Feeling Drained After An Overwhelming Anxiety

[gracer]

Hello everyone!


Most of the time when I experience too much anxiety and other mixed emotions connected to it, I would usually feel drained as though I just hiked a very high mountain without rest. I am feeling the very same thing right now after getting anxious and mad at my anxiety yesterday. I'm just trying to fight this feeling of being drained though because I still have tasks to do.


Have you also felt the feeling of being drained from your energy after a bout of anxiety?

 

[hades_leae]

I don't think I ever have felt drained. Well you know what, I can say that I used to when I was in high school. While I was in a class and the teacher called me up to do something in front of the class as a presentation which we had ever now and then, or something of that nature, I would be freaking out, and when it was over, I'd ask the teacher if I could go in the hall for some air, or get some water.


I never hesitated to let them know how I was feeling when they asked me why whenever they did. I'd just let them know that I have anxiety in that moment. Sometimes I'd just walk out the room.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

I think you are experiencing something quite common. That's what we would call a mentally exhausting experience. Some people think that mental processes do not take any toll on the physical body. That's not exactly true. Although mental processes may not have much physical manifestations, they do affect the physical body. When you think long and deep, even if you are doing it just sitting down quietly, it makes you exhausted at the end. So a traumatic mental experience like overwhelming anxiety will take a toll on the physical body.


What to do?


I think we can do for our minds what we do for our physical bodies. When we are physically tired, we take a rest. Our minds do not really take rests. If our minds stop working, we are not really alive any more. So to refresh our minds, what we can do is to think about things which uplift our spirits. Perhaps we have a store of good memories which we can relive in our minds. This is one way to overcome the problem of feeling drained after an overwhelming anxiety.

 

[Alex]

Being anxious means you do use up nervous energy and you do get drained, which is why it's hard to relax. That's why I do something like baking or fold the laundry as it stops me being anxious while still doing something constructive.


If you are drained, just stop before it gets worse and do something simple like tidy up a bookcase or the sock drawer. It will slow you down, ad these are tasks that won't require too much energy but will regulate your mind. I do feel drained at times, but now I just stop because it's counter productive and I learn to control it, and not let it control me.

 

[sidney]

Oh yes I do, and when that happens, I really need to "reset" my mood by sleeping, otherwise I won't be able to do anything productive. Even simple things like reading and responding to posts, I'm not able to do when I'm anxious, so I must regain the lost energy first. Sometimes a nap is not even enough, and I need to sleep overnight before I could feel better again.

 

[KW2496]

I also experience this. I thing having high anxiety or panic attacks is really emotionally draining, which can make us feel really tired when we've calmed down a little bit. I usually will just take a little bit of time to sit and focus on my breathing to calm myself a little more and that usually helps.

 

[kelden]

Anxiety is naturally tiresome. Anxiety can essentially cause both low and high levels of fatigue, and leave you feeling incredibly drained. Some people simply feel tired throughout the day. Others feel tired only after an attack. Still others feel extreme fatigue, often finding they need to nap hours upon hours extra - or feeling as though they can't focus on life because of their tiredness.


Feeling tired is a natural body reaction, and one that can often be caused by stress and anxiety.

 

[Panic57]

Yes, I feel like my anxiety runs through all my emotions until I feel like a walking void. Then that emptiness just makes me feel dead inside. It's exhausting to bounce between to many emotions to feeling numb. But it's not just mentally exhausting, my body ends up equally tired because my anxiety makes me bounce my leg or fidgety while I running through my emotions.

 

[gracer]

Thank you for your replies guys! It's truly comforting to know that someone can relate with what you're feeling. This forum is really a blessing because you can express all your emotions and someone will always be there to relate with and understand you. This is one of the most amazing community I've ever belonged to because everyone here hears and understands. Thank you so much again for always hearing me out and also sharing your experiences on issues that sometimes tend to be neglected by others around us.

 

[djordjem87]

I know the feeling. I am in a good physical shape so I am always amazed how much of my energy this fight takes from me. It is like I feel the power in my body but I feel some numbness in my head. I can't describe it better than this. Like when your blood pressure is low and almost even if that is the word. When the weather is changing I have 80/70 and my blood pressure is normal 110/80. That is the similar feeling that I have after anxiety hits me. Coffee does the trick for me in both cases although it is far better for low pressure. After great anxiety I like to lie down and relax if I can in a dark room with no sharp sounds and noises of any kind.

 

[SirJoe]

Sever anxiety can has the same effect on your body as a heavy work, your whole body clinches and tenses up. Many people think that anxiety only affects you mentally but it's every bit as physical as it is psychological.

 

[Sue]

After experiencing extreme anxiety or an attack I always feel drained both mentally and physically. It takes a lot of out me. It usually takes 2-3 days before I am completely over it. The day following is always the worse though.

 

[gracer]

This really proves that anxiety affects us in a holistic manner. I think that the things we have shared here could help people who don't really understand how a person experiencing anxiety feels. Sometimes it doesn't really mean that a person has to exert a lot of physical effort for him/her to feel weak and drained. I think that anxiety can even become more draining than a tiring physical activity because it not only drains the body of energy but of mental alertness and functioning too.

 

[rz3300a]

Well this one really depends for me, as I am sure it does for most people. I think that for me it depends a lot on where I am, and if I am in a particularly large group of people when I have my anxiety issues, I tend to get a lot more worn out, mentally and physically. I am not sure if I actually move around a lot more or are more jittery, and so maybe that is contributing, or it might also just be a mental thing. Either way though, it is really important that I find the time to wind down and recover, which is easier said that done a lot of the time. Interesting stuff, and thanks for sharing.

 

[theduck7]

If I'm ever feeling drained out but I still have to keep on working something that helps me is not concentrating on the fact that I feel that way. It can be hard sometimes, especially if what I need to work on is brainless, but it usually makes me feel better.


I guess it works like that for other things too. If I concentrate on a problem too much it just makes it worse.

 

[thecorinthian]

I feel drained after a bout of stress, so much so that I usually have to take a nap and stop drinking coffee for a while. Nervous energy is still energy and it can be draining. It's been said over and over that if you feel stressed, overwhelmed or feel a great amount of anxiety then you should take a breather for a while. Things will work out eventually when you have a level head and a sound emotional core.

 

[SirJoe]

If I'm ever feeling drained out but I still have to keep on working something that helps me is not concentrating on the fact that I feel that way. It can be hard sometimes, especially if what I need to work on is brainless, but it usually makes me feel better.
I guess it works like that for other things too. If I concentrate on a problem too much it just makes it worse.

Everyone has to find their own personal method of dealing with it, you have found yours. I find that taken some deep breaths works for me. I still feel drained at the end of it all but not as much if I didn't do it.

 

[rldonah]

Yes, when it gets to the point where the anxiety is high, I tend to feel drained after. It triggers an adrenaline rush and that fight or flight feeling. When you're not sure what to do, that doesn't help either. When the situation is all said and done and things start to calm down, that's when you really feel the energy drain because you exerted a lot of energy with the anxiety and the worry.

 

[gracer]

@ridonah I agree. It's when the anxiety has died down that I would feel so tired and drained, as though I have done a whole lot of physical work without rest. Despite the feeling of being drained though, I also have a feeling of relief because I feel like I have exerted and expressed all my anxieties out. I feel more hopeful once I already feel the drained feeling because for me, it means that I'm off to another new start.

 

[Ashley0323]

Yes, If I am feeling overly anxious, this happens to me. I will feel extremely tired and have zero motivation physically, to continue my day. I also have no mental capacity either, which means I just feel numb, and drained. I will usually sleep for about 2-8 hours (depending) and wake up much better, as long as that contributing stress is no longer there.