Tingling from anxiety: why it happens, and what helps

Your fingers start to buzz, your lips feel prickly, or your feet go numb, often right as anxiety or panic rises. Tingling is one of the most common body symptoms of anxiety, and one of the most unsettling, because it’s easy to worry it means something is wrong with your nerves, your heart or your brain.

Call 911 straight away if you have sudden numbness or weakness on one side of your body, a face that droops on one side, or trouble speaking or understanding. These can be signs of a stroke.

Where anxiety tingling shows up

• fingers and hands
• feet and toes
• lips and around the mouth
• face, scalp or arms
• sometimes all over

Many people also feel numbness, buzzing, coldness or a crawling feeling under the skin.

Why anxiety causes tingling

Breathing too fast

This is the main cause. When you’re anxious, you tend to breathe faster and higher in your chest. Breathing faster than your body needs lowers the carbon dioxide in your blood. That small chemical change makes nerves more excitable, which causes pins and needles, especially in your hands, feet and around your mouth. It can also cause dizziness and a tight chest.

Blood flow changes

During fight-or-flight, blood moves towards your big muscles and away from your skin, fingers and toes. That can leave them feeling cold, numb or tingly.

Paying close attention

When you’re anxious, you notice body feelings you’d usually ignore. Normal tingles become more noticeable, and more worrying.

What helps

• Slow your breathing. Breathe in gently through your nose for 4, and out through your mouth for 6. As your breathing slows, carbon dioxide levels come back to normal, and the tingling usually fades within minutes.
• Don’t gulp air. Deep, fast breaths make it worse.
• Move your hands and feet. Wiggle your fingers and toes, or shake out your hands.
• Warm up, if your hands and feet feel cold.
• Remind yourself: “This is from my breathing. It isn’t dangerous, and it will pass.”

How Breatheasy can help

Breatheasy helps you slow your breathing when tingling hits. Its guided breathing exercises pulse your phone as you breathe in, so you can close your eyes and follow a calm rhythm, which is the fastest way to ease anxiety tingling. If it’s part of a panic attack, tap “I’m feeling anxious” and Luma walks you through it, step by step. The breathing exercises and panic button are always free. Breatheasy is coming soon to iPhone and Android.

When to see a doctor

Tingling that comes with anxiety and fades as you calm down is very common. But see a doctor if:

• tingling or numbness keeps happening when you’re not anxious
• it lasts a long time, or keeps coming back in the same place
• it’s getting worse
• you have other symptoms, like weakness, pain or changes in your skin

Long-lasting tingling can have other causes, like a trapped nerve, nerve damage, a poor diet, some medicines or drinking too much alcohol, which a doctor can help you look into.

Call 911 for sudden one-sided numbness or weakness, a drooping face, or trouble speaking.

If anxiety is behind your tingling, our guide to anxiety and panic attacks and breathing exercises for panic attacks are good places to start.

Sources

• Pins and needles, NHS
• Symptoms of a stroke, NHS
• Panic disorder, NHS