Can you ever have anxiety, well, without feeling anxious?

[littlebirds]

I understand that this sounds strange. I have been going through an EXTREMELY stressful few years. I started to have all over burning body pain when the stress/anxiety really hit and it is been off and on now - mostly on when I feel a lot of anxiety.

Of course, i have been 100% convinced I have fibromayalsia, though when I have been evaluated, I don't meet the criteria. The docs just dx me with stress/anxiety. I started a low dose of meds  last year and that has helped with some of the anxiety I now see that I was experiencing - like off balance, feeling like I was going to faint, hard to breath, etc. I don't feel any of those anymore - just pain.

I have a job where I have to be on my game all the time. Like tomorrow, I have to present to a room of 100 people. I have to wonder it I ...

1) Have managed to cope with my anxiety by cooping it up inside (so i can function on the "all eyes on me" stage) which brings the pain bring out the pain as an alternative.

OR

2) Am so freaked out that I have fibro and that depresses me totally, that my physical symptoms get intensified.

[gcalex]

Much of anxiety is subconscious.  Absolutely you can have it.  Fibromyalgia is sort of a junk diagnosis in the opinions of many, including Dr. John Sarno famous mindbody physician who thinks the root cause of most chronic pain is psychological in origin.

[MichGuy]

yes, you can have anxiety without feeling anxious. For several months I had breathing issues that was all from anxiety/stress. My symptoms were daily, and I often got the symptoms before i felt stressed. Sometimes i would just be watching TV, playing a game, or getting ready to sleep...then my chest would lock up out of nowhere.

I talked to my counselor about this and he said it was extremely common.

[Calamy]

I asked my trusted therapist about this years ago and he explained that yes, you can definitely get anxiety symptoms when you don't "feel" anxious. You can also get anxiety symptoms from anxiety about good things that happen to you as well. It's like your body is trained and it's happening in the background where you may not always notice it. When I had my very first anxiety attack I had been worrying a lot but I don't know if I would call it feeling anxious exactly. I lay down to sleep and had my first panic attack with hyperventilation and everything. It was the moment where I was trying to be relaxed that it came out. It felt so sudden and out of nowhere but as I have learned, the anxiety was inside me, building up into that expression.

[mollyfin]

Apparently you can - something I didn't know before I came to these boards!  It's something very helpful to know, I think, when you're a hypochondriac.

[sixpack]

MOST anxiety happens at the subconscious level.  JUST because you don't feel consciously anxious or had a day or two of calm doesn't mean your mind & body are relaxed.  It can take months of reduced anxiety before a body goes back to a more non-reactive state