Health Anxiety and Feeling like Loss of Control
Posted , 4 users are following.
Hello,
I'm 19 years old with no particular history of any disease aside from GERD which I got diagnosed 2 years ago. I've gone into a spiral of madness from some of the symptoms that ailed me. I felt like I was going to die immediately and had chest pains/shortness of breath and some bizarre bouts of sinus tachycardia whenever I was either anxious or after eating a heavy meal. I went to the ER once during a panic attack and came back with a clean bill of health. The symptoms of indigestion and feeling ill didn't go away, so I took a trip to Korea for a full health examination. Blood tests, urine tests, EKGs, ultrasounds, you name it. I even did a Holter which caught nothing. It was as though I was supposed to be fine, but I was clearly not fine. I slowly started recovering however and I'm taking steps to have some light exercise like taking walks, but I've had a rather scary bout last night and I couldn't sleep the whole night because of it. Should I mention that my whole body goes out of wack when I have a panic attack? It's like back to square one.
So last night, I woke up around 6 AM with a bit of pins and needles sensations on the tip of my right hand fingers and just on my cheekbones. My immediate thought was ischemic stroke(lacunar in nature) and I started reading an excerpt to see if I wasn't able to understand any of it. I could read it fine aside from feeling rather drowsy since I woke up at 6AM. I did a variety of self tests such as raising both arms in bed(at 6 AM, yes) and standing up and walking around. Of course, I was slightly panicking(oh hell, I was panicking hardcore) and I'm seriously wondering if I should take a trip to the ER for this. The pins and needles lasted around 1-2 minutes and shortly disappeared(with no other symptoms aside from the pins and needles), but it was enough to alarm me. Google so kindly informed me that I'll probably have a massive stroke fairly soon, and that got me in the typical terror dooms-day mode.
Now my heart rate won't go down and keeps running around 100 and it'll probably stay there for a while. It'll go away eventually, but the tightness in my stomach doesn't go away until a while.
My whole family history on both sides is clean of stroke and heart problems, but I feel like I'm the odd one out. I've been to scared to tackle exercise due to the heart rate spike and I feel like this "stroke" was an omen for bad things to come.
I'm not sure if I should tell my parents and get an MRI or something... Hell, could go for a CT scan, but I'd probably have some serious cancer risk in the future.
What do I even do? I feel like I'm just slowly falling apart and I seem to keep trying to ignore it more than fix it!
It pains me even more to have to bother my loving parents for this... Their stupid son can't even stay healthy... I have a fear of being in the ER too... It's such a scary experience. I envy the people in my age who don't have these health anxieties or these weird sensations...
0 likes, 4 replies
jan34534 DMile10
Posted
First of all, do not google symptoms. They most likely don't pertain to your particular situation. when you read that, your brain sends out more adrenaline which creates more symptoms.
You are not having any type of a stroke. All of your symptoms are very common with severe anxiety. I have had all of them when I was in my 20s and thought I had some terrible disease. Like you, all my tests came out normal. Millions of people have the same symptoms with anxiety.
you see, all anxiety starts in the brain and then it comes out as symptoms in our body. Any symptoms related to anxiety cannot hurt you! Remember that.
In order to reduce symptoms, you need to calm down your brain.
So try not to get over anxious with symptoms.
Remember, all your tests came back Normal, now it's time to manage your anxiety.
Do an experiment. Listen to meditations on you tube for anxiety with earbuds. Do them as often as you can. If your mind and body calm down, you will know it's been Anxiety all along.
And listen to 10 minute breathing meditation.
Do things you enjoy, laugh and smile even with symptoms, anything to relax your mind.
Anxiety leads to negative thinking,fear and panic.
You tube has meditations for panic too.
You are going to be fine.But stay off google which will increase your symptoms!
😁??
DMile10 jan34534
Posted
Thank you for the reassurance! I really started freaking out when my cheekbone and fingers started rebelling against me in the middle of the night. I've had so many tests already that the doctor too said it was probably nothing. He did tell me to keep an eye out if it gets worse, but at the moment the verdict appears to be bad sleeping posture. I'm definitely going to try harder to get a more healthy lifestyle. I have tons of work to do, but health is always #1.
peter88910 jan34534
Posted
My AD started one year ago, I got better now. But I know I am still not fully recovered because I still cant get proper sleep at night without medication. But in the day time, I am pretty normal now without panic attacks nor weird thoughts. My heart rate is between 80-120 in the day time and 70 when im at rest
Can you share your experience how long did it took for your AD to fully recover ?
Thanks,
Peter
edwina97301 DMile10
Posted
I have had severe anxiety all my life, I worry about everything and have all symptoms imaginable over years, over the years I have had to learn how to cope with it and been through loads to try and control it , at worst feared everything and was housebound. Concerning strokes , both my father and brother had strokes in late forties , I have bad tension headaches due to anxiety so of course anxiety tells you it's something worse. I tell myself I gobregularly to doctor and get reasurance . Take Jans advice, very helpful, we are all similar in our obsessive thoughts but have to tell ourselves we cannot fear everything we as it may never happen, anxiety will win and we waste our lives, easier said than done but a lot of people on this site with advice on how to cope more positively, counciling can be great if you get good councillor/ therapy??