Anxiety and feeling faint

I too have suffered from anxiety for many years and started taking antidepressants only about one year ago. After a very slow start and having increased the dose, they are now helping considerably. I certainly have had feelings of light-headed ness that appear to wash over me out of the blue and if I allow myself to worry that this might be a symptom of something else I usually feel a lot worse. If on the other hand I tell myself that it's just a symptom of the anxiety and that it will pass, I cope better. Obviously I don't know whether your symptoms are caused by anxiety but there is a strong chance that they are, particularly since you've had some tests to rule out other conditions.

Anxiety can affect every aspect of one's life and make it so difficult to cope with simple, everyday things can't it. It would be worth speaking to your Dr if you think the medication isn't as effective as it could be because there are probably alternative drugs you could try.

The best advice is to try not to worry (easier said than done) because as ong as you do, the anxiety isn't going to lessen.

Yeah I agree that the more you worry the worse it gets and as you say that is much easier said than done. I have appt with the Doc in three weeks. I am definitely not right, I feel flat and have no enthusiasm for anything , I don't work because of the way I feel, I get so worked up when I am with people yet when I am having a good day, I don't fear people or places at all, so I know its not the situation, it is me.

The fainting feeling is awful.

Which anti depressant are you on? and what dosage. I know everyone is different, but it is somethimes good to know how other paople have got on with things.

Thanks for replying

I can relate so well to everything you're going through. I too find my ability to cope varies from day to day although the medication has helped enormously as I said. On a bad day, which was pretty well everyday before I started treatment, I used to feel very agitated and restless and felt very uncomfortable having to go anywhere or be with anyone. It made me feel useless, a failure and made life such a struggle. The physical sensations were worse than any depression. On a good day however I could feel upbeat and capable.

I was reluctant to start treatment because I dreaded suffering from side effects but I am now on Citalopram and although it was some weeks before I started to improve it was well worth persisting. Do you think the flat feeling you have is because you're sedated? Antidepressants aren't happiness pills but the right one should help you feel you're able to cope better with day to day life.

I thought I'd add that I recently posted a question asking whether Citalopram loses its effect if taken long term. I may have posted this in the wrong place so you may not have seen it. Anyway, I now realise the medication is still working but it's just that I can still have anxiety some days, probably depending on a variety of factors.

Yeah, I think I did see your post on citalopram. I was on that in 2010 for 5 months up to 20mg but it didn't really do anything for me except for being very groggy in a morning and a complete lack of orgasm - sorry to be so blatant but that made me feel even lower! The tablets I am on are not that sedating really, they are the least sedating of the trcyclic group but because I feel agitated more than depressed, maybe they are sedating a little but not enough for me to feel calm, but you could be right in the the fact that they are making me not want to do anything but because I feel anxious, I fell I should do something - Oh dear!!

Maybe I am still in the early stages of working through my issues since my 'breakdown' last summer (where I was at my lowest) and I am expecting to feel better much quicker than it will actually happen. I am not good at feeling useless and can completely relate you your paragraph above about feeling useless and a failure. My nerves are always on edge and I belittle my own views and self esteem because I don't feel strong enough to fight for them.

I thought I was suffering from anxiety but not depression but I now realise that the two conditions are part of the same illness. Please don't be hard on yourself or expect too much of yourself too soon. Try and imagine how you'd feel if a friend was struggling as you are. Would you be sympathetic and allow them plenty of time to recover? If the answer is yes, then how about being equally gentle with yourself?

You've not said if you have family or a close friend you can talk to and share your worries with. I find that makes a tremendous difference. For too many years I tried to cover up how I was feeling because I felt a bit ashamed and inadequate but that just added to the stress. Please remember it's not a failing, it's not your fault and to live with such anxiety would be a challenge for anyone. I hope you find it helps to share what you're going through here. I think it's liberating being able to be open without fear of being judged.

I am hard on myself but get agitated when I rest! Like you I struggled on containing the anxiety for years, thinking one day I would figure it out and it would go, but after trying everything from hypnotherapy, to counselling, to acupuncture and chinese herbs, it continued. Last year I finally told my parents and family who have been great, however on top of feeling like this I have also moved area and split up with my long term boyfriend which has added to it all. I am now seeing someone new and although I have a lot of positives in my life, I just can't seem to get it - all I want to do is cry, feel achy and completely lacking motivation, in fact I feel worse with hot flushes and rapid heartbeat since starting the anti depressants, whic leads me to think that they are not really helping.

It also makes me think is there something else because everyone knows how I am and its not helped the symptoms, maybe its just that stress is giving me all these physical symptoms and I just have to give it time, but as days go by, I get ever more fed up with it all.

I go for walks, don't drink too much, don't smoke and when feeling a bit more energetic, I go for a swim or game of badminton. When I do this I feel a little better for a while but the next day on waking starts all over again.

Thanks for responding to my posts.

You seem to have been doing all the right things to help yourself and it must be so deflating to find nothing works. Do you find you feel better as the day goes on? Before I was on medication I tended to feel worse in the morning and calmer by evening.

I'm glad you're due to see your GP because the drugs you're taking are clearly not helping as they should. It's important to rule out physical causes for your symptoms but also worth remembering that anxiety can affect the body in many different ways.

I so wish I could offer you more advice but I am not qualified to do so, all I can go on is my own experience. Until you do see your GP please be gentle with yourself. You need time to heal, whatever the cause of your uneasiness, so try and make time to enjoy little pleasures without feeling guilty.

A further thought - have you ruled out Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Both mood and energy levels can fluctuate with that and it's also common to feel aches and light-headedness. As you probably know there is not specific test for that, it's more a matter of ruling out other causes for the symptoms, which vary tremendously from one patient to another. It's possible though to feel energetic enough one day to take exercise and then suffer the consequences for several days afterwards. A low mood is also very common with this condition.

hi ive just joined up today

i have suffured with anxiety on and off for around twenty years i am at this time going through a bad spell, i am also getting feelings of fainting or a feeling i cant walk properly. i took my two dogs for a walk today and when i was walking i had the feeling i was going to fall down i have had this feeling for around a month now and it is very frightening what with all the other symptoms that come with anxiety i also have had numerous blood tests and heart tests they all come back clear i wake up every day knowing that some sort of anxiety will bring me down for the day no matter how positive i try to be i seem to just try and get through the day then have the next part of the anxiety to try and get to sleep. does anyone get the feeling that you know you are there ie i was with my friend the other day we were chating even though i was with her and i was answering her i felt i wasent there in my mind if that makes any sence to any one

Hi Pindi, I'm sorry to read that you're suffering from anxiety. I think I understand what you mean about talking to your friend and yet feeling you weren't there with her. I've occasionally had a 'spaced out' feeling which arises when I feel a bit panicky and then I feel detached from my surroundings. That feeling makes me just want to leave the place I'm in but I resist that and tell myself it will soon pass and everything will be ok.

It's very common to have detached feelings with anxiety and depression, after all how can you really take part fully in life if you're worrying about how you feel and what people might think of you. I think what helped me enormously was the advice to try and accept whatever I was feeling and tell myself that it would pass. I reminded myself that I'd been through it before and that I'd do better to accept it rather than fight it.

Do you make sure you remember to breathe properly? Sometimes shallow breathing can lead to panicky feelings. How did you react when you felt bad when you were walking your dogs? Did you allow it to pass or did you rush back home?

Are you having any treatment for anxiety, such a CBT or medication? I hope you feel calmer tomorrow.

Hi Pindi,

I understand everything you feel. I had that horrible not with it feeling for years, that has gone a little now, but it does still come in social situations sometimes. The doctor said that it is a defense mechanism for a tired mind. You body can only take so much and so your mind goes into escape mode.I ended up having some type of breakdopwn last year and I am still on the very early stages of recovery. The meds I am on are not really doing what they should and my hormanal balance because of anxiety and depression is all over the place which doesn't help my mood.

I have cbt but when that mood strikes no amount of behavioural therapy works as you can think of nothing but yourself because of the horrible way you feel.

keep posting your thoughts/feelings and maybe something will click as to what may have triggered this anxiety in you. Mine started 10 years ago after a divorce, I felt like the worse person in the world, full of guilt and the person I left my marriage for never made me feel quite good enough for him - long story but I am only just dealing with it now. Life eh!

hi ive just finished work and now am in bed had a day off feeling of falling again i just kept telling my self that i wasent going to fall and it is just a feeling it sort of works but its very tiring, when i walked the dogs today it was the same i just kept saying to myself that i would be ok and now here i am in my bed ive made it through the day with out falling over lol does anyone feel the same as me i find when i wake up and i mean when my eyes open i think im going to have a heart attack or that wot illness have i got ie brain tumur, ms, etc etc seem i cant shift these thoughts and it drives me crazy as i want to just think and be normal. the one thing i have learnt to do is accept that i cant do anything if something horrible does happen to me ie fall over or get an illness so i dont panic so much im not on med at mo have been in the past loads of times prozac citroplan sorry my spelling is not great i know thats not right spelling lol i didnt do well on either ive just had a load of blood tests all ok suprise suprise waiting for my doc to come back from hols then he is going to put me on some med again to see if i can get back to some sort of normal life im glad ive joined this site i feel im not the only person in the world who thinks they are losing there mind and there is help and hope for me thanks

I've been through this and got through it with lots of support and therapy- the feeling of fainting can be caused by irritable bowel syndrome, and get the GP to check your thryoid levels, even if they're a little bit low they can be the cause of a lot of depressive symptoms, hope you feel better soon.

hi thaks for advise i had a turn for the worse yester day and ended up getting an ermengency docs app i just burst out crying and told him how i felt and all the phyisical symptoms i am having he was very patiant with me and went through the pros and cons of anxiety he has sorted out some therapy for me and put me on propranolol (has any one been on them?) and hes put me on zimovane to sleep i took one last nite and feel quite refreshed this morning so i hope i can start my road to recovery and get back to living in the real world lol wot ever that is