Is There A Band-Aid For Chronic Anxiety Pain?

Fifty million people suffer through chronic pain in the US. This pain isn’t exclusive to bodily injury; for some, it is a physical manifestation of our anxieties. What happens to our body when our mind exists in a dark place? We begin to believe we aren’t worthy of love and carry that pain with us as our tailor perfect anxiety symptoms.

General anxiety symptoms include accelerated heart rate, rapid breathing, and feelings of restlessness, but we rarely talk about the chronic pain symptoms. You could be experiencing spinal/back, head, gastrointestinal, limb, joint, and muscle pain as physical symptoms. It is debilitating for a person to have to face their day/week/month/year suffering through these mental and bodily trials.  

For the Latinx community, I believe anxiety presents itself to us at various points of intersectionality in our lives. It’s a stupid, complicated time to exist right now, and that can stir up a whole ton of unhelpful thoughts. Ignoring our pain does not serve us or our greater communities. It is our deepest wish to step out into the world and find happiness for ourselves – it is the “American Dream” after all. To approach your life to its fullest, you have to assess who you are and take the time to heal old wounds. 

You may read this and ask yourself, “How can I be the change I need? I’ve never been able to help myself before. This sounds like self-help bullshit. ” Stop and understand that being truthful with yourself is the first step. Allow yourself to love your faults and also many strengths. The physical pain can be a huge barrier to this kind of introspection. In fact, it can push us back into the hole of being unkind to ourselves. It is our personal strength that can help us up and out of these low points. 

Here’s the thing with anxiety and its pain: you are the one living with it every day, and you are the only person who truly understands how you feel. There will be moments when you doubt yourself and feel unable to work through it. Just be there to pick yourself back up and try again. Know that at any moment, the person you need in your corner is you. 

Learn more about the feelings of anxiety and healing through self-love in the video below.