Can anxiety cause real physical symptoms?

Anxiety is intensely physical: racing heart, chest tightness, breathlessness, dizziness, tingling, stomach churning, trembling and exhaustion are adrenaline doing its ancient job at the wrong moment. The symptoms are real, measurable and not imagined.

The trap is the loop: symptoms trigger fear of illness, fear triggers more symptoms. Many emergency visits for chest pain end with this diagnosis, which is good news wearing a scary costume.

New chest pain still deserves proper assessment once. After the heart is cleared, treating the anxiety, breathing training, CBT, sometimes medication, treats the symptoms at their source.