I never experienced typical anxiety before developing LPR. I'm kind of the inattentive-ADD type, so things typically just roll off me and I'm always looking forward to the next challenge/distraction instead of dwelling on the momeent. But I did have one major stressor which preceded my getting LPR. I wonder if I developed LPR because I can't feel anxiety the way that anxious people describe it. My aunt and mother are both highly wound up, and admittedly anxious people - their hearts race and they have panic, but I never felt that (took after my Dad, I guess). So maybe my body had to express its reaction to this particular stressor in a more physical way. This is pretty typical - if I have big fight with my husband, for instance, the next day I'll get symptoms of shingles or something else. This past year, I've had 3 bouts of shingles just from fights with my husband! (Luckily they can be controlled with acyclovir - just take it when the tingling starts).

Anyway, when the LPR gets really bad, I have begun to feel strange anxiety symtpoms - heart beating faster for instance. But the heart symptoms are always always preceeded by throat symptoms - usually intense coughing, laryngeal spasms, etc. Since I'm an upright refluxer, these symptoms (both the laryngeal and the heart) immediately go away if I lie down. So how can anxiety explain them? I can turn them off just by changing my position.

So for me, LPR produces anxiety symptoms, because I am so revolted, disgusted, and pissed off at this rotten disease. If the symptoms start, I get very frustrated that not only do I have this condition, but that noone in my life can really believe how debilitating it is - that it isn't "just a cough". If there's anything to cause anxiety - that's probably it - the lack of respect for LPR as a chronic disease.