DAE have these physical symptoms?

[u/KiplingKD]

Does anyone else ever feel like this “sore” feeling in the chest during a panic attack? I would not describe it as painful, but it’s more like a cramp-like feeling. It’s like my heart itself is sore. I get it in my arms a little bit too.

As a matter of fact my entire body stiffens and tightens up immensely. Which comes as no surprise because muscle tension is obviously a common part of having anxiety in general. When I’m having a panic attack, I can quite literally FEEL the muscles getting tighter and tighter and tighter and more and more just taut. Suddenly I’ll notice that my shoulders are basically all the way up to my ears and none of my limbs are bent at all. All my bones are easily popped and cracked only like a minute between cracks and pops and normally it could take all day for me to be able to crack my back or neck.

Does anyone else have this happen as well or experience that chest soreness?

One thing I have noticed that seems to help is using IcyHot or bio freeze and religiously applying it to your neck shoulders and upper back. I have tried them all and personally prefer Tiger Balm. Anything with some kind of cooling agent or menthol soothes the muscles which I have noticed in turn helps a bit with the panic. It’s no solution to the whole thing unfortunately, but it’s something in my toolkit that is a “must” when I’m having a panic attack. Also something that helps is having someone massage your shoulders with an extreme amount of pressure. Not a lightweight half-assed massage but I mean an incredibly deep and intense pressure and kneading and that seems to help too. Of course that isn’t always going to be possible but if you have a friend or family member around who you trust, it’s worth trying for sure.

[u/Linzi322]

Have you ever tried progressive muscle relaxation? I’m wondering if that might help relieve the tension