Hello Everyone

[Meggieliz]

Hi! My name is Megan. I'm a wife to a great guy and mom of two little girls. Since my newest was born four months ago, I've been dealing with some pretty heavy mental problems including anxiety and depression on a day-to-day basis. It's gotten really bad and I've had four separate visits to the E.R in the span of one month because of some "symptoms" I thought were life-threatening to me like heart palpitations, dizziness, all-over numbness and headaches. I thought, at one point, that I might have M.S, but an MRI ruled that out. I've seen several doctors and none can pinpoint a cause beyond anxiety attacks. I feel so crazy and I think since I was starting to believe there was actually something physically seriously wrong with me, things happen all the time and I'm hyper-concious of what my body is doing normally every day. I am DIZZY every single day. I've built up so much panic and am so afraid to die and I think about it every day. I have two small kids and I worry all the time that they might lose me and panic about what would happen to them without me. I'm making myself ill. Anyone who can explain this to me and how to get over it, would be appreciated so much. Thanks for reading and understanding. _Meg

[scared&worried]

Hi Megan. Welcome to this forum. I am fairly new to this forum as well.

I can totally relate to what you are going through. I have always been an anxious person, who has always been pretty worried about my health. But my anxiety magnified tremendously when my son was born almost three years ago. I started getting really stressed out, worrying about becoming ill, and not being there for him. I started getting all sorts of physical symptoms that can only be attributed to anxiety (many medical tests done to rule other things out), such as head aches, tingling in body parts, light headed, stomach problems, etc. I was so worried that I had stomach cancer, M.S, brain tumor, etc.

Please feel reassured that others are going through the same thing as you.

Here are a few things which have helped me out a bit so far ( I still have a long way to go!!):

-regular exercise (even it if means taking your kids for a walk each day)
-better diet
-drinking lots of chamomile tea for its calming effect
-avoid watching any movies or reading any books related to death, terminal illnesses, etc
-counselling
-massage therapy
-muscle relaxation techniques (this has worked wonders for me, when doing before bed time) There are many videos on Youtube.

I know it's easy to keep saying "What if"....I am just as guilty of it. But let's break down your situation in a rational and objective point of view:

-You went to E.R four times and have seen several doctors. They have done and MRI which came back with nothing of note. Doctors are professionals who have studied for many years to get into their line of work. Although they are human and they do make mistakes, you have seen several doctors, none of whom appear to have any concerns regarding your health status. Doctors are people...people with families. If they thought there was even a slight chance that something serious (I mean something life threatening) was going on with you, they would cross their t's and dot their i's by sending you for further tests. The last thing that doctors want is to be the subject of civil law suits. As a result, they will do their due diligence to make sure that their patient is properly examined, and that follow-up tests be conducted if necessary. The doctors that you have seen were confident regarding your well being. If not, they would have sent you further tests. They don't want you dying suddenly, and then your family turns around and sues them. I hope this helps a bit. Anxiety is a tough battle. I am in the battle too, as well as many many others.

Try out some of my suggestions, and the suggestions of others. You will have to find things that work for you, because everyone is different.

Take care.

S&W

[Meggieliz]

Thank you so much for your advice. It's nice to know that other people go through a similar thing and that I'm not alone. I try and talk to family about it, and I'm afraid that I must sound like a broken record to them and they can't put themselves in my shoes to help, so I've stopped talking about it with them. You are right about the doctors role in ruling out serious health issues. i've had lots of bloodwork done and some expensive tests, which I now kind of regret having done, since I still don't have peace of mind from the results, and plenty of medical bills to boot. I have my faith and the love of my family to help me, but I know I have to be the one to get the negativity out of my head. It's just going to take some time. Such an annoying thing to live with. S&W, thank you very much for your helpful response. :)

[joachay]

Hi meggie, I am Joanne here, I understand your fear as I got 3 kids too, I had all this thinking the same as you and I go to doctors whenever I had attack, we are just having panic and had to go to doctor every now and then when all this symptom send to our brain, you should seek help from doctor as I also on medication, you can pm me anytime

[joshbagosh]

Hello my name is josh. My anxiety is almost exactly like yours!

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in July, we were in the process of moving, my job was getting very stressful due to job responsibility change! All of these stressful situations took me to the deep end! I started getting chest pains at first which landed me in the ER. I had my first panic attack two weeks later! Thought I was having a heart attack, another ER visit with an ambulance ride. Doctors said "anxiety". I then started getting heart palps a couple days later which of course I go to the ER! Had a stress echo test that came back normal! My chest pains went away but was followed by leg pains "thought I had a blood clot in my leg lol". Since then I've had tingly sensations throughout my body, heart flutters, headaches with dizziness. The headaches and dizziness is what I'm dealing with currently and all I can think is I have a brain tumor. Crazy 4 months have pasted! All I want is everything to go away so I can live my life normally so I can raise and set a good example to my son!

The one and only thing that helps me cope with my fears of dying is the trust I have with God! Ever since my anxiety started I've never felt as close to Him as I do now. I've finally decided that if all of these symptoms somehow kill me which I doubt they will, then I know where I'll be when I'm gone! I know it's hard to do everyday things with these physical symptoms but I believe ,just like my chest pains, the new feelings will pass and we will look back and say "wow I can't believe i acted like that!"

I hope this helps! I know it helps me to know someone else is going through the same things I am! Have hope that this will pass! God bless!