The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
This is a follow-up to a blog post yesterday talking about the unknown, physical symptoms that can be tied to mental illness. We encourage you to read both posts and have a conversation with your child about the physical symptoms that they may be experiencing but unsure where to place.
My body and my mind have not been communicating well with each other recently. From trembling fingers to tender thighs, I’m not sure what these neurological signs are telling me. I also link these symptoms to anxiety, though. And, maybe this is ironic, but when I make the connection that these feelings are just physical manifestations of my anxiety, I don’t worry. My stomach has been hurting from anxiety since 3rd grade. That was normal; this is new. And because it’s new, I’m not sure if it is normal.
My intention with this blog post is to document my feelings and sensations and to perhaps discover that other people experience these same feelings.
Off the top of my head, here is what my body does:
- Twitchy and trembling fingers.
- Tenderness on the tops of my thighs. When I rub my legs through my pants it feels as if my skin underneath is completely bruised, but the pain is only really felt on the top few layers of my skin.
- I’ll stand in a room without a single thought in my mind starring into space for minutes at a time.
- I’ll be watching television and will just randomly stand up and sit down.
- In the mornings it feels like I just took a brisk walk even though I just woke up. It’s hard to catch a breath.
- I am never hungry.
Do any of these sound like your child? What have they complained about in regards to the physical symptoms they may be experiencing?