[silkit]

I know anxiety can cause shortness of breath, tight chest/throat, shaking, hyperventilating, dizziness, and nausea. Although, all of those are usually caused by a spike in anxiety for borderline or full-blown panic attacks. What I'm asking now is simply, does anxiety cause physical issues such as nervous ticks or muscle spasms?

For as long as I can remember I've had nervous ticks: biting my nails, tapping my foot/leg, tapping my fingers, biting my lips, rocking when sitting still, etc. I've recently tried edible medical herbs, and I've noticed when I'm in a good, really relaxed state, my body just jumps around. I have muscular spasms all the time when I'm under the influence of MJ! And I am by no means a frequent user, either. Once every four or five months is about as often as I do. Since my recent use (last month), and my experience with the same issue, I've slowly been paying more attention to my body and the fact that I have these muscle spasms without being under the influence also.

Is this something that can be caused by the anxiety disorder? Is it possible there's something like "too much brain activity sending too many signals even when they're not supposed to" sort of thing going on?

[-jimi-]

If your body jumps around by itself so to speak, when you are actually very relaxed and not anxious, that almost rules out anxiety as a cause.

Originally Posted by silkit

I know anxiety can cause shortness of breath, tight chest/throat, shaking, hyperventilating, dizziness, and nausea. Although, all of those are usually caused by a spike in anxiety for borderline or full-blown panic attacks. What I'm asking now is simply, does anxiety cause physical issues such as nervous ticks or muscle spasms?

For as long as I can remember I've had nervous ticks: biting my nails, tapping my foot/leg, tapping my fingers, biting my lips, rocking when sitting still, etc. I've recently tried edible medical herbs, and I've noticed when I'm in a good, really relaxed state, my body just jumps around. I have muscular spasms all the time when I'm under the influence of MJ! And I am by no means a frequent user, either. Once every four or five months is about as often as I do. Since my recent use (last month), and my experience with the same issue, I've slowly been paying more attention to my body and the fact that I have these muscle spasms without being under the influence also.

Is this something that can be caused by the anxiety disorder? Is it possible there's something like "too much brain activity sending too many signals even when they're not supposed to" sort of thing going on?

Chronic anxiety causes many significant health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure and organ failure.

The fight-or-flight response (the hippocampus sending cortisol through your veins and transferring blood to parts of the body such as legs) was essential to our survival many years ago when we might find ourselves running from a Wholly Mammoth, but that real danger usually only lasted 5 or 10 minutes.

Thus many people have the fight-or-flight response these days to situations that pose little or no real danger, and if this response is chronic it will cause the health problems I stated.

I ocassionally attend a group for people who experience 'sensory' anxiety. In my own case I suffer stomach troubles from bouts of anxiety. At times, the experience is so bad I cannot leave my home. At the group we discuss and learn how to settle down one's body. I suppose it is part of learning to practise Mindfulness.

[avlady]

i get ticks too but i think it is the side effect of some of my meds.they bother me sometimes but i got used to it.

[silkit]

Thanks for the responses everyone! From what I've gathered, it's unlikely it's a result of my anxiety diagnosis, and can very likely be something unrelated. I'll see about having it checked out at my next doctor's appointment. All the shared personal experiences help me to understand what to expect from my anxiety, so thank you all for that