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go " weak in the human knee " — it ’s an expression used to describe the experience of overpowering emotions : fear when you put up too close to a cliff ’s boundary , brokenheartedness when you get a line withering news , or attraction when you see someone you love .
The locution has origins in translation of the Bible , " where the knees of people miss phantasmal stamen were first delineate as ' trembling ' and ' nerveless ' ( 1300s ) and later as ' frail ' ( 1500s ) , " according toGrammarphobia , a blog on grammar , etymology and word employment .
Can extreme feelings really make your legs go wobbly?
But can extreme feelings really make your legs go wobbly ? Experts say multitude could experience " washy knees " in certain situations . For case , big emotion — specially stress — can induce physiological changes in the body that might direct to knee joint weakness . But stifle weakness is n’t all feelings — it can also be the sign of a aesculapian problem .
Feeling in your knees
go " weak in the knees " is more conversational than clinical , agree toMartin Antony , an anxiety expert and chair of the psychology department at Toronto Metropolitan University . While we might be intimate with the theme of someone fall to the ground when receiving sorry news , Antony articulate there ’s not a potent connection between knee joint impuissance and giving emotions in the scientific lit .
" I ’ve not seen a cogitation on genu failing and anxiety , " Antony say . And it ’s not an lay down symptom of anxiety or panic . However , severalpanic attacksymptoms , like palpitation and cold rush , are associated with unsteadiness , Antony said . So , while weak knee are mostly just an expression , the expression may discover the overall unsteadiness masses sense when they ’re dying or aroused , he said .
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Can extreme feelings really make your legs go wobbly?
Bethany Teachman , a prof of psychological science who specialise in anxiousness at the University of Virginia , enounce that in some scenario , a weak tone in the knees is in all probability link up to the eubstance ’s fight - or - flight of steps tenseness reception . Fight or flightis a series of change that encounter in the torso when stress hormones are secrete . These changes — like increased line of descent dough , change in blood pressure , sweating and stiffen muscularity — prepare the soundbox to flee from danger or take on a threat . But they may also contribute to the sensation of ricketiness , Teachman articulate .
For illustration , in fight or flight , the organic structure redirects blood supplying to the Einstein and major muscle groups , like the arms and legs , in case you need to take to the woods by or fight back . This adaption is extremely valuable if you need to run from a threat , Teachman say . But it can also have lightheadedness or dizziness , which might contribute to that unfirm sensation . reduce muscles may also top to feelings of unstableness , she allege .
Panic attacks can also causedissociative symptomsthat make a person feel outside their own body , Teachman observe . This factor may also be at play when people feel imperfect in the knees .
Weak knees may be a medical issue
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Knee weakness is not just aroused . As the tumid joints in the consistence , knee weakness can also be a sign of the zodiac of an underlying medical government issue , likeosteoarthritis , quadricep weaknessandoveruse .
If your knee weakness or unsteadiness find only during a panic onrush or present moment of enceinte emotion , it ’s clean safe to say the symptom are rooted in anxiousness , Teachman said .
However , if the impuissance or unsteadiness is sustain — hold up well beyond the episode of emotions or panic — it could be a sign that medical attention is needed , Antony said .
