Disclaimer: Sometimes symptoms can be linked to more serious health conditions. To make sure it’s safe to explore stress as a possible cause, it’s important to have any medical issues ruled out first by a doctor (such as cancer, infection, fracture, or autoimmune disorders).
Here are some of the diagnoses where symptoms are often influenced by stress.
Immune system:
‘Wind up’ – allergies, hay fever, food intolerances
‘Wind down’ – frequent infections, such as ear, chest, bladder, thrush, cystitis, etc. Veruccas, warts
Gastrointestinal:
Abdominal pain, Ulcer symptoms, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, IBS, colitis, spastic colon, Hiatus hernia, heartburn, acid reflux, constipation, diarrhoea.
Heart and Lungs:
(Clearly, as with any other organic symptom, all tests must rule out any other cause first) Repetitive cough, shortness of breath, undiagnosed chest pain, palpitations, high or low blood pressure, hyperventilation or shortness of breath, irregular heartbeats, arrythmias.
Musculoskeletal:
Back pain, neck pain, hip pain, shoulder pain and other aches and pains throughout the joints or limbs, Tension headache, Fibromyalgia, Sciatica, Whiplash, Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), Complex Regional Pain Disorder (CRPD), Temperomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ), Chronic Tendonitis, Myofascial Pain Syndromes, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Piriformis Syndrome, Plantar Fasciitis, Iliotibial Band Syndrome, Trigeminal Neuralgia, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Bursitis, Tendonitis, Sacro-Iliac joint dysfunction, Dystonia.
N.B. When Muscles, Ligaments and Tendons are targeted this can cause pain wherever the soft tissue is in the body.
Nerve symptoms may include; numbness, itching, burning, tingling, pins and needles, plus muscle weakness, muscle spasms and involuntary movements, restless leg syndrome etc.
Bladder and genitals:
Spastic bladder, bladder frequency, testicular pain, penile pain, Interstitial Cystitis, chronic prostatitis, undiagnosed pelvic pain, erectile dysfunction, infertility, impotence, vaginitis, vaginismus .
Skin:
Eczema, acne, psoriasis, hives, rashes etc
Mental health:
Obsessive compulsive thoughts, Eating disorders, PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, panic attacks, Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), Self mutilation, substance use.
Others:
Medically Unexplained Symptoms, Functional Neurological Disorders, pseudo seizures, difficulty swallowing or gagging, chronic fatigue/tiredness, Migraines, Bell’s palsy, facial paralysis, Vertigo/dizziness, blurred vision, Tinnitus, changes in voice, dental pain, PoTS, Hypermobity etc. Hypersensitivity syndromes, plus in general conditions where the diagnosis includes ‘syndrome’ (meaning – group of symptoms) and/or is explanatory, such as including the area of the body. e.g. tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome and burning mouth syndrome.