Posted , 6 users are following.
Hi there,
I'm a 20 year old female that has always dealt with some form of anxiety. Usually just some nighttime anxiety and the occasional panic attack... nothing too out of the ordinary until April 2016. I was balancing working 6 days a week and ending a busy semester at school when one day out of nowhere I started feeling this intense chest pressure. I continued on for weeks telling myself it was anxiety and when my classes this semester were over I would have the whole summer to relax. Summer came but no relief. It actually became worse and I started having more physical symptoms such as sharp chest pains, pins and needles, numbness, dizziness, headaches, you name it! This forced me to quit my job as I couldn't even keep it together at work. I visited my doctor and got an EKG, MRI, and multiple blood tests all coming back healthy. This gave me some relief and I took a 3 week vacation to Hawaii where I could just relax and focus on bettering myself. This ended up backfiring and sent me deeper into my health anxiety as I felt alone and trapped on a remote island. I began worrying I could not get help in time if something happened and I would die there on vacation. Somehow I made it through those weeks and came home to my supportive family. I thought being back at home would make things better. But I've been home now a little over a week and my physical symptoms are only getting worse. Right now I am experiencing 24/7 deep chest pain shooting into my back and breasts, pins and needles constantly in my arms and hands sometimes into my legs and feet. I shake and jolt out of nowhere and have trouble breathing. I am so tired of being in constant fear of having a heart attack and dying in my sleep. I have tried deep breathing, exercising, herbal supplements, every natural anxiety relief treatment under the sun and nothing is working. So starting this week I agreed to take some meds. I'm on day 3 of Prozac and I'm praying this will give me the relief I need to be able to go back to work and school. If anyone has ever experienced health anxiety pls tell me what's worked, what hasn't worked, or how you've been coping with this! I feel so sorry for each and everyone of us that has to deal with anything like this and I appreciate anyone who actually took the time to read this crazy long post... feel better
xx,
Kate
1 like, 11 replies
Mandie29 Kate-8
Posted
I'm dealing with this now as well. Started a month ago with no relief. One day I was getting ready to go on vacation and the day I got there I felt like I couldn't breathe and the sensation has yet to go away. Then started chest pain, chest discomfort, a feeling like adrenaline is being shot into my chest and throat, fatigue, weakness and tingling in my arms and legs, and heart palpitations. It's awful. My doctor said I might have low potassium levels and that could be it. I'm also going to see a cardiologist for the palpitations. Just trying to rule out any medical causes before I go the anxiety route. I've had panic attacks as well but like you said it was manageable and didn't last all day. My only advice is talk to someone you trust. I would also say get all the scary stuff ruled out by the doctors but it looks like you already did that. I constantly worry about dying also because of the symptoms. Stay strong and I hope we find relief from this soon!
Kate-8 Mandie29
Posted
cody97357 Kate-8
Posted
Wow..... This is crazy all this stuff happened to me .... I lost my job a month ago because of it the numbness the tingling, the burning , the panic all of it. It's so terrible too I am a veteran I'm 26 I was in the marines and I'd rather battle a day in Afghanistan then a day with anxiety,that's how much I hate it I love baseball more then anything and I can't even play because everytime I go out on the field I have a panic attack and once I have the panic attack I feel like everyone is watching me I hyperventilate I yawn to make sure I'm getting deep breaths in I get dizzy. I feel like I always have to keep moving and get out of the situation or place I'm in when I get anxious..... But I'm always anxious..... I used to be so outgoing it's sad to say from a marine because I'm labeled as someone who cannot be defeated. I'm battling this disease just as everyone in this forum is. Nobody truly understands what this is expect the people that have it. There is 3 million people alone that have panic disorder in the U.S. we aren't alone but we feel alone. This has brought me to my knees but it will not kill me and it will not kill you and it will not kill anyone else. You will beat it I will beat it and when I do I'm gonna throw the sh*t so far out of my life it will never come back
Kate-8 cody97357
Posted
You're right, this won't kill us but it sure does feel like it... I know we all have a long battle ahead of us, but as soon as we regain control I know we can live our lives again. I'm sorry you, me and everyone else battling anxiety has to deal with this. I read this quote once and I think about it during my most anxious moments. "I have anxiety, anxiety does not have me."
sue58256 Kate-8
Posted
Hi kate, believe me, I didn't realise just how much stress and anxiety affects your body.I have had it for years and this time, it just came like a hurricane the pain can be very intense i had mine in my back between the shoulder blades down my sides in my arms and yes my legs felt like they were going to shoot off with the jolting the palpitations were horrendous one night I lay in my bed for over two hours with palps I thought this is it my heart is going to wear out and I'm going to die and it seemed it was every other night. I kept getting the feeling my throat was closing up this is the stomaches way of not taking food because we are in fight or flight mode I was sweating profusely and the irrational thoughts I had were unreal even to the point i was in an airport the whole security system had crashed and I asked the officer if we were being sabotaged! I feel silly now but then it was so real. I started on citalopram and propanolol after two months I started using essential oils and supplements ( I am normally a believer of natural remedies) but knew at this time i needed conventional medicine. yes they made me feel rubbish for the first four weeks then they kicked in (they tend to make you worse because the serotonin cells are renewing them selves these are the feel good cells in our brain). Although I have gone through this for many years its not until this time I have been given the right help Im also peri menopausal but I had a wonderful doctor who understood and explained what was happening to my body and now i am on my third session of cbt and she is just as amazing she will go through all your physical and mental symptoms of anxiety and explains just how it affects your body, of course she will help me change hopefully my negative thought patterns. I have the support of my family and my colleges too. Im sorry its a long post but i am trying to reassure you there are others who are suffering like you, you can get through it and this is a wonderful forum for support it has given me a lot of reassurance and comfort. if you need to pm for a chat im here for you as im sure lots of others on here. we are experts at this as my cbt councillor tells me and we can try and help you through this. you are not alone
Kate-8 sue58256
Posted
Thank you so much for sharing your story, I'm glad I'm not alone and you have found some relief. It gives me hope! I too used essential oils and other natural remedies but have accepted conventional methods. I'm excited to see if this helps! I'm going to look into therapy too... im desperate and will try anything! Thanks again for sharing
sue58256 Kate-8
Posted
sue58256 Kate-8
Posted
amanda2317 Kate-8
Posted
So I've been suffering with the same problems. I'm going to a doctor to make sure everything is ok but I'm pretty sure it's all just anxiety. But my chest pains are so bad sometimes it's hard to think different but I found that taking a low dose aspirin really helps a lot. I just take one a day it seems to really relieve the tightness. I hope this helps
Kate-8 amanda2317
Posted
Hi Amanda--
I've never tried aspirin for my anxiety before... I'm glad this helps you. I'd be tempted to try it in certain moments but I hope I can find long term relief naturally. Thanks for posting
maribel72125 Kate-8
Posted
Hi, i'm 18 and have been suffering very badly with health anxiety/general anxiety for more than a year now. I had pains in my chest that started out of the blue some years ago but didn't really pay much attention to them and kept going on with my life. Then the real scary part started; i began having palpitations. Palpitations to me aren't becoming aware of your heart because i'm always aware of my heart due to anxiety. Palpitations to me are a skipped beat or a forced heartbeat that makes me panic. These started happening once a day and then once a week and all of a sudden 10 times in one night out of nowhere. I told my parents but they always told me to get over it. I've gone to the hospital so many times, I can't even count anymore. Everytime I went to the hospital, I had a quick EKG done and they would come back normal. I also had chest xrays everytime I went to the hospital that would come back normal. No liquid in my lungs or anything. I was diagnosed with costocondritis which is inflammation in a chest bone. ( you could look it up) i believed that for a long time since I had a trauma to my chest some time when I was 15. I was playing basketball and someone kicked it really hard straight into my chest. They told me it would go away in 6 months to a year but I still have the sudden chest pains. Pins and needles, sharp pains, and tightness. My health anxiety got really bad just a few months ago. I kept looking up all my symptoms online and it told me I had heart disease and cancer and a heart attack and stroke, you name it!!! I made multiple appointments to the doctor and they would tell me i was perfectly fine. I tried out going to different doctors because I didn't believe them. I finally went to a different doctor which sent me to get an echocardiogram. I told her i was born with a heart murmur which went away shortly after i was born. She checked me with her stethescope and said she didnt hear a murmur but was gonna test me anyway. I had a painless echocardiogram with doppler and it came generally normal. They found out that my mitral valve was leaking very little. I obviously panicked and she told me it was a very low amount of blood leaking and that many people have this and never even find out because it doesnt really affect you physically. She also told me that it would never away and that it rarely becomes significant. As i age though, she said it mights start leaking more but I should check with a cardiologist once a year after i'm 30 (or 50 i forgot). Either way, i checked online for mitral valve leaking and it said the same thing my doctor told me. It's not treatable unless it is a significant amount of blood leaking so I just have to live with this forever. Around that time, my left arm was hurting a lot for no reason and I kept getting out breath and i had a really tight sensation in the middle of my chest. So i told her, and she told me that it was just my cartilage and that it's nothing to worry about because it was probably my anxiety. I believed her and surely the paim went away even though I thought it was a heart attack/stroke at the moment. My anxiety has gone down significantly after my echocardiogram results and it's been a month with little to no palpitations and no more bodily sensations. Right now though, i'm looking for more reassurance with these posts because i feel my body tensing up again and All these pains are coming back. Just last night, i watched a random video on YouTube about a teen boy that died of a heart complication and I started having a panic attack and since then, i can't stop thinking about it. This is why my anxiety is coming back. I keep telling myself that what if my results didnt see the problem that the teen had and I die too? So now i wanna get new tests to feel better again. Never ending cycle!! I feel you. Sorry for telling you my whole life. I just have so much to say. This is my main support system. Thanks for telling me your problems and hope you get better.
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