Anxious people seem to move involuntarily. They can’t seem to control their motions and move around despite without thinking. They pace and fidget and just seem very uncomfortable. This is actually a feeling that is part of primal human nature. Usually people are anxious when there is a dangerous situation. For example, if someone is in a dark alley, in a bad part of town, in the middle of the night and no one is around. Of course a person would feel anxious in that situation, and the human body responds by telling the brain to run or get away from that situation. That is why anxious people are always moving and pacing.
However, there is another symptom of anxiety. Anxiety also causes involuntary muscle twitching, sometimes in the face or along the limbs. This muscle twitching is due to the response of the involuntary nervous system to the anxiety levels in a person’s mind.
The involuntary nervous system controls the automatic bodily responses like breathing and your heartbeat. The sympathetic nervous system is part of the involuntary system, and it controls the bodily reactions to emotions. When a person is anxious then the sympathetic nervous system goes on overdrive. It releases chemicals in the body that make the muscles twitch and it is uncontrollable. It’s like when you feel sad and tears come out of your eyes. In hat same way, when you feel anxious there are many real and physical symptoms. There are other symptoms like sweating and rapid heartbeat, but the muscle twitches are hard to hide. The body produces a lot of chemicals if anxiety levels are high so sometimes the muscle twitches are hard to ignore and harder to control.
Some people try to take muscle relaxants or other medication to provide relief from the muscle twitches, but those don’t really do much to help the real problem. The anxiety should be treated, not the muscle twitching. It’s impossible to stop the muscle twitching without first stopping the anxiety.
