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Anxiety Looks Different in Men

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Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#21

Post by rabidrat »

swamy_g wrote: post #15
psweber wrote: post #6

Many anxious men (and women) aren't suffering from an anxiety disorder. Their anxiety is a perfectly reasonable response to the life they are living. I'm fine with therapy, meditation, and medication as long as they aren't used as tools to make it bearable to stay in a bad situation.

Well said. Anxiety is sometimes a signal that there's an underlying imbalance in your life. Just like you start tearing up when you feel sad. Crying isn't bad in that scenario. Anxiety works similarly. You gotta start asking yourself, why am I feeling anxious? Where could my life be out of balance?

What if the anxiety seems to come from a place of the entire human society being out of balance? I pretty much think if you're not feeling anxious, you're not paying attention.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#22

Post by SkyMarshal »

I appreciate the TLDR in the subheading:

"Instead of coming across as nervousness or worry, anxiety in men often appears as anger, muscle aches or alcohol use—leading many men to go undiagnosed"

I wish all articles did that instead of burying the lede.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#23

Post by fizzledbits »

gavia1 wrote: post #2

This surprises me as a male who suffers from anxiety and exhibits none of these symptoms. To be more specific my anxiety manifests as a feeling of unease, sometimes fear; and at times blends in with OCD where I become unsure of my short term memory and whether or not something did or did not happen.

Much the same experience here, including the difficulty with memory which I find to be the most insidious thing. What have you found helps it, if you don't mind me asking?

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#24

Post by empath75 »

jdsfighter wrote: post #9
gavia1 wrote: post #2

This surprises me as a male who suffers from anxiety and exhibits none of these symptoms. To be more specific my anxiety manifests as a feeling of unease, sometimes fear; and at times blends in with OCD where I become unsure of my short term memory and whether or not something did or did not happen.

I was only recently diagnosed with anxiety after spending thousands and thousands on an emergency room visit and visits to a cardiologist, and I work for a healthcare company with free access to GPs! I had a variety of symptoms and none of them immediately seemed to shout "anxiety" to my physicians. I was given dozens of blood screenings, X-Rays, CT Scans, EKGs, Echocardiograms, stress tests, sleep studies, only to b…

Same! I even got my appendix removed and probably didn’t need it. My cardiologist is who finally told me that it was anxiety and convinced me.

I never took medication though. Just cut back on caffeine and lots of rest once I get wound up.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#25

Post by nness »

psweber wrote: post #6

Many anxious men (and women) aren't suffering from an anxiety disorder. Their anxiety is a perfectly reasonable response to the life they are living. I'm fine with therapy, meditation, and medication as long as they aren't used as tools to make it bearable to stay in a bad situation.

This comment couldn't be more counter-productive.

The article makes it clear that a feeling of anxiety at certain times is completely normal; it is when that anxiety is affects your daily life, causing you distress, or leads to depression or harm should it be concidered an anxiety disorder.

The article notes that men can react to or present with anxiety differently; and that representation is ignored, leading to a reduction in their quality of life. Dimissing it, as you have, is exactly what prevents men from receiving mental health support and society, at large, from recognising mental health issues in men.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#26

Post by mbuinl989 »

gavia1 wrote: post #2

This surprises me as a male who suffers from anxiety and exhibits none of these symptoms. To be more specific my anxiety manifests as a feeling of unease, sometimes fear; and at times blends in with OCD where I become unsure of my short term memory and whether or not something did or did not happen.

Infrasound can cause anxiety, a good source for this are wind turbines, but its naturally occurring in the wild anyway. Stags emit it to warn females and young of predator's without giving away the location of the stag as the sound hits the ground and spreads in all direction, like you see with bass frequencies. High pitched frequencies are very directional by contrast. Disney sound engineers discovered it in the US, when they slowed down the recording of an electrical device, all those in the sound lab went home not feeling very well at all, its a fascinating story of discovery. Diet can also cause anxiety, the renin angiotensin system can certainly increase anxiety, exercise will counter the effects of anxiety, which is less common today than 50 years ago.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#27

Post by nutjob2 »

gavia1 wrote: post #2

This surprises me as a male who suffers from anxiety and exhibits none of these symptoms. To be more specific my anxiety manifests as a feeling of unease, sometimes fear; and at times blends in with OCD where I become unsure of my short term memory and whether or not something did or did not happen.

Everyone is different I guess, but here's an example from my experience as someone with pretty bad GED.

For whatever reason, I don't like crowded, enclosed spaces such as busy supermarkets. I don't feel fear and don't feel threatened by environment, but I do get irrationally irritated to the point of getting quite aggressive.

After taking CBD for anxiety I found that I was much more relaxed and just ignored other people at the shops.

I think it has a lot to do with gender roles, personality and even machismo and a question of which side of the fight or flight response you tend to fall.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#28

Post by TravHatesMe »

psweber wrote: post #6

Many anxious men (and women) aren't suffering from an anxiety disorder. Their anxiety is a perfectly reasonable response to the life they are living. I'm fine with therapy, meditation, and medication as long as they aren't used as tools to make it bearable to stay in a bad situation.

Well said! I frequently have anxious feelings in my day-to-day life. If I were to share that with my peers I think they might be surprised to hear it because I come across as solid, well-grounded person. I have learned to deal with these feelings. I have learned to deal with difficult situations -- but some times I can't and I fumble. That's OK.

I wonder, at what point does such anxiety justify medication? Is there a measurable way of defining this disorder? (forgive my ignorance, I am genuinely curious). There are certainly cases where anxiety is clearly a disorder, but without a doubt it there are many cases where it is used as an excuse or a defensive mechanism, to avoid difficult situations or avoid one's own inadequacies. This kind of behavior is not good. They will refuse to challenge themselves by clutching to their excuse.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#29

Post by jpernst »

koboll wrote: post #12
jdsfighter wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was only recently diagnosed with anxiety after spending thousands and thousands on an emergency room visit and visits to a cardiologist, and I work for a healthcare company with free access to GPs! I had a variety of symptoms and none of them immediately seemed to shout "anxiety" to my physicians. I was given dozens of blood screenings, X-Rays, CT Scans, EKGs, Echocardiograms, stress tests, sleep studies, only to b…

Had almost exactly the same problem, down to identical symptoms -- same side of my body, etc. My guess it that it's due to some supplements I was taking years ago (chiefly 5-HTP and magnesium) causing chest pain and/or heart palpitations, and the experience of that etching trauma into my psyche in a way that makes me experience physical symptoms. The worst part is that it feeds on itself, until I was sitting on a sid…

Similar experience, including multiple trips to the ER fearing my imminent death. Still waiting for the bill on the latest one. The first time it happened I had dialed 911 on my phone but stopped short, fearing the impending life-ruining debt it might plunge me into. Thankfully it wasn't actually a heart attack, but the fact that people even have to stop to make a risk assessment like that is dystopian.

As for the symptoms, it is indeed astonishing how "physical" anxiety can be. Most people conceive of anxiety as just an emotional state, and think a "panic attack" is what you have when you're really nervous about a math test and get a cold sweat. The true horror of a real panic attack can't be described to someone who hasn't experienced that level of mortal terror.

And it's definitely true that once the trauma is "etched" into you like you describe, your mind can reconstruct it again much more easily. I find physical sensations that used to be mildly annoying, like a stomach cramp or post-exercise exhaustion, can summon the anxiety right back again.

The scientific evidence for the long-term effectiveness of SSRIs is dubious at best, so I'm attempting a more comprehensive life change to improve my outlook, including trying to build stronger connections with people and community. Isolation is one of the most intense causes of depression and anxiety, among other health problems, so addressing it is a good idea for anyone.

Re: Anxiety Looks Different in Men

#30

Post by dorchadas »

rabidrat wrote: post #21
swamy_g wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. Anxiety is sometimes a signal that there's an underlying imbalance in your life. Just like you start tearing up when you feel sad. Crying isn't bad in that scenario. Anxiety works similarly. You gotta start asking yourself, why am I feeling anxious? Where could my life be out of balance?

What if the anxiety seems to come from a place of the entire human society being out of balance? I pretty much think if you're not feeling anxious, you're not paying attention.

You might like the book Lost Connections by Johann Hari. The premise of the book, from what I can remember, is a mix between yours and GP's comment. It's basically that things are being over-prescribed, such as depression if you haven't stopped grieving after a year from the death of a loved one, as well as it happening more because our basic human structures are crumbling (namely, community). I definitely want to do a reread of it and pursue some of his leads more.
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