[TheOriginalMe]

The following are a list of symptoms used in anxiety screening tools. Some are physical (blue), some are emotional (orange).

Pounding heart, sweating, trembling or shaking, shortness of breath, afraid or scared, chest pain or discomfort, nausea or abdominal distress, feeling dizzy or unsteady, fear of losing control or going crazy, numbness or tingling sensations, chills or hot flashes, fear of dying, constant or persistent worry, feeling of choking, unable to relax, feeling of being unreal, nervous, feeling shaky or wobbly, irritable or difficulty sleeping, trembling hands, avoiding situations because of anxiety, feeling lightheaded or faint

I seem to score quite low on anxiety screening because I don't or rarely experience any of the physical symptoms. In fact, on most days, of the emotional symptoms, I only really experience constant or persistent worry and avoidance.

However, I obsess and ruminate endlessly about all sorts of things. I can be driven to tears of frustration just thinking about stuff that might never happen.

An example of how I have had to change my routine to accommodate my fears is avoiding the stairs at the railway station. In December last year, I fell on the stairs and hit my head causing a mild concussion and very nasty bruising. I don't know why I fell, I was just unlucky. Since then I've been nervous about using the stairs, so I started using the lift, but then I started worrying about the lift breaking down and getting stuck. I started using the underpass but kept thinking I might be attacked. Now I take a different route to the station altogether, it is half a mile longer but I avoid the stairs, the lift and the underpass.

The amount of time I spend worrying about different things affects my life, I don't think it is a "normal" or acceptable level of worry. Do I really need to experience physical symptoms as well? Thoughts anyone?

[Travelinglady]

I am thinking it's "worry" when we have more specific concerns such as whether we can make the next car payment and "anxiety" tends to be an overall sense of dis-ease, but the cause is more general. I don't think worry generally has the physical symptoms that anxiety does.