Last month, I mentioned I’d like to do a brief series on all the strange physical symptoms anxiety can literally provoke.
So I led off with heart palpitations, which isn’t surprising.
I think just about everyone who’s experienced anxiety has had heart palpitations come along for the ride.
But this week’s was a real shocker to me.
In some people, anxiety can cause low-grade, chronic fevers. Or brief, dramatic spikes in body temperature. And just like the fevers you’re familiar with, they’re often accompanied by chills, aches, and fatigue.
Some academics call it “psychogenic fever.” Others don’t like the stigmatizing overtones of that moniker, so they call it “stress-induced hyperthermia.”
So how does this happen?
Psychological stress, according to Dr. Takakazu Oka, writing in a peer-reviewed study:
“Animal studies have demonstrated that psychological stress increases Tc via mechanisms distinct from infectious fever (which requires proinflammatory mediators) and that the sympathetic nervous system, particularly β3-adrenoceptor-mediated non-shivering thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue, plays an important role in the development of psychological stress-induced hyperthermia. Acute psychological stress induces a transient, monophasic increase in Tc. In contrast, repeated stress induces anticipatory hyperthermia, reduces diurnal changes in Tc, or slightly increases Tc throughout the day.”
Did you catch the important part in that?
There isn’t anything infectious, or viral about these fevers. No proinflammatory mediators.
In fact, the most interesting thing about psychogenic fevers is that they don’t respond to fever-reducers like Tylenol.
Instead, they tend to respond to….psychotropic drugs. In other words, antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, mood stabilizers etc.,
In a later study, Dr. Okay proposed a possible mechanism of heightened sympathetic activity (read more here), and another study found that stress in rats affected the hypothalamus, which helps control body temperature.
But however it happens, it happens.
So who gets stress-induced hyperthermia?
Anyone can, but a 2009 study found that about 70% of patients were women, and 30% men, with young women the most likely to experience it .
Now….it’s absolutely vital that you get any chronic fever checked out by a doctor because it can be a sign of a serious health problem.
And, in this Covid-age, any fever should be suspicious.
So please, rule out all the other stuff before you chalk up your fever to anxiety.
But if for some reason, your doctor can’t find any reason, he or she might diagnose you with stress-induced hyperthermia.
It’s a real thing, and just another example of the dramatic effect anxiety can have, not just on our brains, but our body, as well.
*****************************************************************************************************************************
By the way, I meant to share a health anxiety discussion board with you last week when I wrote about heart palpitations.
Here’s the link. If you struggle with health anxiety, I think it will be comforting to see that there are tons of people like you and me who battle with the same, intrusive internal monologues.
Unfortunately, if you talk with other Christians about your health anxiety, they might do some kind of “your physical body means nothing, only your soul matters” kind of thing. And that’s very sad.
Jesus had deep compassion whenever he saw physical suffering.
When John’s disciples asked if Christ was truly the Messiah, he answered, “the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.”
Alleviating human, physical suffering was a massive part of Christ’s ministry.
Your physical suffering matters to him, and so does mine, and Jesus cares deeply.
A common misconception about health anxiety is that it arises from self-centered fear.
Actually, it’s because we have families or people who depend on us, and the same thing that provokes us to buy life insurance stirs us to get odd symptoms checked out. It’s protective for both us and those around us.
However, if you’ve been born with OCD or an anxiety disorder, well, everything kind of spirals from there, and it turns destructive instead of constructive.
I developed health anxiety four years ago, and soon enough, my internet history and bookmarks were absolutely flooded with articles on every common, rare, possible, and not-even disease.
“Quick Google Checks” on things like “elevated monocytes” became an obsession, an absolute compulsion. I’d wonder whether paper cuts were turning septic, whether dry eyes were corneal abrasions, whether my Crohn’s disease was about to escalate into surgery that might incapacitate me while my wife and I raised our young kids.
Health anxiety is a prison, but it’s as if you’ve woken up in one, and never even recognized the moment you were arrested and locked up. Suddenly, it’s just there. You’re just there.
So yes, if you’ve got health anxiety + OCD, it can spiral really, really quickly, which is why it’s important to find a psychiatrist or therapist near you.
My relief has come from a) medication b) therapy c) Scripture d) community.
And all of that fits under the heading of “God’s grace.”
Each of those is a way that God has chosen to send me, to send you grace.
As Christians, we’ve been conditioned to only find grace within certain spiritual boundaries. But grace is everywhere anything good is.
And medication can be grace, therapy can be grace, everything good, everything helpful is grace.
[Photo: Speaking of fevers, that pic is from the hottest place on planet Earth — the Lut desert in Iran. Here’s a fascinating piece about it.
One of the ways insects and animals survive there? Migratory birds often drop dead while flying over the heat. If I were a migratory bird with health anxiety, I would avoid the Lut desert].
