Can anxiety cause neurological symptoms? In my experience, anxiety mimicks neurological symptoms. I used to get numbness in my face and twitches in my body which became so bad that my doctors thought I had multiple sclerosis, but it was really just anxiety.
Nowadays, I get clients who come to me with various different types of anxiety symptoms and sometimes, the symptoms can kind of be a crossover.
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Related: Neurological symptoms of anxiety meditation
Things like numbness, tingling, twitches, tricks of the eye and also hearing things in your brain as you’re trying to go off to sleep are manifestations of neurological symptoms that can be caused by anxiety.
People say to me, “My symptoms are so real, like, I feel them. I absolutely feel them in every part of my body.”
I’m here to say yes, to your question of does anxiety cause neurological symptoms, I’ve experienced it myself; I’ve had cases of numbness and tingling that have come on quite abruptly and quite quickly and that stuck around for weeks and months. Not caused by any problem with my brain but simply caused by anxiety.
Obviously, I had to get those things checked out. Obviously, I had to go see a physiotherapist and I also see a neurologist as well but anxiety is definitely a trigger for some of these neurological symptoms but the difference is that neurological symptoms that are caused by anxiety do resolve when the anxiety is removed.
So let’s just talk about how stress and anxiety cause neurological symptoms to manifest:
Anxiety is caused when your mind, body and spirit get very, very tired and fatigued and worn down and your fight or flight reflex becomes extra highly honed during this time as a way to try to make up for the fact that you’re not feeling 100% yourself and in yourself.
So, you’re going to be extra reactive and extra sensitive to your symptoms and extra sensitive to what your brain may perceiving as a threat during times when your body, mind and spirit are extra tired.
So that’s worth knowing that you’ll feel it extra acutely and it will be more difficult to take your mind off those symptoms because you’ll be feeling them so strongly and that’s not to say that it’s all in your head. They’re there. The symptoms are there, they’re very real but the anxiety makes you feel them more.
And so, my recommendations for when you’re wondering if anxiety cause neurological symptoms are:
Step 1: Find the eye of the storm. In the middle of your turmoil, there is a pinhole of peace. Find it.
Just try to find the eye of the storm – and when I say that, I often talk about separating yourself from your anxiety symptoms. So, know and accept that what you’re experiencing is anxiety and then step out of that in such a way that you’re not trying to push the anxiety away but rather, you’re separating yourself from the anxiety.
That’s a really powerful way to take yourself back from anxiety and see the anxiety for what it really is which is really just a manifestation and collection of symptoms that you’re experiencing right now.
Within the eye of the storm is what I call the pinhole of peace and that sounds a little bit corny but that’s really what it is. When you’re trapped in anxiety, you’re swirling around and around and you’ve got nothing to hold on to but within that, nothing can touch you while everything swirls around you. The anxiety is completely separate from you.
Step 2: When you are in the pinhole of peace, connect with your intuition
When you’re within the pinhole of peace or the eye of the storm, this is the perfect moment to go deep within yourself and to connect with your intuition.
You’ll know you’re there when you are able to ask, does anxiety cause neurological symptoms, without any emotional attachment to the question.
So, when I was experiencing really bad numbness and tingling in my early 20s, I was having a massive anxiety attack that stretched over weeks and months but there were definitely periods of time when I allowed myself to get really, really quiet and when I was in those moments, I could hear this gentle voice letting me know that there really was nothing wrong with me, that I was going to be okay and that all was well and that all was peaceful and I found such solace in those periods of time that I was able to find the eye of the storm because it really allowed me to connect with me, the real me, the intuitive me and connect with my truth on the highest level.
It gave me a lot of strength and a lot of solace and allowed me to go forward with getting my neurological symptoms checked out and really knowing within myself that I was going to be okay.
Step 3: Find time to do this, several times a day, until your neurological symptoms pass
I really want you to find the time to get to the eye of the storm and to sit within that and connect with your intuition several times a day.
For me, I did it four or five times a day, whenever I could get a break from work, I’d just try and sit still and really connect with me, with my real self.
Doing it several times a day really reinforces that separation from you and your worries and it reinforces that separation from you and your anxiety symptoms that are manifesting as neurological symptoms.
It means that you get that energetic space and that distance that you need to step into your own power to really feel yourself again, to feel you again and to know what it’s like to feel like you again.
You will no longer be asking that question – can anxiety cause neurological symptoms – over and over again.
The more that you get the time and take the time to practice it, the easier it becomes to find the eye of the storm, the pinhole of peace, and then to connect with your intuition.
So at first, you might just be thinking, “Find the eye of the storm, find the eye of the storm and then connect to my intuition.” You might not feel the changes right away but as you do it more often, you train yourself gradually to be able to get to that point of peace and to be able to connect with your intuition.
You will be able to hear the guidance and the knowledge of the real you beneath all of this anxiety, beneath all of the neurological symptoms that you’re currently experiencing and you will hear the whisper of truth. It is so important. Several times a day, do try to do this.
I have a grounding exercise which is fantastic for people that are wondering if stress and anxiety cause neurological symptoms.
Grounding allows you to gather your energy that’s floating out there all around you, completely scattered, bring it into yourself and then connect with the core of the earth again.
It’s a really good way for you to find the pinhole of peace or the eye of the storm and once you’ve grounded your energy, it’s so much easier to connect with your intuition and to know the voice of your intuition when you hear it.
Grounding is one of the first steps that I teach any client who comes to me for help with their anxiety and it’s a foundational step that you really need to bring into your life if you’re going to heal anxiety in your life, which you totally can, it’s totally doable.
These neurological symptoms won’t last forever. Once you’ve calmed the anxiety, the neurological symptoms will calm down. They did for me and they will for you as well.
Love + light
Eva xo