Can some explain to me Stress Symptoms?

[scaredstupid]

Hows it going AZ people. I  just wanted to see if anyone could explain to me some "stress" or anxiety symptoms. I have a full physical tomorrow and I am now freaking out and seeing every symptom  as HIV. Ive been ok for the past week but this morning I just had all these different burning feelings on my body around forearms and legs to be exact and pressure in my head as well as my ears feel plugged. Im just trying to keep it together until tomorrow.

[vardnas]

You want to know what they are or how they work?

Basically, stress symptoms arise when there is an overage of stress hormones in the body. That's a very simplistic version, but that's basically all that's happening. It stems from the flight or fight response—in that mode, the heart rate and respiration increase, digestion slows, we might sweat, muscles tense, etc. The body doesn't know how to differentiate though between a real threat or an imagined one. That's why you get nervous waiting to give a speech (for example). You might be being chased by a lion or anything, but your body is still responding to the feeling of fear/apprehension/danger.

Usually, when the threat is gone (the lion got distracted by a baboon, the speech is over), stress levels come back to normal. The problem arises when the threat doesn't go away, or when we believe it not to go away. That's what an anxiety disorder is—it is the fearful overreaction to largely imagined stressors.

We hypochondriacs have this problem. Our stress hormones become elevated for whatever reason and we become symptomatic (and there are literally hundreds of stress symptoms). The thing we feel in our bodies—the numbness, the tingling, the extra heartbeats, the pain, the constipation—SCARE us, so we do what we think will help and jump on the internet to make sure that what we're experiencing isn't dangerous. But what we read on the internet scares us even more, and the body reacts to the fear by creating even MORE stress symptoms and then we interpret those symptoms incorrectly, usually as our disease du jour, and get scared, and become more symptomatic. And then we end up at the doctor's office or ER convinced we're about to die, when really, we're not.

That's the basic concept behind stress and its bodily symptoms. A reduction of symptoms will only come with a reduction of stress.

I'm curious as to why you feel like the burning feeling in your arms and legs points to HIV (have you had unprotected sex with an infected individual?). And I bet that when you do go to the doctor, they will probably tell you you're suffering from anxiety.   

[scaredstupid]

Wow Vardnas that was a great response. You answered stuff I was thinking but didnt even now how to ask. Like how my heart rate has seemed rapid and some constipation.

My reason for fear is that I did have unprotected sex and im not sure if she was infected or not. I have no number for her so asking is out of the question. But after like a week a got a rash that last like a day. Than a week later got one on my leg that the dr said was a fungus on the outside of the skin and not a blood rash. With some cream its slowly dying. Besides that I just look at every thing as a slight sypmtom. Ive had some pimples on my shoulders that look weird but I heard stress can cause breakouts. I even tested negative at 15 days but have been waiting to go back. Tomorrow is about day 50.

The burning in my arms and legs feels real. Im getting checked for shingles,hiv and diabetis tomorrow. Im gonna have just look me over.