10 Lesser Known Anxiety Symptoms I Experienced

Sometimes I’m amazed at how the mental health landscape has changed in the last 15 years. People are so much more aware of mental health struggles, so much more open about sharing their own experiences, and so much more accepting and empathetic towards those who have struggled.

Back when I was in Middle School and High School, Anxiety Disorders still weren’t really talked about frequently. I felt a deep sense of shame about what I was experiencing which led to an even deeper struggle.

We’ve made progress. Say what you want about Social Media, but I do think the stigma surrounding mental health issues has been greatly reduced largely as a result of people posting about it.

That being said, I think we can always learn more about everything, including mental health. Most people are aware of what a panic attack is now. Most people know that anxiety can cause a racing heart, sweating, or trembling hands. Most people know you can feel like you’re having a heart attack or losing your mind when you have a panic attack.

Anxiety can do a whole lot. Stress can build up and wreak havoc on your mind and body, causing a plethora of seemingly odd, awful symptoms. I wanted to share some of the lesser known anxiety symptoms I experienced, personally. This isn’t to minimize the more common ones. Feeling like your heart is beating out of your chest is just as awful, but I wanted to share some of the other, more “unusual” symptoms that popped up for me when I was struggling with anxiety from 2011-2020 (and even before that on and off as a child).

10 lesser known anxiety symptoms I experienced:

1. Sensitive gag reflex/tight throat – This was a super problematic one for me. Whenever I felt anxious or stressed or nervous about something, I would feel my throat tightening up, and sometimes I would gag and dry heave, even vomit. It led to a fear of vomiting in public. It made it hard to speak. It could feel pretty debilitating at times.
2. “Stuck” repetitive thoughts or phrases – Sometimes a song or phrase or mental image would play over and over again in my head and it would cause me to worry I was going to lose my mind. Just another symptom of an overstimulated mind.
3. Racing mind/ “Yelling” thoughts – When I was younger I would occasionally get this weird sensation that my thoughts were speeding up and almost shouting at me. Usually if I talked to someone or listened to something it would distract me and the sensation/feeling would go away, but I remember it used to terrify me. I was afraid of it happening during exams, when everything was quiet. It’s a form of racing thoughts, again, really nothing to be concerned about. Just another lovely symptom of hyperstimulation in the mind/body.
4. Intrusive thoughts – Similar to the above, I would find my mind thinking about things I really didn’t want to think about. Scary images, bizarre/disturbing thoughts that were totally out of character for me. It’s not so much the thought itself, but what the thought implied that would really freak me out.
5. Everything felt frightening – Lights felt too bright. A conversation felt scary. Events, people, places took on a more fearful undertone in general. Seemingly “normal” events or places would feel threatening to me.
6. Sense of despair/urgent feeling of impending doom – This was one I struggled with the most, because it would come out of nowhere, this intense sense of despair and it would lead to a panic attack. I struggled with controlling my thoughts during these episodes because the sensation of impending doom was so intense, I was concerned I would never come out of it, or get stuck in my despair.
7. Sudden urge to escape or run away – This would happen out of the blue sometimes in very normal scenarios. Out to lunch with a friend, in a meeting at work, at a concert, sitting in class, even just relaxing watching television. My mind would suddenly tell me I needed to get the heck out of there.
8. Eye sensitivity/ Eye tricks – I would think I was seeing things. Anxiety makes you hyperaware of everything around you (and, at the same time, really self-focused) and sometimes it would feel like my eyes were playing tricks on me. A dark splotch or bright spots would appear in my vision and I’d worry I was hallucinating. Again, a combo of being overstimulated, overstressed and my own core fears I needed to work through.
9. Anxiety attacks around specific people – This one was tough. I am not going to go into specifics, but for a time, I could hardly be around certain people. They would trigger panic attacks simply because a panic attack had happened before around the same person.
10. Dread about normal events and events I used to love – I would experience severe anxiety days or even weeks about seemingly “normal” events. It caused a great deal of stomach distress, tears, and sometimes avoidance. The hard thing was sometimes it would happen before something I normally would enjoy like taking a trip or attending a wedding or even family dinners.

Man, writing about these symptoms I experienced was kind of tough. It brought me back to that version of myself, the one who struggled with an anxiety disorder for years. These symptoms were difficult for me to get over. It was hard to just “accept” them as a symptom of anxiety because they made life pretty unbearable at times.

I share them because I think it’s important to be transparent. I admire the brave souls who post about their mental health struggles, who are taking steps every day to make the world a less shame-filled place for those of us with anxiety disorders, depression, addiction struggles, etc.

Anxiety and stress can cause your mind and body to do some weird stuff. I can’t tell you the number of times I wondered, “Is it really anxiety? Maybe I am going crazy. Surely there must be something else wrong with me.”

It feels too awful for it to be “just” anxiety.

It’s both/and. Anxiety can cause a plethora of awful symptoms, but also these seemingly “unbearable” symptoms are just anxiety, which means they’re not to be feared. They’re unpleasant, to say the least, but I found if I could tell myself they were just symptoms of my stress, that they would eventually pass, that I could handle them temporarily, it did help them to go away.

There is hope and healing even for the “weird” symptoms that come from an anxiety disorder. They’re really no different than the “common” ones.