Feel like I'm dying but doctors say it is anxiety
Posted , 27 users are following.
Hi all, I haven't been feeling well for a long time now so please bear with me while I explain.....
Around February this year I started getting headaches daily and feeling exhausted all of the time. There didn't seem to be a pattern to the tiredness but I often noticed it seemed to correspond with a slow heart (around 55bpm) and a fluttery or heavy feeling in my chest. At this time I was just trying to ignore the symptoms and didn't let it get to me too much.
At some point in May, I started to get other symptoms such as a tight, choking feeling in my neck, light headedness and depersonalisation. I had an awful panic attack driving home one day where all of a sudden I just felt like I was going to die and nothing felt real. I wasn't hyperventilating and don't recall my heart beating particularly quickly. I then had another awful panic attack at work where I felt the choking feeling and was convinced I was going to die. It was so bad an ambulance was called and they sent me to hospital. I had blood tests and xrays which all came back clear.
I had a couple of days off work then and over the past few months I had a further week, two weeks and three weeks signed off with a couple of weeks actually at work in between.
Symptoms I have experienced during this time are:
- dizziness
- light headedness
- weight on chest
- headaches
- extreme fatigue.
- internal tremors
- neck discomfort below the base of my skull
- palpitations
- slow heart rate (lowest was 49bpm in bed)
- discomfort inside my throat at the back.
- tingling in my fingers
- feeling weak and wobbly on my feet
- feeling like I need to take a deep breath and yawn all the time
- occasional sleep disturbances
I know that many of these symptoms can be associated with anxiety, and I am desperately trying to believe there is nothing else wrong. I have had many blood tests and I do not have thyroid, anaemia or low nutrients. I have also had EGGs which were apparently normal.
I've been back at work this week and actually enjoyed myself but it's been so hard pretending I am ok when all the time I feel physically unwell.
The symptoms currently bothering me most are the extreme fatigue, feeling weak and wobbly and feeling the need (and often being unable) to take a deep breath.
I really am quite terrified as I genuinely feel like my body is becoming weaker and that I am going to die soon. I worry perhaps I may have cancer or I have a heart condition and my body is basically giving up. I try but can't believe it's all just anxiety, although I do accept I am feeling anxious. I feel like I can't plan my future because i don't believe I have one :-( I should also mention I'm a 31 year old female.
Please can anyone advise me what else could be wrong with me and if there are any other tests I could ask the doctor for?
3 likes, 39 replies
sarah09381 Tigerlily84
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Gemmalemma15 Tigerlily84
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I just wish it wud do 1 ad enough of it, hope u ok x
G.mommy Tigerlily84
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Gemmalemma15 G.mommy
Posted
G.mommy Gemmalemma15
Posted
Gemmalemma15 G.mommy
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kev1982 Tigerlily84
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Gemmalemma15 kev1982
Posted
erica30219 Tigerlily84
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Do you have any updates to provide at this time? I know this is an old post, but this sounds exactly how I feel right now! I feel so weak, I can barely accomplish daily activities...I used to feel like I could climb mountains, as little as a few months ago. I feel like my body is giving up, wich does cause mild (but reasonable, in my opinion) anxiety. I feel that I am quite a rational person, and I can tell when my physical symptoms are caused by anxiety, or the reverse. I have had anxiety a few times, triggered by certain life events, and it has a very predictable onset, and symptoms-and predictability of onset and symptoms equals a predictable response to a known treatment. What I have been experiencing lately does not follow this pattern, at all.
Over the past 2 years, I have had 3 ablations for 3 separate arrhythmias, and an angiogram a few weeks ago that suggested micro vascular disease. Every time I tell them there is still something wrong, I have to push them hard (I even had to try another Dr.) to get them to consider anything other than anxiety, but they always find “one more thing” to the point where one cardiologist called me a “pandora’s Box”. It only seems they find answers when they see things from a new angle. Why isn’t Dr. House not a real person?! 😂
I can’t, for the life of me, understand why I have to fight so hard, when I my every day life is so strongly affected. My electrophysiologist even suggested that my issues were caused by “emotional trauma” from all of my heart issues. 🙄. Is the mental health issue push getting a little too strong? I am a 33 year old female, so it seems the easy conclusion that all of my problems are due to “hysteria”, or anxiety in today’s terms. Seems an awfully archaic notion to me.
erica30219 Tigerlily84
Posted
OMG!!!! I was on another thread, looking for answers, and someone described POTS. That explains all of my problems to a T!!!! My cardiologist even suggested it at Mayo, but no follow through was made. I am going to ask them to test me. In this link, it even talks about all of the sufferers being passed off as having anxiety, because it is so hard to pinpoint. I am going to get tested ASAP!!! This is such a huge weight off my shoulders!!!! I hope you can use this info, and it helps you! 😃😃😃
https://myheart.net/pots-syndrome/
savaughna93866 Tigerlily84
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I actually cried reading this because everything you’re describing I feel I have this weird feeling that I’m going to die soon and that something is internally wrong with me but that they can’t figure out what it is everything you’re describing I feel except I get
A twitch in my chest and in my left arm I’ve been pill for like the past four days now but everything else I get the headaches the dizziness the feeling faint I feel like I can’t get up for more than five minutes of the passing out it’s really bad and it hasn’t gotten any better and doesn’t feel like it is I hope and wish you the best and this kind of gives me a little bit of hope that it is just anxiety and panic attacks
issey92630 savaughna93866
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just wanna say the chest twitching thing and numbness in my hands/arm is something i've been experiencing too. it's often really hard to believe it's anxiety. we're all in this together, thank you for posting!
issey92630 savaughna93866
Posted
just wanna say the chest twitching thing and numbness in my hands/arm is something i've been experiencing too. it's often really hard to believe it's anxiety. we're all in this together, thank you for posting!
HealthAnxietyBN Tigerlily84
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Sounds like what i'm going through at the moment. I have severe health anxiety, i keep google searching for every little symptoms and i'm convinced i've got some terminal illness inside me. It's crippling and tiring. I'm 33 and seems like quite a number of us here are in our 30's and experiencing these symptoms. Maybe our bodies are changing?
Anperry25 HealthAnxietyBN
Posted
health anxiety is real. it's scary and it sucks. I have the same issue lately I've been to multiple doctors and they all look at me like I'm crazy.. one finally asked if I wanted some anxiety medication. I'm 33, feel like maybe it could be premenopause, I've never felt like this before covid started. I have a 13 year old and panic daily about dying and leaving him here all alone.