

Pins And Needles Anxiety Symptoms

Pins and needles anxiety symptom description:

You feel a pins and needles, tingling sensation on or in your arms, hands, fingers, toes, legs, feet, head, face, lips, tongue, stomach, or anywhere on or in the body.


This symptom can come and go rarely, occur frequently, or persist indefinitely. For example, you may feel a pins and needles feeling once and a while and not that often, feel it off and on, or feel it all the time.




This symptom can change from day to day, and/or from moment to moment.

All of the above combinations and variations are common.

These types of symptoms often seem more disconcerting when undistracted or when trying to rest or go to sleep.

This anxiety symptom is often described as:

What causes the pins and needles tingling feeling?

There are many causes for this pins and needles feeling. Common causes include:

Because of the many medical conditions that can cause anxiety-like sensations and symptoms, including a pins and needles feeling, we recommend that you discuss this symptom with your doctor. If your doctor concludes that this symptom is solely anxiety and/or stress related, you can be assured that there isn’t another medical condition causing it. Generally, most doctors can easily tell the difference between stress and anxiety caused sensations and symptoms from those caused by other medical reasons.


Yes, the stress caused by being anxious can cause this symptom. In fact, feeling a pins and needles sensation is a very common symptom of anxiety.

Stress, including the stress caused by behaving anxiously, can cause the pins and needles feeling in a number of ways, including:

NOTE: Chapter 9 in the Recovery Support area of our website has a more in depth description of the pins and needles anxiety symptom.

How to get rid of the pins and needles feeling symptom?

When this feeling is caused by anxiety and the accompanying stress response changes, calming yourself down will bring an end to the stress response and its changes. As your body recovers from the active stress response, this feeling should subside and you should return to your normal self. Keep in mind that it can take up to 20 minutes or more for the body to recover from a major stress response. But this is normal and shouldn’t be a cause for concern.




For a more detailed explanation about anxiety symptoms including the pins and needles feeing, why symptoms can persist long after the stress response has ended, common barriers to recovery and symptom elimination, and more recovery strategies and tips, we have many chapters that address this information in the Recovery Support area of our website.




Back to our anxiety symptoms and signs page.

Authors: Jim Folk, Marilyn Folk, BScN. Last updated September 10, 2017. Information, support, and coaching/therapy for problematic anxiety and its symptoms, including the anxiety symptom pins and needles feeling.