Recognising feelings of anxiety

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One of the things I'm bad at is recognising feelings/emotions in myself. For years I had very strange physical symptoms and had no idea they were to do with anxiety.

Mine include:
- Butterflies in my stomach (more obviously to do with anxiety than some of the others)
- Tingly/itchy scalp
- Tight throat
- Achy jaw
- Breathless
- Can't eat
- Hot and cold

Do you experience anxiety?
Do you have any physical symptoms that tell you you're feeling anxious? Or does your brain just tell you you're anxious?

- Racing heart
- Feeling sick
- Shivering or feeling hot

I clench my jaw, I tense my entire body. But I do not consider this anxiety unless I have an accompanying emotion. I might not notice any of these things even though I'll be experiencing them (as noted by when I manage to note what I'm feeling.)

Yes. Clinching jaws, pulling head down between shoulders, tight throat, flying pains all over, hot and cold with tingling sensations in skin - not pleasant.
I can cry by the word, anxiety, when I feel like that, but fluoxetine (like fontex) helps. It works on both depression and to a degree on anxiety, so I´m non-depressed and not so anxious.

Before I started taking Buspar I had panic attacks which would make me feel restless & make me take cr@ps alot. Buspar is approved for the physical symptoms of anxiety but it helps me with the mental 1s too. I like how it's not an antidepressant or a benzo.

I am not good with internal signals, but I was a nervous sweater. I used to layer tank tops with outer shirts to try to make it less noticeable. Without meds, I seem to constantly function on Defcon 5.

Sounds like you're alexithymic too.
Anxiety as far as I can understand it physically manifests as an animal state of alertness for me. What I call threat response. Your brain recognises a threat (even if there isn't one per se, which is where things get into murky emotional territory I don't understand) and readies your body quickly for fight or flight. Often my body reacts in one of these before I can even think about "wow, this must be making me anxious." It just does it. Run into the flat, close the door quickly and silently, don't move and don't turn the lights on until sound cues diminish, for example.
I also notice more stimming when I'm anxious. I don't feel anything, but I physically cannot stop with the stimming unless I am directly focusing on nothing but stopping. Teeth are often clenched in this case too. Also can't sleep when anxious, because of the alertness, but also mind spinning into obsessive things that usually have nothing to do with whatever I'm anxious about.

Can't focus, face hurts and I start to pace around.

I notice my emoticons, but Only can identify them when they're extremely strong (Example, Anger or Frustration when having a meltdown). I Can identify my anxiety pretty well, but for a while. I didn't know what to call it.

I am undergoing speech and swallow therapy to relearn how to speak after tongue reconstruction surgery. One thing they identified impending progress is clinching jaw. They have been using warm to hot compresses to loosen things up and this has been somewhat helpful.