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how i cured my anxiety

Posted , 3 users are following.

cleo101
cleo101

My anxiety and strange associated symptoms all started for me after i got diagnosed with hpylori and i had to have the 'triple therapy' including two antibiotics, at this time i was studying pharmacy at uni but never really knew the effect antibiotics can have on your body and did have to me. 

Ever since then i started getting symptoms such as gurgle noises in my throat every time i ate food and especially when i ate a full meal or had fizzy drinks etc it would become so bad that it would be non stop for hours and hours leading to be feeling sick (but never actually sick) which then lead to me having a phobia of being sick in public, it got really bad that i would cancel to go to meals with friends and would have to carry a plastic bag with me in my hand bag where ever i went just in case and i always had to sit near a toilet or anywhere near an exit so i could escape if i wanted to be sick, which was ridiculous looking back as i was never actually sick just the anxiety made me feel that way. 

On top of that i also developed a symptom of excessive swallowing when i was feeling nervous or stressed, which again caused me to feel sick as i would just keep swallowing every few seconds when i didnt need to, leading me to believe i had OCD about this as well. I remember one time in lecture i couldn't sit at the end because all the seats were taken up so i had to sit in the middle which meant it would be so hard to get out, this lead to me feeling really anxious, i couldn't concentrate, the swallowing and gurgling symptoms really worsened and my heart would start racing as i began to feel sick which brought on my fear again, it was like an on going cycle. But i knew i couldn't walk out of the room and let this beat me even though i really really wanted to. Luckily somehow i managed to make it through the lecture and i got home and calmed myself down. This is when i knew something was really wrong i completely wasn't acting myself. Before this i was never an anxious person about anything or easily stressed in the slightest. But i knew that i didn't want to go to the doctors and start taking anti anxiety medication as even though that may help with the symptoms in the short term it wasn't identifying the true cause of why i was suddenly feeling like this and experiencing these symptoms for no reason at all? 

I then decided to do more research from which i knew that there is a problem with the upper oesophageal sphincter not relaxing when it is supposed to to let any air out instead it gets trapped and makes the gurgle noise (so from my understanding the brain isn't getting receiving the correct signal from the nerves to relax the sphincter so instead it stays contracted). I was also reading a book at the time which explains the connection between the gut and the brain, stating that if you don't have a healthy gut this can directly affect the brain causing anxiety, depression and a whole load of problems. It also explained that sugary foods, processed food and antibiotics among other things all cause disruption to the gut bacteria meaning there is more bad than good, causing all these side effects.

This is when i had a light bulb moment and started taking probiotics every day along with a multivitamin and liquid iron (as i also found out i was anaemic). After a month or so of doing this every day i began to feel like a different person, i no longer had the OCD swallowing problem, my anxiety is a lot lot better, my emetophobia is so much better i no longer have to be sat right next to an exit all the time and my mood is generally a lot happier and more positive. I really encourage anyone going through a similar thing to research into this and the positive effects probiotics can have not only on your mental health but physical too. As a pharmacist myself i could easily tell you that medication is the answer but in this case i really believe its not a long term solution and the side effects you can experience from medication may only make matters worse. Don't be discouraged if you try this and you don't see a difference straight away as it takes time for the bacteria in the gut to rebalance again to a healthy state. 

I really hope this helps you and let me know if it does or if you have any questions! smile

1 like, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • lexieshaw
    lexieshaw cleo101

    Posted

    Hey!

    Thanks for sharing that, I found his very useful and I'm going to go out tomorrow and try this. I have suffered with that gurgling noise since I was little and when I was 12 I do remember my doctor telling me something about it been anxiety releated. I never really looked into it tho. My anxiety has been sky high these past few months since I had my baby so I can't see no harm in trying probiotics! What do you reccomened?

  • lindathepinda
    lindathepinda cleo101

    Posted

    Great post, thanks for taking the effort to share your experience! As many people as possible should learn about the Gut-Brain connection, especially in relation to taking antibiotics. It's very nice to read a post like this from someone who studied pharmacy, hopefully you can spread the word in your field of work!

    I hope that in the future GP's will prescribe probiotics together with the antibiotics, so people can start right away with them after finishing the treatment, and further future damage will be prevented.

     

    • cleo101
      cleo101 lindathepinda

      Posted

      i completely agree with you, i really hope that doctors do prescribe them together one day as so many people are still clueless about it and like you said it will prevent so much future damage. People really need to spread the awareness. Thank you for your reply its nice to see that other people are realising this connection too. 
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