Can anxiety cause a cold icy feeling in my chest?

This article will discuss if anxiety can lead you to experience a cold icy feeling in your chest. It will explain why this can happen, and what are the best ways to cope.

Can anxiety cause a cold icy feeling in my chest? 

Yes, anxiety can make you experience a cold icy feeling in your chest. This can be related to the rush of adrenaline that will go through your body when you are feeling anxious. And it will not only happen in your chest.

Anxiety can often make you feel cold all over your body. It can often happen that anxiety will not only make you feel cold in your chest, but can also make your hands, and feet feel cold. 

There are some reasons why people with anxiety can feel the cold icy feeling in their chest, now we will discover what they are.

Why does anxiety cause a cold icy feeling in my chest? 

There are a few reasons why anxiety can make you experience this cold icy feeling in your chest. The first one is because as you are feeling anxious, your nervous system may begin to react to the worry you are experiencing. 

As your body activates the fight or flight response, you will feel a rush of adrenaline, which can often make you start to sweat. Since the sweat can start to cool your body, you may experience the cold icy feeling in your chest.

It can also be that this feeling comes as a sign of a panic attack. When your anxiety levels are extremely high, causing you to experience a panic attack, you may feel waves of chills going through your body that will be caused by your nerves. 

This will often lead you to experience the cold icy feeling in your chest in a more permanent way, or in waves that will come and go.

Finally, it seems that the cold icy feeling in your chest can be a reaction to the hyperventilation that often happens when you are feeling anxious. What happens is that, when you are anxious, the rush of adrenaline will make your heart beat faster, and will also cause your breathing to get faster.

Hyperventilation means that you are breathing, but you can feel like you are not getting enough oxygen, making you breathe even more air. Because your body will try to focus on getting more oxygen, it will stop the blood from circulating as well as it should. 

This can often lead you to experience a cold icy feeling not only in your chest but also in your hands and feet since the extremities of your body won’t get enough blood supply.

How can I cope with the icy cold feeling in my chest caused by anxiety? 

To deal with the icy cold feeling in your chest you may need to care for the panic attacks that can often cause you to experience it, and for anxiety in itself. To deal with panic attacks you must try to breathe as they happen. 

It is not something one can distract themselves from, but being able to keep in mind that it is something that will pass, as it has before, will surely bring you some form of relief.

Aside from that, it may be important for you to cope with anxiety, so you will not have as many panic attacks, and you will also not put yourself through so much stress. To cope with anxiety you must look for professional help.

It can be a therapist, with whom you will discuss your emotions, and understand them better, which may even help with understanding your triggers for anxiety. It can also help you develop more positive strategies to cope with them. In some cases, people will also need medication, and for that, they will need to go to a psychiatrist.

There are also ways you can cope with anxiety through everyday actions. You can try to live healthier and care for what you eat, and drink. Having less sugar, caffeine, and alcohol will surely have an impact on decreasing your anxiety.

You can also start to exercise since by doing so you will reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and will also release the tension. Taking some time to do things you enjoy can also make you feel less stressed.

Taking on meditation, or breathing exercises as part of your routine, can help you feel less stressed, and it will also be a great way for you to center yourself and focus more on the present, rather than the anxiety the racing thoughts often bring you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Can anxiety cause a cold icy feeling in my chest? 

What are the 3 3 3 for anxiety? 

The 3 3 3 rule of anxiety is an exercise that can help people cope with anxiety whenever they feel like it is taking control of them. It can be done as many times as the person needs, and it can be done anywhere.

So whenever you feel like anxiety is creeping in, you may want to take a deep breath, and focus on trying to name three things that you can hear around you, after that, you should name three things you see in your environment, and finally, name three of your body parts.

By doing that, you may feel calmer, and get a sense of relief from being able to focus on something else other than your anxiety, which can improve your overall sense of well-being.

What are the common signs someone is having a panic attack? 

When a person is having a panic attack you will likely experience the common symptoms of anxiety in a sudden, and intense manner. It can happen because you are in a situation that triggers your anxiety, such as making a presentation at your work.

When you have a panic attack you can feel a sense of impending doom, and be extremely scared of losing control. Your heart will begin to pound, sweat, and shake. It can also make your throat tighter, and give you chills, hot flashes, nausea, and even abdominal cramping.

It can give you chest pain, headache, dizziness, numbness, and even make you feel like you are losing touch, or detaching from reality. When the person doesn’t go through proper treatment for a panic attack, it can cause the person to develop some types of phobias, for example, it can make it harder for you to leave the house.

Panic attacks can also make you constantly worry about your health, and lead you to avoid social situations. It is something that will bring trouble to your work, and school, and can lead the person to have other mental health issues such as depression.

When too intense, it can make the person have a higher chance of suicidal thoughts, or even acting on it. It can also make the person abuse alcohol, and drugs, and lead to financial problems.

How long can an anxiety attack last?

The duration of an anxiety attack can change from one person to the next, and even the same person may never have the same feelings whenever they have panic attacks. But usually, when a person is having an anxiety attack, it will reach its peak within the first few seconds, and it will go on for a few minutes.

But it is also possible that an anxiety attack can last longer, and some people will say that they have episodes that can go as long as 30 minutes. Others have even described them going on for hours, or even days, although those are not as frequent.

What are the common symptoms of anxiety? 

Anxiety can affect people in many ways. It is a condition that can lead people to experience physical, and emotional symptoms and the intensity of it may vary from one person to the other, or even from one moment to the next.

But as you begin to feel more anxious, you will likely feel that your heart will beat faster. Your breathing will also change, and it can either become faster or even turn shallow. You may also begin to sweat, shake, or even tremble. It will also cause you to feel numbness in your extremities, like your hands, and feet.

Anxiety can also lead you to become dizzy, experience faintness, gastrointestinal problems, and even change your sleeping patterns, causing you to develop insomnia. Aside from that, the emotional symptoms of anxiety will lead you to constantly worry.

You will feel as if the worst is always about to happen, and that can make you feel afraid. The worry that comes with anxiety won’t be possible to control, and it can make it impossible for the person to focus on anything else. 

And because anxiety is so intense, at some point the person may feel the urge to avoid being in situations that will trigger it, which can cause troubles in their life.

Is it possible to cure anxiety without medication?

In some cases, it may be that people can feel a great improvement in their symptoms of anxiety with medication. But it is important to understand that the medication for anxiety will only help with some aspects of it. It will work on the symptoms and the chemical imbalance in the person’s brain.

And these are not the only matters that affect anxiety. It is also related to emotional matters, traumatic situations, or even external matters such as the stress the person is in. 

And those will likely only improve if the person goes through therapy. It is only in this process that you will be able to understand the roots of anxiety, what triggers it, and even to develop new strategies to cope with it so little by little it will become less intense, and not take so much off of you.

How can I prevent panic attacks?

To prevent panic attacks you must look for professional treatment. It is not only to treat the panic attack, but also the anxiety, the roots, and triggers of your panic attacks. Once you start treatment, you must keep to it, to help you from not getting worse.

You should also focus on doing some exercise since it can be a great way to prevent a relapse.

Conclusion 

This article showed how anxiety can lead you to experience the cold icy feeling in your chest, it explained why this happens, and the best ways for you to cope with it.

If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to write them in the section below.

References

https://www.mytransformations.com/post/its-not-just-in-your-head-how-your-anxiety-might-be-affecting-you-physically

https://theheartandbrain.com/icy-cold-feeling-in-my-chest/