
Recently I’ve been pursuing doctor’s appointments for a whole range of issues; daily headaches, trouble sleeping, bad stomach issues/diarrhoea, bad fatigue, constantly shaky hands, occasionally feeling faint, etc. I’ve known for a long time I struggle with anxiety but never really pursued it medically, and I thought maybe it had a physical underlying problem such as a thyroid issue. They ran some tests though and my thyroid is fine, and I’ve to get a neurological exam to rule out anything worse.

The doctor told me something interesting today though; I was explaining to him that while I am a very anxious person, I’m not anxious every minute of the day and only a handful of times have I felt like I was close to a panic attack; it strikes more randomly or in certain social situations from day to day. He told me that in men anxiety tends to present more in physical symptoms; basically every symptom I described above, and you can be living with it and perhaps identify it as anxiety but never really connect the dots to how bad the issue is.

He prescribed me propanolol for the physical symptoms to see if it helps (especially the constantly shaky hands which I think the doctors are concerned about most in a guy my age), but I was just wondering if anyone else knew this? The whole thing about men presenting tending to present more with the physical side of anxiety. I thought it was really interesting and made sense to me: society tells men to repress their emotions, so it comes out in other ways related to your health. If that’s true I think it’s something we should be encouraged to pay more attention to.

(PS if anyone has taken propanolol for anxiety it would be really helpful if they could tell me their experience with it lmfao)