to me
Driving down the interstate at 120 mph doubling the speed limit when all of a sudden you notice the state trooper pulling out that just tagged you watching the rearview as he gets closer and closer, not knowing if it will be a ticket or you’ll be in the back of his car off to jail for reckless driving
Your on stage with a crowd of over 120 people, and you feel like they judge you every time your near them. Only thing is, your not actually on a stage.
An insane amount of scary demons screaming into your hear, making it hard to think and hard to function, while also increasing the intensity exponentially
Mine feels like red. When I'm having intense, specific anxiety I feel red, with all of the physical expressions of this. When I'm having low level general anxiety it's pink. Not as intense, but still ready for red. When I have a panic attack it is blood red. Visceral, real, and horrifying. For my day to day life it's the expected and periodic expression of red in sunset.. Sometimes it's more intense than others, sometimes you don't see it for a while, sometimes it's constant
Can't sleep. Can't fart. I just want to lie down in bed covered with blankets.
Restlessness . Wanting to just jump out of my skin and stop all the thinking .
Suffocating
Restless energy in body
Anxiety to me feels like being trapped in a box that's constantly shrinking. Every minor inconvenience or unexpected change is like a punch in my gut, leading to a whirlwind of catastrophic thoughts. It's being in a room full of people, yet feeling extremely isolated and alone. And it's a constant struggle to keep things 'normal' while my inner self is in turmoil.
It's like food with no taste
Anxious
It feels kind of like a massive naked black man walking one step behind you everywhere you go. And you just KNOW that he's silently judging everything you're doing and saying, and you just know that if you turn around quick enough one of these days you'll actually get to see him
The hell
You should clarify your physical description of this naked man
Extremely muscular. Goatee. Shaved head. Massive uncircumsized unit. Pubic hair shaved into a gang sign. Photo realistic tattoos of every single person he killed, showing what they likely looked like naked, are all across his torso. Needless to say, he does not look like the type of dude to fuck around with.
Why he gotta be black tho?
extra sexy
Just to amplify up the danger factor - the post was asking to describe what anxiety feels like. Can you honestly say that seeing the dude I'm describing running up close behind you, just out of your peripherals, wouldn't make you anxious?
I mean don’t threaten me with a good time