What you've noticed
You aren't searching for a diagnosis you don't have yet. You're searching for what you noticed. Each page explains what is happening, what it could be — several possibilities, not one — and what to rule out medically before any psychological explanation.
I cry for no reason
Tears that arrive at an advert, in traffic, or with no trigger at all aren't a whim — they're a regulation system signalling that it's too full.
I wake at 3am and can't get back to sleep
Waking in the second half of the night with your mind switching on immediately has a recognised pattern — and it's one of the most specific presentations of anxiety and depression.
I don't feel anything any more
Emotional numbness isn't the absence of emotion but a mechanism blocking access to it. It is more concerning than sadness, precisely because it doesn't hurt.
My heart races for no reason
Palpitations at rest are among the most common reasons people go to A&E — and among the most commonly caused by anxiety. The order in which you check matters.
I snap over nothing
Disproportionate reactions to small things, followed by shame. Irritability is rarely about the trigger — it's about how empty the tank was before it.
I can't concentrate
You read the same paragraph three times. Concentration isn't a character trait — it's a function that degrades predictably under certain conditions, most of them reversible.
I have a lump in my throat
The sensation of a lump or tightness in the throat, with no real difficulty swallowing, has a medical name — globus — and is one of the commonest physical expressions of held tension.
I can't fall asleep
The body is tired, the mind won't stop, and the hours pass — usually not from a lack of sleepiness, but because the day's arousal had nowhere to discharge.
I get tired very quickly
Fatigue that effort doesn't explain and rest doesn't fix — of all the symptoms on this site, the one most likely to have a medical cause.
My hands shake
A fine tremor that shows up under stress, after coffee, or seemingly from nowhere — usually benign, but with a few medical causes worth excluding before anything else.
My stomach hurts when I'm stressed
Pain, nausea or a sudden need for the loo before something important isn't “in your head” — it's a nervous system that genuinely has more neurons in the gut than in the spinal cord.
I forget things constantly
You walk into a room and forget why, lose words mid-sentence, read a page three times — usually memory isn't broken; the attention that should have recorded it is.
I feel guilty all the time
Guilt that attaches to no particular act and is extinguished by no amount of making amends — a sign it has stopped working as an emotion and become a background state.
I'm afraid to leave the house
Not fear of the street, but fear of what might happen to you out there — and of not being able to leave quickly if it did.
I get dizzy for no reason
Floating, unsteadiness or light-headedness without the room spinning — a symptom with many medical causes, one of the most frequent of which is breathing.
This page is informational and is not a diagnosis. It does not replace a medical or psychological assessment. If you are in immediate danger, call 112.
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