Trembling throughout the body, arising from nervousness, is familiar to absolutely all people on the globe. At least once in a lifetime, even in childhood, every person trembled with excitement, fear, and excitement.
This reaction to overexcitation is so common and normal that it would not be worth talking about if it did not become a real scourge for people who are constantly in an anxious state.
Symptoms of trembling due to nervousness
Psychogenic shaking can manifest itself as follows.
- A person feels their arms, legs, abdomen, buttocks, back, and sometimes the whole body simultaneously shaking and vibrating. In this case, trembling can be both noticeable from the outside and felt only internally.
- If it starts in one part of the body, it can gradually spread throughout the body. The whole body becomes “nervous”, it vibrates. And the vibration can come from inside, or maybe from outside. Sometimes it occurs all over the body at once.
- The condition often worsens after sleep, whether it is a long night's rest or a short nap during the day. The period of going to bed, the desire to relax and rest can also serve as triggers for an attack.
- Nervous tremors can develop against a background of severe anxiety and panic. Or it can appear as if out of the blue, without obvious excitement.
- The intensity of the symptom can vary from internal trembling barely noticeable to the patient himself, to obvious shaking that is visible to others.
- An attack often has a wave-like course: it goes away, then comes back in a wave.
- Nervous tremors can occur only occasionally, or can plague a person throughout the day. Its intensity can vary from hour to hour, from day to day, from month to month. Sometimes a symptom may go away completely for several years, and then return again.
- Often the symptom is complemented by other bodily manifestations of anxiety. It could be palpitations, nausea, abdominal pain - anything. A state of intense psychogenic vibration, especially one that is noticeable externally, is usually accompanied by obvious excitement, fear, and often panic.
- Sometimes, during an attack, a person can stop trembling by saying something soothing to themselves and/or squeezing and relaxing their muscles. But sometimes there is no way to overcome the vibration. Both options may be characteristic of the same patient. And they can occur during the same attack, depending on the intensity of its waves.
- For some people, the trigger for development may be overexertion of certain muscle groups. But more often the occurrence of the symptom has nothing to do with physical activity.
Ways to get rid of hand tremors
It is possible to get rid of hand tremors forever or for a long time if you accurately determine the cause.
To do this, you need to analyze your lifestyle and remove provoking habits from it - smoking, eating unhealthy foods, alcohol, coffee, doing physical exercise, taking time to rest, getting a good night’s sleep. You should also carry out a whole range of relaxing activities:
- massage;
- swimming in the pool;
- cold and hot shower;
- walks in the open air;
- listening to calm music.
Some experts suggest treating hand tremors with unconventional methods - bees and leeches (hirudotherapy). Most experts agree that these methods are outdated. More effective exercises are those aimed at fixing the fingers in a fist and developing fine motor skills. But they need to be done regularly.
Many problems come from the head. This also applies to tremor. Many people cannot get rid of it because they do not know how to relax and are too focused on themselves. Also, hands shake when a person thinks about it and worries about how it is perceived by others. Don't focus on this problem and it will gradually disappear.
If all of the above methods do not help, then you need to visit a neurologist. He will conduct a comprehensive examination and prescribe appropriate treatment.
Medications that may be prescribed include:
- vitamin complexes with group B and magnesium;
- Xanax and Clonazepam tablets;
- the drug "Primidon" in small doses;
- sedatives with motherwort and valerian;
- sedative medicine - "Novo-Passit";
- "Glycine".
The main cause of nervous tremors in the body
The main reason for the nervous vibration of the body is its preparation for “fight and flight.” In a state of anxiety, the body mobilizes internal resources so that it has the opportunity to enter into battle or escape. This is the oldest animal survival mechanism.
If anxiety is short-term, then defensive behavior does not last long. The body will turn on the stress response. The muscles will tense and possibly begin to tremble. But as soon as the threat disappears, everything will pass.
But if a person is in a state of chronic anxiety, sometimes without noticing it, his body is constantly in a state of semi-preparedness for fight and flight. And at any moment this half-readiness can turn into readiness. And obvious symptoms of overexertion will appear, including nervous tremors.
Moreover, the transition from a state of semi-readiness to overt defense can occur both against the background of increasing excitement, and seemingly out of the blue. For example, I went to bed. I tried to relax. But it turned out differently.
Trembling hands
A superficial attitude towards hand tremors can lead to more serious consequences. The paradox is that at the slightest trembling, people begin to experience even greater anxiety, aggravating their condition. Sometimes it passes quickly without causing exacerbations. When excited, your hands begin to tremble due to the production of excessive amounts of adrenaline. If its dose is exceeded, then external manifestations occur, including hand tremors.
Tremors are classified according to:
- duration - short and long;
- direction - one-sided and symmetrical;
- frequency - low and high;
- degrees of control - controlled and uncontrolled;
- sources of occurrence - physiological and pathological.
Causes of hand tremors
The causes of tremor are divided into 2 large groups.
- Physiological - caused by processes occurring in the life of an individual.
- Pathological - associated with human diseases, some of which are serious.
Pathological tremor
This form of disorder is provoked by individual diseases or occurs together with them, being one of the symptoms. Varieties of pathological tremor can be caused by:
- Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases in older people;
- multiple sclerosis;
- benign and malignant brain tumors;
- head injuries, mainly associated with damage to the cerebellum;
- diabetes, anemia;
- liver damage;
- dysfunction of the thyroid gland;
- osteochondrosis;
- micro-strokes;
- hereditary diseases of a genetic nature;
- damage to the nervous system, encephalitis tick bite;
- sudden changes in blood pressure.
Other causes of psychogenic tremors throughout the body
Chronic anxiety, leading to constant overstrain of the body, is the main reason for the development of nervous tremors. But there are other less significant reasons. Usually they simply complement the main one - constant preparation of the body for danger.
Internal vibration may intensify against the background of:
- consuming large amounts of caffeine;
- lack of sleep;
- dehydration;
- hyperventilation.
Excess caffeine, lack of sleep, and dehydration, in turn, can be consequences of a chronic anxiety state, enhancing its bodily manifestations. Hyperventilation almost always occurs with an anxiety disorder and worsens its physical symptoms.
How to quickly get rid of nervous tremors at home
Drink some water
Dehydration can cause shaking. People who are anxious are more likely to become dehydrated, as they may experience increased urination and/or sweating. However, in most cases, a few sips of water or tea have not so much a hydrating effect as a calming one.
Quite often the question arises, what is better to drink - hot or cold, just water or some other drink? The best thing to do is drink something that calms you down. For some it might be a glass of cold water, for others it might be a cup of hot cocoa.
Move over
If the muscles are trembling and require activity, they need to provide it. So get moving.
Exactly how you move depends on your preferences. Some people just like to walk around. Some people find rotational movements of their arms more helpful.
Physical activity can be anything, but not exhausting. Walk, but don't run. Rotate your arms, but don't push up.
Slow down your breathing
During preparation for “fight and flight,” a person’s breathing becomes more active. Hyperventilation occurs, which aggravates all the physical symptoms of anxiety, including nervous trembling.
So try to slow down your breathing. To do this, take a normal breath (not too deep), slowly count to 4 and only then exhale. Count to 4 again and only then inhale.
Continue breathing in this rhythm until you feel better.
Have trembling in certain parts of the body
During attacks, many people are frightened by the fact that they seem to lose control over their body: their arms and legs tremble, their teeth chatter, and nothing can be done about it. The growing fear of loss of control intensifies the nervous trembling.
Indeed, it can be difficult to quickly stop trembling throughout the whole body. But you can always take control of its individual sections. For example, give an order not to shake your hands or not twitch your thigh muscles.
Often the realization that the shaking is, in principle, controllable is reassuring. And thus helps relieve an attack.
Let go of the situation
The easiest and most effective way to stop shaking is to allow yourself to shake. The more you internally resist the shaking, the more the muscles tense and the stronger they contract.
Therefore, the most effective method of dealing with nervous tremors is to allow it to happen. Give your muscles the opportunity to do the work they need, and they will quickly relax. And the tremor will stop.
Causes and treatments for hand tremors
You can often see a person whose hands or head are shaking, and often the whole body is trembling. The phenomenon is observed not only in the elderly, alcoholics, and mental patients, but also in healthy people. They try to hide their illness so as not to show others that everything is not okay with them. But they often don’t think about how to treat tremors in the hands during excitement, because it is important for them to hide external signs. Manifestations may have a serious basis, so you cannot ignore the need to visit a doctor.
What to do at home to prevent an attack of nervous tremors
The main symptomatic prevention of an attack is associated with relaxation of the muscles, which in an anxious person are always in increased tone.
When an attack has already begun, doing muscle relaxation exercises is ineffective. And often impossible. But as a means of prevention, such techniques help.
You can accept:
- wet dog exercise;
- hanger exercise;
- abdominal muscle relaxation technique.
But what works best is the progressive muscle relaxation technique, which makes it possible to remove excess tone from all major muscle fibers at once.
Any other techniques and procedures that promote relaxation also work: massage, hot shower or warm bath, acupuncture, yoga, etc.
