hey there dazza.

[Tristanayoubi]

lol dazza my phone shows you're online..

answer my questions/ answer yes or no:
1.anyway.. so anxiety causes aches and pains yes?

2.think about disease/illness and your body produces symptoms

3.you constantly think something is wrong with you.

4.do aches and pains in the arms go throughout the whole arm?

5.how can i tell if i have chest congestion? my chest feels full.

6. I'm getting aches and sharp pains in my hands. around my thumb and my shoulder blade. all left side.

7. damn. it feels like im back to square 1..

[jhunter89]

How old are you? Have you ever been to see a doctor to check your heart? I had a panic attack a few weeks ago, my heart was racing, I felt light headed and sick I started googling signs of a heart attack, boy that was a big mistake, I wasn't sure if I should go to a+e or call and ambulance. I was on my own aswell which didnt help. My left arm felt numb but also tingly like pins and needles. I really thought I was going to die. When my boyfriend got home he said it was more likely I was having a panic attack and I looked up the symptoms of a panic attack and I calmed down a bit and told myself if it was a heart attack, I'd of collapsed or be dead by now! I was still convinced i was dying over the next following days, i couldnt eat, went doctors and everything who said I might be coming down with a virus cos my temperature was up (but it was a hot day!) eventually I pulled myself out of it n the less I thought about my heartbeat the better it felt. Now when I become aware of my heart beating I just tell myself it's panic and that helps control it a bit.

[jhunter89]

I also felt fullness in my neck which worried me no end!

[aforce]

1.anyway.. so anxiety causes aches and pains ? yes

2.think about disease/illness and your body produces symptoms yes

3.you constantly think something is wrong with you. yes

4.do aches and pains in the arms go throughout the whole arm? yes

5.how can i tell if i have chest congestion? my chest feels full. yes

6. I'm getting aches and sharp pains in my hands. around my thumb and my shoulder blade. all left side.
no
7. damn. it feels like im back to square 1..

[dazza]

Unless I'm actually posting then I'm not online. I look like I'm online because I never actively log-out of the site. :-P

1. anxiety causes aches and pains yes?

Yes and no.

Normal levels of anxiety don't (e.g. remember a time before anxiety disorder developed when, say, you had a dentist appointment?
Sure it'd cause some fear... no-one likes dentists, but, I recall that it didn't cause a racing heart, arm pains, tingles, twinges, palpitations and a fear of impending death!

It's fight or flight mode which causes the symptoms, since this is a drastic, biological preparation to run or fight for your life.

Only one example I can think of, of PRE-anxiety disorder where I've experienced physical pain through danger and that's when I've had "near misses" in the car.
E.g. last minute panic breaking, or someone pulling out at a junction.

This sends a shock wave down my back. A tension of muscles, a slightly raised heart rate and an adrenalin rush.
Lower back ends up pulsating with pain, but this normally subsides within 10 minutes or so... once the shock has passed.

With a balanaced brain, the option to fight or flight would be correctly processed. A result of passing the potential danger through the rationality filters first.
With an imbalanced brain, rationality is skipped (short-circuit) and the potential danger often passes straight over to fight or flight.

2.think about disease/illness and your body produces symptoms

Again, for folks with a disorder, this thinking is not properly filtered and often short-circuits straight to fight or flight... which leads to... well, you know the rest.

3.you constantly think something is wrong with you.

Also yes and no.
Before you developed anxiety disorder, any pains, twinges, discomforts or whatever would immediately be filtered out by rationality.
Now, however, the same, perfectly normal sensations often creep their way through the thought process and hovver around the fight or flight mechanism... poking it occasionally, antagonising it... trying their best to trigger it.

All in the head? Yes, absolutely... the forebrain or frontal lobes mostly, as this part controls behaviour, general thinking & reasoning.

4.do aches and pains in the arms go throughout the whole arm?

Yeppp... all over, and strangely dissappear during times of calm!

5.how can i tell if i have chest congestion? my chest feels full.

Almost guaranteed to be chest muscle tensiono and/or Gerd and/or Esophageal spasm (contraction of esophagus) and/or Precordial Catch Syndrome (mostly in teens... unexplainable stabbing pains, mostly under left breast and armpit - harmless)

6. I'm getting aches and sharp pains in my hands. around my thumb and my shoulder blade. all left side.

Sounds all too familiar. Almost a guaranteed link to stress and anxiety.

7. damn. it feels like im back to square 1...

You never really get used to it, but what you must do is try to relax your attitude towards it - which in turn reduces stress which in turn reduces anxiety.


I must say however that, do whatever you need to, to get reassurance.
Keep going to the docs. and A&E for the time being. Eventually their messages will sink in!

[dazza]

I've just had a thought... (happens sometimes)

Although it's always a pleasure trying to help through this web forum, I must throw the suggestion up that perhaps you spend too much time on the pooter, in general?

<pops a wurthers original>

WHEN I WERE A LAD... YOUR AGE... KOMPOOTERS didn't exist. I knowwww... weird!

I was too busy hacking up and down farm roads on illegal motorbikes or just bumming around on the streets with mates... generally always out and about and never slumped over a pooter / internet googling all sorts of shit that's enough to blow anyone's mind up.

How about actually leaving this site (and pooters in general) for a while and go experience some of the great outdoors?

Ironically, I know that outdoors can be a struggle for anxiety sufferes but I believe it is medicinal for the mind and soul.