Psychotherapy for the Relief of Physical Symptoms Related to Anxiety

I had post partum anxiety (not depression) and talking was the best medicine for me. I found a woman who specialized in women's issues and she was wonderful. I suggest that you do the same. Feel better.

If your somatic symptoms are the result of your anxiety, then being seen to reduce anxiety and stress will very likely help! If you are going the medication route, I have a friend who took anti anxiety medication that also addressed the physical side. There are SSRIs, which help anxiety and depression, and SSNRIs which help anxiety, depression, and the physical complaints. Good luck!

Might I suggest meditation and mindful living?

I suffered from terrible panic attacks years ago. I still have terrible anxiety at times, but meditation had helped greatly. I highly recommend it.....

The other night I had this terrible pain in my shoulder, turning into a stress headache. I quickly did a body scan, and some breathing, and within 5 minutes it was gone. Meditation is amazing, especially if you tend towards anxiety :-)

Yes I think it would help, for 2 reasons.

Without knowing your precise symptoms, I'll just speak generally. But psychotherapy can certainly help with stress reduction, and stress is very clearly tied to things like headaches, back & muscle aches (from tension), TMJ (with jaw pain and dental problems from grinding), and similar conditions that most people are familiar with.

But the second area, not as well known but certainly heavily researched, is in epigenetics. The epigenome is what controls the switching on and off of our genes - a process also known as "gene expression". Think of a dimmer switch on your lights - this can be changed from on to off, but also to all stages of brightness or dimness. So your gene switching, which controls how well cells function, can be changed to many levels of "brightness" or effectiveness.

Your actual DNA, of course, is not changeable, but the epigenome is very much influenced by many outside factors: disease, aging, inflammation, stress, emotions, environmental influences like chemicals & toxins, and much more. This is a huge underlying factor in autoimmune diseases, which are very much on the rise and showing up in younger and younger people. The good news is, these changes are reversible. So if good genes are turned off and bad (or undesirable) ones are turned on, the body doesn't function as it should. Depending on where those changes occur, someone's physical symptoms can show up in the digestive system, the respiratory system, the muscles & connective tissues, etc., even in the brain chemistry. So, actually, your anxiety could be the result of some of your physical problems, but it could also be the cause (or part of the cause) of them.

So this is very different from saying that "it's all in your head" - for some people, it may be (which makes them psychosomatic symptoms) but for most, "it's all in your epigenome" and so they are truly somatic, physical symptoms and problems resulting from epigenetic damage.

I didn't have anxiety but I did have clinical depression for many years, and I have met many people at various seminars, conferences, etc. who have suffered from anxiety, sometimes with depression and often with other physical problems. There are a number of ways to address this - psychotherapy is one, relaxation/stress reduction techniques are another (yoga, meditation, and many others), and nutritional changes employing a plant-based peptide proven to reverse epigenetic changes is a third very promising tool. I've used a natural peptide (vs. the synthetic or those processed chemically) and am off my anti-depressants. It also works to reduce inflammation, which is at the root of many physical problems and diseases.

So I would encourage you to use any technique designed to help with stress and inflammation, either together or separately.

ETA: Here's an article on epigenetics via Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/18/science-epigeno...

I don't have any experience with somatic symptoms, but I do have experience with ERP (exposure and response prevention) and cognitive therapy. For me, it changed my life for the better.

Wishing you good health :)

Until you get to the WHY of the anxiety it will control you. Meds only limit the symptoms while you dig and find the cause. Then you'll be able to recognize what's actually happening when they come on and say "Hey, go away". Then you can taper off the meds so you'll regain your confidence in yourself and be able to reclaim much of your life.

It will always be around, anxiety is part of living, but it won't be in charge.

To this day I feel a twinge when I pull up to a red light and I'm not on the front, so I can escape being trapped if I have a panic attack from being trapped, but I know in my heart I am in control and it's just traffic. I'll be fine. And if I'm not fine there are a lot of people around me who will help me if I really need it.

I still sit by the door in any room I go in where I am going to be sitting for any amount of time. If the back row at church is full then I sit in the foyer and listen to the service. If I take a class I get there early so I can find the seat that will make me most comfortable. I choose to not talk in public because even before panic and anxiety attacks I didn't really care for doing that.

I have some avoidance behaviors but they are not in control of my life. I don't have to let them.

I definitely think therapy can help. I have a physical symptom of anxiety and working through it literally makes the pain go away. I clicked on your profile though and see you're thinking of having a fourth child at an older age? That to me doesn't make sense if you're not completely healthy. Sorry but seems like a recipe for disaster your family could bear the brunt of.

Therapy can definitely help! I say for sure give it a try. Have you tried meditation? It's not some wierd hipster thing and it doesn't require any special "training" and there is no certain way of doing it. I'll sit in my dark bedroom, on a pillow, pretzel legs, and close my eyes. I'll focus on mentally counting deep breaths. You will loose focus and it's ok - just get back to counting once you realize you've stopped. Sometimes I'll meditate after exercising and open my mind (and body) to accepting the good thing I just did for it. I've found I always feel better after just stopping for a moment. Give yourself permission for 5 minutes a day to NOT think about your anxieties.