Last week I went to my dentist, I’ve been having some issues with my jaw locking up on me while I sleep and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I am guilty of grinding and clenching my teeth – I don’t normally know I am doing it since it usually happens at night. My dentist fixed me with a mouth guard years ago and even though it was a temporary fix, the issue has come back. Due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to delve further into my issue and have to go back next week. You can all guess what I’ll be doing till then! OVERTHINKING!
Have my jaw discs started to deteriorate? Will I need to get surgery? How long will the recovery be? How nutritious is a liquid diet anyways?
Anxiety comes with a lot of symptoms, and some of them arise as physical pains. The ones that I am experiencing right now are due to muscle tension. Aside from being mindful of my anxiety, there isn’t much else that I can do. Recognizing my anxiety can be helpful in trying to not clench throughout the day, and that will help until my next visit.
How can you recognize anxiety? Anxiety can be very situational for most people, but I was compiling a general list over the weekend that could be helpful for either yourself or recognizing it in others.
- Physical Pains: This can include stomach issues, back problems, headaches and jaw discomfort in my case.
- Physical indicators: some of the most common symptoms are sweating, trouble breathing, rapid heartbeat, and
- Change in demeanor: becoming more reclusive, needing more assurance than usual, and lack of patience.
- Foggy Brain: this includes trouble concentrating and memory issues. This can be very frustrating and can cause even more anxiety once we realize what’s happening.
- Extreme worrying: It’s obsessing, it’s overthinking, it’s overanalyzing. Honestly, I deserve an award for this.
As mentioned, this is just a generalized list, and you can have more symptoms than the ones listed. It’s imperative to stay mindful so that you don’t overwork yourself into a panic attack or start clenching your jaw. Trying not to overthink is a huge task for me, but I know that my husband and others will ground me. Here’s hoping I get some good news next week!
The Gray Space 