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Old Dec 01, 2016, 12:44 PM
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treevoice treevoice is offline
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Member Since: Apr 2016
Location: west coast, USA.
Posts: 198
Question for anyone with anxiety who has associated tremors/shakes...

I first started getting tremors in my head (a rapid no-no motion that lasts about 3-5 seconds), hands, and sometimes full-body when I was recovering from alcoholism. I was also having panic attacks, and wrote off the whole experience as being symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. The longer I was sober, the more those symptoms did subside, so I decided not to worry about it.

Well now I've been sober for over two years, and the tremors are returning. I've always been somewhat of an anxious personality and suffered from social anxiety, which is getting worse with age. The anxiety part I can manage, but recently the tremors have started up again. While they are not as severe or debilitating as the ones I experienced during my recovery, it is always alarming when they occur. Typically it will occur when I am stressed (such as when my boss calls me unexpectedly for a "chat" or if my social anxiety flares up - the tremors are most often related to a stressful social situation which only exacerbates my anxiety), but sometimes they can occur just from performing fine-motor functions such as trying to apply eyeliner delicately.

I've had CT scans, MRIs, and bloodwork done - other than minor iron deficiency, everything came back normal. I've cut back drastically on caffeine and don't use any drugs or prescriptions except for medical marijuana (which does help the tremors a little).

My question is - does anyone have any experience managing this problem? Obviously, I cannot/will not use marijuana at work or while driving. I've had adverse reactions to anti-anxiety drugs in the past and from what I've read online, it doesn't seem that those have been of much help to people with Essential Tremors (which is my and my doctor's best guess as to what I'm experiencing). Does anyone have any suggestions on what helped them prevent these symptoms? Certain dietary changes or supplements, for example? Or avoidable triggers maybe I'm not thinking of? I'm working on some stress management tools which has been effective in managing my anxiety overall, but hasn't seemed to slow down the tremors.

Thank you!
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