Physical Symptoms of SAD
September 27th, 2006 by Aaron
In my last post I talked about one sign of social anxiety. In this post I want to mention the sign that made me certain I am dealing with SAD: physical symptoms. I’ve had them for a long time. I can certainly remember them being present well back into being a kid at school.
When I’d sit in class, sometimes a strange feeling would come over me. I’d get light headed, I’d get the chills, I might sweat, my heart would beat a little more rapidly. Often my stomach would be churning, deeply unhappy. If it was really bad –- say there was a presentation to do or there was a group discussion I could not remain silent for — I’d get a tingling sensation in various parts of my body. Strangely enough, what stands out the most, is the way my nose would feel, numb and prickly, just like an arm does after being asleep.
Sometimes I get a racing feeling, like events are hurtling past me and my mind is trying desperately to keep up. In many of those moments what happens is that I feel a peculiar sensation in my chest. It is as if my chest is constricting over some hollow space and thereby creating a pressure from within. This is often accompanied by shortness of breath, light headedness, and a pounding heart.
In anxious moments (though I would not have called them anxious moments before I read up on SAD) I often find myself with a sense of unreality. It’s hard to describe. It’s like the feeling of being unmoored, disconnected from the concrete reality that everyone around you seems to inhabit.
My voice will do strange things, creak or crack, disappear into a raspy whisper. I get dry mouth. Often, just before class, or now just before some social event, I would take endless sips of water feeling like I just can’t quench my thirst.
All of these feelings are listed in the Social Anxiety Workbook. They are textbook SAD symptoms. Of course, in analyzing this, it helps to know in exactly what kind of situations these physical discomforts arise. People have panic attacks for various reasons. But for me it has always been social situations. The most extreme being new social situations (places where I’ve never been, groups of people I don’t know) and situations where I must actively participate, like it or not.
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2 Responses to “Physical Symptoms of SAD”
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Social Anxiety Blog wrote on 10/19/06 at 9:08 pm :
Hey Aaron, you couldn’t have describe it any better, that is what I feel; the most annoying thing that I feel has to do with my voice, in the moment of social panic I almost loose my voice, I get the feeling I can’t talk at all, while I feel a heavy weight on my chest and horror.
Gus.
Aaron wrote on 10/22/06 at 12:24 am :
Have you noticed the physical symptoms more since you started looking into SAD? That’s definately been the case with me. I’m very aware of them now and seeing how a lot of things I had gotten used to are actually nervous reactions.