hypochondria driving me crazy!!!

[vonnhelsing]

So i've been in absolute hell this past year!
Agoraphobia to the point where i was homebound for weeks at a time and hypochondria to the point where i'd go to hospital every few months. The only reason i've got this chronic anxiety is because i'm constantly thinking i'm gonna drop dead at any time.
No joke, these past 10 months i have not had a SINGLE day where i haven't felt some sort of discomfort or pain in my body. not one single day. I've got terrible left shoulder and arms pains every day which make everything worse cause im constantly thinking im about to have a heart attack.
I've done 2 echo cardiograms this year and at least 10 ECG's as well as a 24 hour holter monitor and blood tests. Results were normal..
What are these pains????? is it a heart problem??? i just feel so unwell like i'm not myself anymore. i don't feel like ME. i feel like a different person. it's scary because i dont think it's anxiety causing me to feel these pains but i feel like it's the pains that are making me anxious. so there might actually be something wrong with my physically? :(
HELP! :(

[ILoveConorMaynard]

I used to feel like that. I used to go to bed crying because I had convinced myself I had cancer. However, I soon realised that actually nothing was physically wrong with me.

It's all in your head, your brain is so powerful, if you let it it will control you. It sounds like you are probably worrying so much that you are creating the pains without knowing for comfort maybe?

I know it's horrible and many people don't understand, my friends used to make fun of me so I learnt to keep it to myself.

You just need to stop and calm down and tell yourself you are perfectly fine then you have to keep yourself busy to stop you dwelling on things.

I hope this has helped? :)

[dazza]

It's amazing what a bit of worry can do, isn't it?

Seriously... it is AMAZING.

Before I developed anxiety disorder, I would dismiss this kind of gafuffal as something only a complete, chair-rocking, wall-headbutting loon would experience and not someone as normally level headed & laid back as myself.

Worries mount / bind-together and eventually take over your poor brain.
Before you know it, you're head is overflowing and brain needs to do something drastic to fight (or run) from the monster that has taken residence within you.

The result... well, I bet you already know it... FIGHT or FLIGHT.

Messages of danger / high alert are frequently emitted to your body in preparation to take action against your anxiety monster.
These messages cause an adrenalin overdose and nerves going wild, which in turn causes the physical pains and sensations which you experience.

No harm is being done. You're quite alright but unless you deal with the monster it'll keep attacking.

Taking meds? seen a therapist?

[vonnhelsing]

I used to take diazepam but i'd rather not depend on meds. Right now i'm on tenormin which is a beta blocker but is mainly used to slow down the heart. my heart rate goes crazy when im anxious so i take it to slow it down and it stops some of the adrenaline.
therapist, no. i live in a country where mental health is not taken very seriously at all. there isnt any kind of help available. or any support groups..
just been dealing with it completely on my own for 4 years..