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Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

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Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#61

Post by cududa »

I’ve had anxiety my whole life. Tried CBT, therapy, medication, everything.

Eventually got diagnosed with a congenital heart disease. Turns out, when your heart is behaving in a way that mirrors symptoms of anxiety, your brain decides you’re anxious. Your brain just picks something to be anxious about, because there’s no mental reason for anxiety.

Within a week of being on the heart meds my anxiety mostly disappeared. Still get anxious from time to time, but over actual things and it’s manageable. But, was really a life changer

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#62

Post by haswell »

code51 wrote: post #34

So obvious that it makes you question the effectiveness of medical research. The association between mitral valve prolapse and anxiety is well-known. However this physical difference is completely ignored when it's mild. In the general population, mild prolapse is seen as a common thing. However there are also diseases caused by genetic mutations which cause both mitral valve changes and also a whole set of body prob…

> So obvious that it makes you question the effectiveness of medical research.

The point of medical research - especially the kind that seems obvious - is not just to discover new things, but to confirm what we think is obvious really, indeed, is obvious, and this isn't always the conclusion of such research.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#63

Post by anubiskhan »

graderjs wrote: post #41
huehehue wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It soothes and calms the parasympathetic nervous system Wouldn't you want to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system? Not calm it?

Hehe. The linguist has identified a distinction. Whatever works for you: maybe some stimulation, maybe some relaxation. :) We calm it and maybe it isn't active. We stimulate it and then it's relaxing us. I see what you're saying. Is there another side to it? Isn't calm and soothed a form of stimulation? An active, easy coherence? Maybe we don't want to be over-stimulated. Stimulated in the right way creates coherence…

I would argue that the verb forms of calm and sooth connote stimulation, whereas the adjective form of calm might be a lack of stimuli. I'm not sure there is a present tense adjective form of sooth? But certainly one might say, "this music is very calming" so in that case the stimulus is causing the non-stimulated (by my definition) state... Offsetting the anxiety causing stimuli? I am neither a linguist nor a medical professional, but you got me thinking! Thanks.

Someone smarter than me please let me know :D

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#64

Post by can16358p »

cj wrote: post #17
can16358p wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I have anxiety and panic attacks. When my heart beats faster for whatever reason, it triggers anxiety and in more extreme cases, panic attack. It's kind of obvious, really.

And it often compounds. E.g. I have hyperhydrosis (excessive sweating). When my hands start sweating (for no good reason), I get anxious especially when around people expecting a handshake, which makes me more anxious which makes the hand sweating worse. (If anyone suffers from the same re: sweating, ask you doctor about glycopyrrolate - it’s one of those drugs that is completely life changing for anyone with excessi…

Yup. Just thinking about panic attack getting worse or experiencing any of the effects like sweating or pounding heart (regardless of the cause) starts a bad positive feedback loop (more panic, more sweat/heart pounding, then more panic because of that) until the doom/derealization and fight-or-flight kicks in. I can easily call that feeling "the worst/most frightening experience ever" in my whole life.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#65

Post by amelius »

ycombinete wrote: post #27
amelius wrote: post #24

Yes, as a bruxism sufferer, I know that relaxing the jaw has a calming effect.

How do you relax your jaw. I have bruxism and can’t seem to relax it ever.

Relax the throat. Your throat muscles are in a constant battle with your masseter muscles to keep the jaw stabile.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#66

Post by winnit »

graderjs wrote: post #45
bitL wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't a nicotine patch to sync para- and sympathetic systems help?

I don't know. Nicotine can produce that intense relaxation. But why take a toxin for what you can get with just your body and some intelligent practices? All upside. Except it takes effort! :) But the longer term effects are way better for yoga than nicotine. Those two paths diverge pretty quickly by a lot I think.

Nicotine is only toxic in high doses, which naturally greatly exceed that which you get from a patch. You could say the same thing about basically anything; say someone recommended eating a banana to cure cramps. Potassium is also toxic in high doses. I agree yoga is a great practice but that doesn’t exclude the beneficial effects nicotine can provide. For example, I can chew nicotine gum during exams but I can’t do yoga.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#67

Post by cauthon »

JohnBooty wrote: post #46
adversaryIdiot wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that once I get my Aortic valve replacement that I'll be less anxious?

Most importantly: best wishes. I'm sure you've been through a looooot. I hope there are brighter days ahead. Does your current valve situation cause an elevated heart rate, presumably because your heart is is compensating for not pumping as efficiently as it should? I had a different issue and I'm extremely unqualified to have an opinion here, but based on my personal experience I'd be willing to put down a pretty de…

Bradycardia is more commonly associated with aortic valve regurgitation or stenosis, not tachycardia.

My understanding is that the heart compensates for the dysfunctional valve by attempting to pump a greater volume with each stroke.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#69

Post by adversaryIdiot »

JohnBooty wrote: post #46
adversaryIdiot wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that once I get my Aortic valve replacement that I'll be less anxious?

Most importantly: best wishes. I'm sure you've been through a looooot. I hope there are brighter days ahead. Does your current valve situation cause an elevated heart rate, presumably because your heart is is compensating for not pumping as efficiently as it should? I had a different issue and I'm extremely unqualified to have an opinion here, but based on my personal experience I'd be willing to put down a pretty de…

Yeah, I discovered it by trying to figure out why my resting heart rate and blood pressure was higher than it should be for an athletic person. Used to take beta blockers to slow things down (Which I do wanna say made me more calm). Turns out the medication was causing more damage, ACE inhibitors would have been better. Right now I'm not taking anything.

Just getting tests every 6 months and waiting for the time to come. I have fine resting heart rate around 70bpm and 130 blood pressure avg. (These numbers went down after college)

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#70

Post by kayodelycaon »

JohnBooty wrote: post #50
kayodelycaon wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know, it isn't. I have anxiety as part of the bipolar package. And every psychiatrist I've had says that increased blood pressure can trigger anxiety. They can both feel like tightness in the chest and from what I was told, the brain isn't good at separating signals. So your body feeling anxious leads to your brain feeling anxious. It's a wonderful cycle. Throw in asthma for more fun. Now you have three p…

That's a wild package. You are dealing with a lot. I hope you are able to step back and give yourself credit once in a while for dealing with so much. The world is full of secret superheroes, mustering up a lot of strength and ingenuity to get through their days. You are one of them. No bipolar here but for years I struggled with asthma for years. It is quite the addition to the whole anxiety mix. It definitely took…

> The world is full of secret superheroes, mustering up a lot of strength and ingenuity to get through their days.

I know you mean well, but I don't like being thought of as a superhero. It defines me by my limitations and hold me up as something exceptional. I actually find this to be quite harmful. :(

Consider this: I only need to be exceptional because society would not allow me to be successful otherwise. There are many others with my disability who aren't.

It borders on the edge of inspiration porn[1].

1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2019/11/29/how-to...

I hope my comment isn't too harsh. It's been a long day. :)

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