Muscle Spasm as Anxiety Relief?

Sounds like your muscles were carrying your anxiety around your rib cage and once you had yourself time and space to decompress, they did!

My therapist tells me to look for patterns in how my body reacts during heightened anxiety or panic. Like if I'm grabbing with my hands do I need to hold something? If my legs are restless do I need to get up and walk around? I'm not sure it's the same thing but could be connected to your stress and your breathing?

Wow! How good to hear that there is something that can release the physical and mental feeling of anxiety! I've never experienced this, but as for the excitation of spasm - I know there are electrodes that connect to a muscle and they cause it to contract ... I do not know if it can be used for this purpose but it is worth asking.

It could maybe be that you were tensing the muscles in that area for long enough to cause them to spasm, but if someone else has a more definite answer I'd love to know as well