Around 3 months ago anxiety blindsided me [22M] out of nowhere.  The only thing I felt was a chest tightness while walking and having never felt anything like that before I went to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack.  Obviously I wasn't, but since then I've had a wide variety of physical symptoms come and go and some that still are present all the time.  Seen the cardiologist to rule out heart issues and the ER/family doctor have all mentioned anxiety as the reason.

For the last little while it actually feels like my mental anxiety is nowhere near as bad as it was around a month ago.  I haven't had a full blown panic attack in a few weeks and I don't really feel panicked as often.  Sometimes I don't feel anxious at all, but my physical symptoms still persist.  This makes me almost always miserable and can trigger some anxious thoughts.  It's difficult to do some things because of some 24/7 symptoms and others that can flare up randomly or when doing things like lifting slightly heavy objects.

I'm seeing a psychologist for therapy and have been considering meds for the last month or so.  I keep on doubting taking them for a few reasons though.  Number one is that I question whether I'm mentally anxious enough to take them and whether they will actually stop my physical symptoms.  Number two is the fear of them permanently messing me up (as I've read about) and coming off of them being difficult.  At the same time currently while I do push through my regular day and do some things like walking, exercising a little, getting groceries, etc., it can be difficult due to the physical symptoms.  I'm not working right now and am currently in the process of applying for graduate education and I have a fear that I won't be able to work/go back to school because of this.

Anyone else experienced this or had success with medication that helped with what felt like significant physical symptoms or anxiety that seemed more physical than mental?  Don't get me wrong, mental anxiety is still there but the range of physical symptoms and how they're always there (even when not anxious) is what I feel is off or different compared to other things I've read.

If anyone's curious I'll try to describe all the physical/mental symptoms I've felt over the past few months.


Physical symptoms that have passed/mostly passed:
-Racing heart for seemingly no reason or along with anxiety (can occur now but nowhere near as frequent)
-Chronically high heart rate: more so a problem in the first month as I wasn't convinced this was anxiety due to the physical nature and was constantly googling symptoms
-One sided calf pain: lasted for around 2 weeks in Jan.  Was convinced I had a PE up until this point and this didn't help.
-Random abdominal pains/abdominal pain when breathing deep: this was uncommon before too but is very rare now.
-Rapid heart rate upon standing.  Thought I had POTS but this doesn't happen much anymore unless I'm already anxious.
-Panic attacks: I'll still get the occasional feeling of panic but nowhere close to the full blown attacks I had in the past that came with severe chest pain and trouble breathing that lasted hours.
-Chronic shortness of breath feeling: haven't really felt short of breath in weeks.
-One sided difficulty opening mouth/speaking. Thought I was having strokes/TIAs.  Happened for a few days in Jan but went away after having a CT scan.  Has rarely occured since then.
-Diarrhea: Have the occasional bout here or there.  Was only bad in the beginning of my anxiety experience.
-Cough: had this early on in my anxiety experience for around a week.  Gone now.

Physical symptoms that persist:
-24/7 chest/back/shoulder pain and tightness.  The chest tightness was my first symptom and has been here since.  It has since spread to my back/shoulders.  Can vary in location/intensity/type of pain but can come in any combination of these factors (including multiple locations/intensities/types of pain at once).  I had associated this with PE, heart attacks, lung issues in the past.  Mostly over the panic from these now but these thoughts still sometimes occur (less frequently and with much less panic/anxiety).
-Dizziness: Been dizzy for 2 weeks now.  Don't feel like I'm going to pass out but just off-balance/on a boat feeling.  Varies in intensity throughout the day.  Only goes away when I wake up but comes back when I wash my face/rub my eyes/brush my teeth.  Present whether I'm lying down/sitting/standing.  When I close my eyes it feels like I'm swaying.  I had a period of dizziness that lasted a week in Dec but it has come back now.  Opening my mouth wide or chewing can sometimes make it feel worse.
-Vision changes: Not really blurry but can feel like that even though I can clearly see what is directly in front of me.  Feels like I also have trouble focusing on things sometimes and can also have some light sensitivity.  Could just be a result of the dizziness.  Appeared in the last week and comes and goes throughout the day.
-Headaches: Very rarely my head will actually hurt now but I did have a period in Jan where I had bad headaches for around a week that went away after getting a CT scan.  Thought I had brain bleed or infection at the time.  The headaches came back since last week but now they are not usually actual pain but are mostly pressure I can feel in various parts of my head/face/teeth.
-One sided sore/irritated throat/neck that comes and goes throughout the day, everyday.  It can get fairly painful, but at other times it feels like nothing is there.  This developed a week after I recovered from COVID and has been present for around 3 weeks now.  Accompanied by constant feeling of congestion behind my nose (what I think is post-nasal drip).  Throat also has red lines in the back.  This one I will occasionally fear is some sort of infection that will spread or cancer since it's been weeks now.  Rationally, I know it's probably lingering COVID or anxiety.
-Jaw/teeth clenching/tightness/pain.  I can catch myself doing this sometimes and it is probably the real explanation for some of my other head symptoms.
-Deviated uvula: Don't know if this is of note but I noticed it has been deviating left (the opposite side to my sore throat).
-Throat clicking: Same side as sore throat and seems like it occurs more when I point my head down and swallow deliberately.
-Feel tired after sleeping: Usually I'm fine afterwards but the act of getting up out of bed feels exhausting sometimes and I just want to lay there.
-More frequent urination: Not bad enough to impact my life but I notice I have to go more, especially at night before bed.

Mental symptoms:
-Fear that something is physically wrong.  Classic health anxiety.  I try to convince myself and I know that it's anxiety but some part of me doesn't believe it.  Not as bad now as earlier but still have these thoughts.  Don't get as panicked as before but still sometimes will think about it or occasionally get panicked.
-Checking heart rate.  Again not as bad as it was before.  I still do this but it's way less and less distressing than it was just a month ago.
-Suicidal thoughts: Only occured once for around an hour around a week ago.  I didn't want to do it but this thought came into my head that what was the point of being alive if I'm always in physical pain.  Thankfully it hasn't occurred again since.
-Harder to do/focus on things that I enjoyed before.  I'm sort of starting to enjoy certain activities again (like watching sports).  But sometimes I lose focus and there are other things which I haven't gotten back into (playing video games being one).
-Feel overwhelmed more easily.  This is also somewhat getting better.  Still I notice that just having a bunch of tasks that I want to do during my day (walk, exercise, make dinner) can feel overwhelming to think about/plan out.