The stress increases my anxiety and my anxiety can increase my stress. Sometimes my anxiety is the reason for my stress and my stress is the reason for my anxiety. There are also the times when there is no cause, I will be sitting at work doing my job and all of a sudden I will realize I have tightened every muscle in my body and I am starting to hurt because I have my jaw clinched so tight my teeth start hurting. I can’t even tell how long it has been happening. Then there are the times when my jaw hurts from not grinding my teeth keeping them from just barely touching, no less painful. Other times I realize it is occurring when my eyes start to ache because they get dry from a lack of blinking. Suddenly I feel it, the tightness that starts in my throat and works its way down to my chest; suffocating, smothering, almost as if a belt was being tightened around my rib cage. Minutes, hours pass fighting to relax and catch my breath.
Sometimes everyday, never more then 2 weeks between. Not always as intense. But always just around the corner.