I’ve never been diagnosed with anxiety and I never thought of myself as having it.  But my mom. Who is a social worker , believes that some physical symptoms I’ve had in the past are due to repressed anxiety.  

For example, last year I was living in Korea teaching English.  I just finished one contract and was moving to a new city to start a new one.  Not everything went smoothly,  but nothing major.  One morning I broke into a rash and was itchy all over.  I was certain I just had an allergic reaction to something.  My mom believed it was due to anxiety. I didn’t believe it because nothing like that had happened before and this wasn’t my first time working abroad.  Plus I’d been in much more anxiety inducing situations in my life and nothing like this happened.  

I’m currently in the states but going back to start a new contract in Korea.  I’ve recently started to get palpitations. Not constant , they only last a few seconds. Just a flutter.  I’m going to get checked out by a doctor but everything I’m reading online says that they’re probably benign. I don’t have chest pain or trouble breathing. A common cause is  anxiety.  They feel very random, maybe once a day or every other day. I’m not even necessarily thinking about something involving my trip.  Again, my mom says it’s anxiety. I’m slightly worried about flight cancellations and such. But I don’t feel panicked really. 

The thing is in all the situations I don’t feel emotionally nervous. I’ve always thought of myself as being a pretty chill person. I don’t get panicked if for example I get lost on the subway or some thing is going awry. I’m very good at kind of going with it. And staying focused. I’ve definitely had situations in my life that I would think of as stress inducing for most people but I stayed calm. So my question is, is it possible and common to have physical symptoms of anxiety even though I don’t feel emotionally nervous or on edge?