Stress and anxiety symptoms

I haven’t felt right for a year or two with the main symptoms being fatigue, low moods,  aching arms and legs, tingling hands and fingers and chest discomfort.  I’ve had numerous blood tests which have ruled out anything  sinister, but haven’t diagnosed the actual cause.  The doctors appear to be at a loss as to the cause. Long covid has been mentioned, and seemed plausible until this weekend.  I was on holiday last week and felt good. Returned home at the weekend and straight away the tingling started along with fatigue.  Could it be stress and anxiety.  I don’t have any particular worries or triggers that set it off and don’t have what I’d call an ‘attack’.  It’s just there, in the background, all the time.

Does this seem like anxiety and if so, how do you treat it if the cause/trigger isn’t obvious?

It’s very if you’ve ruled out more easily tangible symptoms. Sometimes you also don’t realise how stressed or anxious you are.

I get some real wacky stuff during periods of high stress and anxiety that are very similar. And it makes total sense…brain is overloaded and it stops sending signals properly. I get bad acid reflux, as well as periods of central/transitional sleep apnea where it feels like I’m forgetting to breathe when I fall asleep. That’s alongside fatigue, chest feelings etc. I have never had anything show up on blood tests, ECG, EKG, whatever. It comes and goes and there is a correlation with how I am feeling mentally that day or week.

I don’t have any particular worries or triggers that set it off and don’t have what I’d call an ‘attack’.

..That you are aware of.

You are pretty much describing  my symtoms. Saturday Sunday then tension right across my sinuses, aching shoulders shakey hands, every monday morning, getting worse with every step towards my computer.

Worth investigating, if its not stress and anxiety you will hopefully atleast have learnt a few useful skills.

I used to get severe fatigue and low moods. Didn’t twig ’til years after that it was stress once the stress itself had gone (i.e. the reasons for the stress had been resolved).

You might not recognise it as stress, but if your brain’s working overtime what is it you’re thinking about / chewing on?

every monday morning, getting worse with every step towards my computer.

Yep, I could have written a lot of this. And for the OP I’ve been diagnosed with depression and anxiety and my symptoms have been similar to yours. I think my trigger is just being at home these days.

To offer advice, anti anxiety meds can help. I find consistent exercise a real benefit, and notice when I don’t exercise. When my symptoms get worse I find the motivation to exercise decreases and I often can’t get going again for a while. And I’ll experience pretty much what you’re describing. I have had an EKG etc. and the chest pain doesn’t appear to be from my heart.

I had similar years ago, the nine months leading up to Y2K which was a big deal for computer bods back in the day.

After that, I changed job and my whole wellness (p[hysical & mental) took a step change improvement.

If you had asked me during the previous 9 months, I would have said I was busy but fine, coping and generally okay.

Blood pressure alright?

Cholesterol alright?

Enough sleep?

I treat my stress and anxiety with sertraline.
It’s so good that the other day I changed a headlight bulb in my wife’s car and didn’t swear once.
Speak to your doctor about it mate, but if it turns out to be anxiety related you are not the only one, i can assure you of that.
Ps: normally I swear like a trooper

OP, it would be worth having a look at the Curable app and doing some reading on neuroplastic pain and conditions. Also known as mind-body conditions or TMS. Alan Gordon’s book ‘the Way Out’ is useful, it describes how his back pain resolved but the same concepts are said to apply to conditions such as yours. See also the work of Howard Schubiner, lots of stuff on YT.

Having had bouts of it over the years I would put money on it being stress. It is a curious thing which goes unnoticed unless you are tuned into the symptoms. Fatigue is a classic one.

Interestingly my shiatsu massage person used to say that non heart related chest pain was a symptom of indecision.

Coming back home could be a subconscious trigger of things you need to do, work issues, relationship issues, you name it. Individually they may not be significant but together things can add up. If you think of all your different emotions being held in a rack of test tubes, one per emotion, you only have so much capacity to hold each one. If they are full they overflow, and the symptoms are your bodies way of telling you to make some space in your test tube. Exercise, holiday, maybe talking to someone might do that.