Anxiety is not limited to your mental health, but it can also manifest itself in some physical ways. Like it involves many other organs, it can involve your tongue as well. Feeling of tongue feels weird anxiety causes is called Psychogenic Lingual Paresthesia medically. Paresthesia is used for a sensation of tingling, pins-and-needles, and feeling weird. Psychogenic when added to the term means that the cause of this weird feeling in tongue is from your brain which, here, is anxiety.
Situation where tongue feels weird anxiety causes can feel like your tongue has fallen asleep, you might feel tingling or pricking feeling on your tongue, or you may feel like your tongue is swollen.
This condition is more commonly seen in women, but can be found in men as well. It starts gradually, with on and off pattern, but with time the feeling might remain constant.
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Anxiety
It is mixed feeling of uneasiness, fear, nervousness, and worry about a particular situation. Feeling anxious is normal human trait and you may feel anxious normally about things. But, sometimes, it becomes an issue when the feeling is uncontrollable and does not let you function properly.
Anxiety makes you experience excessive sweat, restlessness, and your heart starts to beat very fast. When your anxiety does not go away no matter what you do, and worsens with time, it is called an anxiety disorder.
There are various types of anxiety disorders. Some of them are:
- Panic disorder- where you can have attacks of severe fear when no danger is present. These attacks are called panic attacks. They last for a few minutes or even more than that.
- Generalized anxiety disorder- this is a condition where you have severe worry and fear about general things, be it your work, finance related problems, school, or family.
- Phobias- amplified fear of something that isn’t actually that dreadful or not dangerous at all. This fear can be about insects, flying, crowded places, or social situations.
You might be at a risk of getting anxiety disorders if you have a certain type of personality (withdrawn and shy), if you have history of traumatic childhood or your adulthood, if someone in your family already suffers from an anxiety disorder, or if you have certain health conditions (cardiac or heart related issues, or thyroid related issues).
General symptoms of anxiety disorders:
- Fearful and anxious thoughts that cannot be controlled.
- Worry interferes with your daily life.
- Unexplained breathlessness, dizziness, or aches.
- Heart pounding.
- Distancing yourself from usual activities.
Why does anxiety cause your tongue to feel weird?
Even thought weird feeling of tongue can occur for a number of reasons, but when tongue feels weird anxiety can be one of the causes. This happens for a number of mechanisms, including:
- Fight or Flight Response
When we have a stressful situation, the sympathetic nervous system of our body is activated by hormones that are released at that time. This system in turn activates your adrenal glands (little glands on the top of your kidney, having a variety of functions including stress response management). Adrenal glands release adrenaline and noradrenaline which make your heart to beat way faster, increases blood pressure, and increases your breathing. This also makes blood flow to bigger muscles and parts which might be important for you to fight the situation or flee from it.
Because smaller muscles and parts receive less blood flow, you may feel tingling or weird sensation in your hands and legs, including your tongue.
- Hyperventilation:
Hyperventilation is when you breath rapidly because of a stressful situation or anxiety. When you hyperventilate or breathe faster, both, the level of carbon dioxide and oxygen get low in your body. Both of them contribute to your tongue feeling weird.
Low carbon dioxide in body causes calcium levels to drop, and this excites your muscles, and you feel parts including tongue feel weird and tingly.
Rapid breathing also causes your blood vessels to constrict, causing less oxygen to reach your body parts. This can make you experience lightheadedness and dizziness. It also causes tingling sensation in your body parts, and in a process your tongue feels weird.
What other issues might be the cause of this weird feeling of tongue?
When your tongue feels weird anxiety is not always the only cause. There are many other medical issues (serious and non-serious) that might be causing your tongue to feel weird, thereby having you experience tingling sensation, or feeling like your tongue is going numb.
Some of the issues (other than anxiety) that might cause your tongue to feel weird are:
- Trauma (dental procedures, or tongue piercing).
- Food allergies.
- Stroke.
- Vitamin B deficiency.
- Migraine.
- Electrolyte imbalance.
- Hypoparathyroidism.
- Hypoglycemia.
How to be sure if tongue feels weird anxiety is the cause?
When your tongue feels weird and anxiety is the cause, this is not the only symptom you will experience. Along with this there might be many other symptoms where you know you are going through an anxiety attack, or a panic attack.
Focusing on the symptoms, and understanding them, is going to help you in a way that you’re sure for this tongue feel weird anxiety is the cause.
These symptoms include:
- Tongue feels weird.
- Heart starts to beat fast.
- You feel lightheadedness and dizziness.
- Cold and sweaty hands and feet.
- You get tingly feeling on various body parts.
- You feel out of breath.
- You get confused, and excessive fear makes it difficult for you to be fine.
- Your daily and usual activities get affected.
- You distance yourself from people, and other social situations.
If you see below symptoms with tongue feels weird anxiety might not be the only cause:
- Skin rash.
- Swollen tongue.
- Seizures.
- Vision problem.
- Inability to walk properly.
- Unilateral (on side side) tingling of face.
Self-treatment
First step is to know and be sure when your tongue feels weird anxiety is the issue what is causing it. Once you are sure, it will be easier for you to control it.
The symptoms of anxiety are to be learnt, and whenever you feel like your tongue feels weird you can try calming yourself down.
You, yourself, can try to make your condition get better by doing a few simple things.
- Controlling how you breath when you are anxious:
Belly breathing– take deep breaths till the time you see your belly bloating like a balloon. This will ensure you get a lot of oxygen, and your heart rate, and blood pressure drop down.
Breath counting– counting your breaths distracts your mind from worry and fearful thoughts, thereby helping you control your anxiety.
Mindful breathing– this again distracts your mind by focusing on the pattern of how you breath. You need to focus on the way you inhale or take in the air, and how you exhale or breathe the air out.
Visualized breathing– this is to breathe in a comfortable place where you close your eyes while you slowly breath and imagine the visuals of positive things that bring your mind some peace.
- Get good amount of sleep.
- Keep yourself hydration- this will help your muscles to be in a relaxed form.
- Meditation.
- Exercise- run, jog, or cycling.
- Do what calms you down, this includes listening to your favorite music.
When to see a doctor?
Anxiety can be controlled by a person at home, but sometimes no matter what you do it cannot be controlled, which makes it necessary for you to seek medical help.
See a doctor if you see any of the below things:
- When your tongue feels weird for more than a few days, and does not get better with your anxiety getting better.
- When your anxiety, and fearful thoughts, are not controlled by home remedies.
- Your symptoms of anxiety are getting worse by each passing day.
- When your anxiety interferes with your daily chores.
- When you feel like killing yourself, and struggle with negative and suicidal thoughts.
Sometimes, this anxiety may result in severe chest pain, severe breathlessness, or some other serious issues, where you may need to contact emergency and seek immediate medical care.
Takeaway
If you are someone who is already struggling with anxiety disorders, condition where you tongue feels weird might be a common thing to experience. If you are not familiar with anxiety and its related disorders, you may need to see a doctor for medical care and diagnosis.
Symptoms that may help you know you are dealing with anxiety are your heart beating very fast, your blood pressure increasing, breathlessness, numbness of weird feeling in body, headaches, excess sweating, unable to sleep, bowel changes.
Other symptoms where you might consider seeing a doctor should be learnt and focused on. In case you feel your anxiety is beyond your capacity to be controlled by yourself, if your anxiety does not let you do normal activities consider seeing a doctor.