23 year old life falling apart please help!

[desperate]

Hi

This is my first post I am new to the forum and would appreciate any advice anyone could offer.

I am a 23 year old female and the last few months have brought a series of events that have just caused severe anxiety that has manifested. Problem is I have no idea how to break out of it I do not want to go on medication!

Firstly I suffered a bad virus over xmas and new year which pretty much debiliated me till Feb. At the begining of Feb my dog of 16 years died. In addition to this I recently started a new job my first one out of uni that is awful. There is a serious lack of work so I just sit there trying to waste time on the computer. I had all these plans of where my life was going to go and it all seems to have crumbled.

I dnt know if it was being ill or just a combination of these factors but I started to get headaches, nausea , aches and pains etc. My father is a doctor and he has given me a clean bill of health but I have sort of becoming a hypochondriac. Someone told me that hypochonria is a manifestation of anxiety!. I feel like im a little better now but for a few weeks I could not sleep was up every 20 min I honestly began to belive that I had some terrible fatal illness that people had missed. To be honest I still havnt gotten over this idea. Everytime I get an upset or sore stomach I think its something serious. every headache has become a brain tumor ,shortness of breath a heartattack

These thoughts spin around in my head all day. I feel so trapped I cant enjoy life at all . When I can I just stay in the house and watch tv. Because I often feel nauseas and get headaches im always worried something is going to happen when im out with people!. Its like a feeling that something is going to go wrong all the time!

I feel like my life is passing me by and its so hard to try and see the light at the end of the tunnel I feel like I may never come out of this!I am going to see a counseller got my first session on Monday. My parents keep talking to me telling me im fine and I just have to sort things out but I feel as though they are getting sick of it..of me.

Can anyone offer any help! maybe people who have been through it come out the other side . How did u do it? will it get better?

SORRY FOR THE LONG POST

[V for Victor]

The bad news is that it sounds like you do have anxiety, and hypochondria.

The good news is that so does everybody else here, and there is hope.


I've had anxiety since I was about 14, and I'm 18 now. Like you, every time I'd get a minor ache or pain, I'd blow it was out of perspective and think it was a terrible disease, one that had slipped under the radar of everybody else who was telling me I was fine.

I also have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and so that makes me obsess even more about getting sick.

It got so bad that it was shutting down everything else in my life, so I went to a doctor, and she gave me Citalopram. The pills have really helped and I'm feeling great. However, I fully understand you not wanting to go on medication. I didn't either at first. I though it meant I was too weak to handle life, and I worried that'd I'd become dependent, and so on. I eventually got over those worries, and now I know that I'm not to weak to handle my life, I just have a condition that needs to be treated. A person with poor eyesight is no weaker for wearing glasses than is a person with anxiety who takes medication for it.

Going to a counselor is a good first step. In the meantime, try to stay away from researching symptoms on the internet. I made the mistake of doing that everytime I got a little ache or pain, and I'd always convince myself that I had whatever diseases the internet said cause that symptom. You don't wanna be a cyberchondriac! ;)

I know the feeling of fear about going out, too. Every time before I go out somewhere, I get all nervous and my stomach knots up. But I always make myself go, and then once I'm there, all is fine.

The bottom line: You're in control here, not your anxiety. You're not crazy, you just have anxiety problems, as do millions more. There are numerous options for treating it in this day in age, including medication, if you decide you'd like to give that a try.

Remember, anxiety is a problem that does have a solution and numerous work arounds, but you have to take action! :)