Health anxiety

Sorry I meant to add I've been suffering with almost constant lightheadedness since last October, this came on suddenly one day and has nearly left me since.I do have the odd day when it's ok but them all of a sudden it's back. Drs put this down to anxiety too, but me being me. I was convinced at fit I had a brain tumour so I saw a neurologist who said all ok! I feel constantly ill and just don't see how anxiety can have such a massive effect on my physical well being. I just want to wake up fresh, care free and with a peaceful mind x

Hi Laura sorry to hear you r struggling with this crap also you sound very much like me I just want to be my old self again but after 14 constant months of symptoms everyday I just don't know how I'm going to get better.tried meds they make me worse cbt was no help I'm currently having private councilling but not helping.does this affect your eveyday life or do you still manage to get out I struggle everyday to get my little boy to school and back it's so hard I feel like I'm going to faint but that's about all I can manage can't even pop to asda to get a few bits of shopping we haven't been anywhere in over a year I'm even having to ha ve my councilling over the phone cos I can't get to the appointment due to this bloody giddy lightheaded ness..I'm here for support if you need it I know how you feel take care xx

hi laura i have the exact same thing as you i dont have social anxiety at all its health axniety iv only had this for the last thew months it was about over symptoms at first like tingling in my ears and so on id only get a racing heart when i had a panic attack but one night i was laying in bed and had palpitation in my heart like it skipped a beat this worried me alot and caused a bad panic attack ever since then this was thew weeks back now iv been focused on my heart i can always feel it beating threw out the day im always checking my pulse and so on when ever im resting i can always feel my heartbeat i have also been convinced i have somthing wrong with my heart i went to the e.r the over day after being up all night convinced i was having a heart attack after a ecg and them taking my blood and so on they said all was normal witch calmed me down abit even tho its hard to believe what the doctors say you have to think there medical experts if there was somthing wrong with your heart they would know and they wouldnt let you leave the hosiptal with a life threatening condition its always hard to relax when its to do with your heart even after going to the hosipital i am still having these palpation's witch is causing me most of my anxiety im starting to try to except how ever hard it is that this feeling with out heart is caused purely buy our anixety the mind is so powerful the more we get anxious about one symptom the worse this symptom gets i.e the more we think about our hearts all the time the more we notice it for me even saying this is easy but hard for me to follow if i could follow my own advice id probably be fine but i know how hard it is to just relax somtimes we wont feel like this for ever this is hope iv just started taking citalopram last night and its the first time iv ever took any meds and today i feel horrible never felt this way before but apprently its just the side effects so im going to stick buy it and hopefully in the end it makes me feel better iv also spoke to someone who has had health anxiety and suffered from this heart awareness like we have and he said as he took meds and took steps to calm down the anxiety starts to go away and as the anxiety goes away so do the physical symptoms now he has no heart awareness at all hope you start to feel better soon its not nice for any of us your not the only one feeling like this tho remember that i have the exact same thing before i found this website i felt alone on this subject

Hi both, thanks for your replies. Glad to know I'm not alone! It's such an awful thing to be going through, anxiety this bad. 'Mango6' this is definitely affecting my everyday life, but I am still able to go out. In my case I have the reverse fear, I'm terrified of being home alone so I have to be out at all times. My mom is with me and my daughter all day until my partner gets home from work. If she's not around I go out all day so I'm around people - this stems from my health anxiety so I'm thinking if I'm around people they'll help me should I have a problem with my heart! Writing this down I'm very aware it sounds so silly but I just can't help it. If someone was saying this to me I'm able to rationalise it for them and genuinely mean it when I say they can beat this. I just can't seem to do it myself. It's a vicious circle, the more physical symptoms I have, the more my anxiety goes through the roof. I have some ok days, but my anxiety is always at a high level and so I quickly escalate into panic and panic attacks. The slightest thing which scares me eg a heart skip/extra beat sends me spiralling. Once that's happened l find it very difficult to stop myself and gather my thoughts. It takes a long while to get myself back together and functioning normal again. During these panic attacks, the physical symptoms are awful, I literally feel like it's the end. I feel very surreal and frightened. It doesn't help that my ocd thoughts about things which scare me come thick and fast, they are always there and even in my ok moments I'm constantly battling these thoughts and trying to focus on the present. I know I'm missing out on so much being this way,I have a lot lf things to be thankful for and happy about, but I'm so busy worrying about tomorrow or dwelling on yesterday, I miss out on today. It does annoy me though when people say to me ' what have you got to be worried about'.

The lightheaded ness has been particularly bad the last few days and I think this is making me extra anxious. Today I've done something a bit silly and contacted the second cardiologist I saw and made an appt to have another heart scan. I've had two in the last yr and I'm pretty sure he'll think I'm wasting his time but when I get into this frame of mind, I just don't care! I constantly check my pulse and time it on the stopwatch on my phone. I don't help myself because I pay too much attention to these horror stories on hospital programmes and in the news. I know it's going to make me worse but I read all these stories about drs missing things etc and convince myself that's me! Also the sad stories really affect me and they really shouldn't as these people have nothing to do with me. I'm just a bit over sensitive I think. I've also been seeing mediums to try and get some reassurance...how ridiculous!

Take care, Laura x

sorry for my late reply laura iv had bad panic tonight finding it very hard to relax only just been able to slightly calm down to reply to this i can relate to your situation so much i am also the same in most ways you just described anxiety is a horrible thing and the worst thing about it is its all in our mind !! do you mind me asking how old you are ? and if you are currently taking any medication to help your anxiety ?

I'm 27 and am not on medication. I won't take it because I want to deal with the root problem. Sorry for late reply, had a bad few anxious days made worse by someone fainting in front of me today, banging his head and ambulance being called. Not what someone with health anxiety needs to see!!