Q: I’ve been living with anxiety for years, but tingling in face anxiety is something new and scary. I’m getting tingles, facial numbness and little twitches and spasms – I feel like a wreck.
A little background, I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder when I was in my teens. But I never felt this physically weird! It’s terribly uncomfortable and upsetting.
I’m also getting throat and tongue spasms, which is so hard to deal with.
Help me, please. I’ve been so embarrassed and so tired after these episodes. Help me.
– Shonna (Tulsa, OK)
Related: Neurological symptoms of anxiety meditation
Eva’s response: Honestly, this happens to SO MANY WOMEN, there is really nothing to be embarrassed about.
I have personally experienced tingling in my face as an anxiety symptom.
Tingling relates to fear. It is your body trying to process all of the adrenaline that is coursing through your nervous and muscular systems.
And how you describe the fight with your boyfriend is the perfect example.
Think about how an animal reacts in a confrontation. Their skin bristles as a defense mechanism to try and look bigger. It is a reflex, purely a muscular response.
It’s the same with humans. When in a confrontation the body’s survival instinct takes over and the fight/flight mechanisms are triggered.
The face is all about taking in information (third eye chakra) as well as expression (throat chakra, via the mouth).
When you are anxious, you are neither taking in nor expressing information. So the tingling happens when energy is caught and is neither going in, nor coming out.
And because energy is dynamic, you can feel it literally tingling in your face.
When it happens, just focus on your breathing. Breath is the quickest short-cut to your subconscious mind, and can override an anxious reaction.
Slow breaths, in for a count of 5 and out for a count of 8 will slow the adrenaline burst and allow feeling to return to your face.
Also – my free Neurological symptoms of anxiety meditation will definitely help you – download it now, and make sure you listen to it several times a day as a habit. The repetition of the healing energy in the meditation will calm the tingling in your face.
Love + light
Eva xo