Weird/ freaky physical symptoms you have due to PTSD ?

[Deleted member 47099]

My body is a wreck thanks to childhood trauma and years of PTSD. I have so many chronic issues, including fibro, IBS, migraines, chronic pain, just to name a few.

I also have a lot of weird symptoms that have totally puzzled my doctors over the years. Sometimes, after years of looking for a cause, we would eventually find one. But often, it's just inexplicable.

I don't know how many of those symptoms may be attributable to PTSD?

One physical symptom that really bugs me and scares me is that I'll often feel physically weak to the point I think I'm going to collapse. Sometimes I feel like a frail 90 year old woman.

I've been tested for just about everything over the years, but with only few results.

Could these feelings of intense physical weakness be trauma-related?

If it's possible to feel such huge and sudden changes like depersonalisation, derealisation, dissociation - is it possible to also have really big shifts in what your body feels like?

Most of the time when I feel like this, I just go and lay down and curl up under a blanket. This has doubtlessly made my muscles even weaker over the many years of PTSD, so it's probably not the best response, but I seriously feel like I will collapse/ faint if I don't lie down.

Could it be due to highly fluctuating adrenaline levels?

I dunno.

I guess I'd be grateful to hear if others get super weird/ freakish/ kinda scary PTSD body symptoms too. Maybe then I can feel less freaked out by suddenly feeling so weak for no apparent reason...?

 

[Abstract]

Could you say more? I may or may not relate. How quickly does it start and how long does it last.

I'm also riddled,

 

[Deleted member 47099]

I dunno, actually. From all the inner emotional stuff plus dissociation plus chronic pain and panic attacks, it feels like there's always weird and freaky stuff going on. Most of it I've grown accustomed to and try to ignore as much as possible and not pay attention to it.

Sometimes feeling weak lasts ages (hours?) and sometimes I can force myself to push through it and it seems to go away again. I'm never sure which it's going to end up being...

I was just thinking earlier that maybe I go into a freeze or fawn response or a form of dissociation and don't notice it consciously and this might be related to muscle weakness? I guess in a freeze or fawn response, your muscles wouldn't be primed for running as in flight mode or for defense as in fight mode?

I was also thinking it could be due to very disordered eating and weird blood sugar drops/ a f*cked up metabolism? I've been depriving myself of regular, healthy meals since childhood and doing intermittent fasting by accident on many/ most days, so I think my metabolism is probably completely screwed. I often get taken by surprise by blood sugar drops - maybe some of them express as muscle weakness and feeling faint?

Dunno...

 

[Tinyflame]

Idk, but I have had profound tiredness, decades of intermittent night sweats and insomnia, and currently spontaneous near-fainting. Also crave margarine and pb- eat it like ice cream; fat cravings 'can' be correlated to impaired adrenaline production from too much demand on the kidneys (I also can no longer tolerate salt and have linea negra- have had no children).

There's the physical parts; the drain from the emotional and practical parts (poor eating, too little sleep); dissociation -(?); and the unknown.

Good luck finding relief. :hug:

 

[Changing4Best]

I have Lyme Disease, so many of my symptoms could be due to that, so I cannot associate them necessarily with my PTSD. I do get the extreme tiredness though, and drop into bed just about as soon as I get home from work. (I work half days). I have heart palpitations, though we did find a medication that handles that. It is a Beta blocker, lowers B/P so not everyone can take it.

 

[TTC18]

I get cold and painful arms and hands. Like nerve pain shooting down my arms and hitting my fingertips. My heart races, heartbeat is pretty much always in the 100-110 range. I also get the super weak feeling, to me it feels like I'm a battery that just got drained. Like everything just drained right out of me and I can barely stand up. I also get migraines. Who knows what else, lol, I don't see a doctor unless I'm practically dying, and tend to ignore anything I'm feeling unless it's really really really dire.

 

[Deleted member 47099]

Yeah, it's so weird huh, and so multi-layered.

Thanks for the replies :hug:

At the moment I'm thinking it might be a weird dissociation or freeze/ fawn symptom and I'm going to try and pay more attention to it to see if that fits.

I guess it could also be a weird kind of body memory?

It's so difficult keeping all the PTSD symptoms (psychological, physical, psycho-somatic, etc) separate from the physical symptoms that are due to illnesses related to the PTSD and trauma and then just normal other physical ailments on top of that.

I'm careful to not think "Oh it's probably just a PTSD symptom" too much. I once missed "noticing" a lung embolism + pneumonia for weeks on end thinking that feeling weak and exhausted must just be "PTSD" and it damned near killed me.

So hard to work out what is physical stuff (ie go see a doctor) and what is "just" bizarre, freaky, painful, distressing PTSD symptoms.

Oh the joy :rolleyes:

Whoever invented PTSD deserves a stern talking to! :p

 

[Deleted member 47099]

Hmmm, I just went and sat on a bench with our dogs and watched our sheep mooching around on the paddocks - so a pretty "relaxing" situation, overall.

I noticed something that I do a lot - I almost stop breathing. I think it's part of a freeze response - super shallow breathing. I think I'm only taking in about 5% or 10% of the normal amount of air, so really super shallow breathing, almost to the point of not breathing at all, for stretches of time.

Given that things were "fine" out on the bench in the paddock (mild, sunny autumn weather) I guess I was reacting with freeze mode to internal stuff. I've got the flu at the moment, and that's uncomfortable enough to automatically trigger tension/ stress/ freeze response, for me.

I think I do this almost-stop-breathing thing a lot. Like probly 5 - 10 times per day? And I don't notice myself doing it. It's second nature, after so many years with PTSD.

I only noticed it because I've been making a conscious effort to do deep belly breathing exercises the last few days and I remembered to think of the exercises and then went "Oh, oops, I'm actually not really breathing *at all* right now.... Ummm..."

I assume getting minimal oxygen may also be contributing to feeling faint/ muscle weakness... :rolleyes:

 

[Changing4Best]

Hmmm, I just went and sat on a bench with our dogs and watched our sheep mooching around on the paddocks - so a pretty "relaxing" situation, overall.

I noticed something that I do a lot - I almost stop breathing. I think it's part of a freeze response - super shallow breathing. I think I'm only taking in about 5% or 10% of the normal amount of air, so really super shallow breathing, almost to the point of not breathing at all, for stretches of time.

Given that things were "fine" out on the bench in the paddock (mild, sunny autumn weather) I guess I was reacting with freeze mode to internal stuff. I've got the flu at the moment, and that's uncomfortable enough to automatically trigger tension/ stress/ freeze response, for me.

I think I do this almost-stop-breathing thing a lot. Like probly 5 - 10 times per day? And I don't notice myself doing it. It's second nature, after so many years with PTSD.

I only noticed it because I've been making a conscious effort to do deep belly breathing exercises the last few days and I remembered to think of the exercises and then went "Oh, oops, I'm actually not really breathing *at all* right now.... Ummm..."

I assume getting minimal oxygen may also be contributing to feeling faint/ muscle weakness... :rolleyes:

I do this same thing! I noticed it when I was in my mid 30s, and now I am in my mid 60s and I still do it. I asked my Dr. about it one time and he said it is "part of a normal breathing pattern." I was shocked at this answer, because I had been being adversely affected by it too! I have wondered if he just said that thinking that I am a mental case, hypochondriac and all that, or if it is really true. I have a Pdoc appt coming up soon, so I think I will ask!

 

[Deleted member 47099]

@Changing4Best Yeah "normal" is a pretty wide range, for some people... :rolleyes:

Like, PTSD is a "normal" response to trauma :tup:

And I guess it's normal to feel dizzy and faint, if you don't breathe properly :rolleyes:

Haha :hug:

 

[Changing4Best]

One thing I do to combat this thing is to focus on taking deep breaths when I do think of it. I think that helps a lot. Since I have been doing that, I was able to get a part-time job. My o2 levels have been pretty good too, because they check them once a month at our job, along with B/P and pulse.

 

[sunshineandmoonshine]

I do the extremely shallow breathing and breath holding too. That combined with unintentional undereating, and it seems like my body is trying to kill itself. ?

With sudden blood sugar drops I feel like I'm going to collapse in weakness. I don't know what foods trigger it but it's always super sudden and a little scary.