Do I have anxiety?

[parkbenchpoet]

Hi all,
Just looking for a bit of help or advice. I believe I may be suffering from health related anxiety and really wanted to talk to some people to see if what I am experiencing is anxiety. Apologies in advance for the lengthy post!

It started about 3 months ago. I was previously perfectly fine health wise. I only really visited the doctor when I absolutely had to, and felt perfectly fine within myself.
Then all of a sudden when I was lying in bed trying to sleep I started experiencing a pounding, racing heartbeat. I had tingles in my jaw, tightness and pain in my chest, numbness in my fingers and it felt like my heart was beating on my tongue. In that moment I was filled with intense dread and was certain I was having a heart attack. The pain went away, and I phoned NHS direct as I had never experienced anything like that before. They told me to go to hospital, which I did. They asked me if I had been taking drugs as I was very tachycardic and my blood pressure was 160/107.
They didn't find anything wrong with me, but over the next few weeks I was filled with the worst feelings of dread I've ever felt. The tightness in my chest continued, I was experiencing shortness of breath all the time, I spent hours a day on google looking up heart diseases and stories of people who had had heart attacks at a young age (I am 23.) I lay awake every night not able to get to sleep because I was convinced I wasn't going to wake up, and I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke in my sleep. I used to have a normal sleeping pattern and never woke up in the night, but I was finding that when I eventually got to sleep I was waking up numerous times in the night. It got so bad I had to start taking sleeping tablets. I went to the doctors and had blood tests, chest X-rays and ECGs but all came back fine.

In the end I was so convinced I had something wrong with my heart that I went to a private hospital and paid £500 to have some tests done which found I had pericarditis which is an inflammation of the lining of the heart.

That diagnosis was approximately 1 month ago, but my symptoms have continued, although I am now experiencing other symptoms such as tingling, creeping pins and needles feelings in my scalp, the sense that my head is really heavy, numb and heavy hands, and weird feelings in my feet that feel as though a heater have momentarily been placed on them. I feel generally 'not right' although everything I google leads me to believe I have anxiety. So I am worrying that I have anxiety, but because I keep googling all my symptoms and worrying about it, it's making the anxiety worse, which is turn causing me to believe I have something desperately wrong with me.

Lately things have been getting a lot worse, as I have had a few ongoing illnesses for a while that I pushed to the back of my mind thinking I had IBS or something, but now I'm really worried that I have uterine/ovarian cancer as I have been experiencing, abnormal bleeding for 3 weeks straight as well as all the symptoms (which I realised when looking up abnormal bleeding.) I also suffer from Polycystic ovaries so I am worried one of these cycsts has turned cancerous. I found that a percentage of people with these cancers also experience pounding heart/palpitations so I am worrying that a) what I thought was anxiety was actually caused by cancer and b) It's not actually cancer but in fact my anxiety is getting worse.

I am so stressed by all of this because until this all happened a few months ago I was completely fine, and now it seems my whole life has turned upside down.

This has been so detrimental to my health, that I've started to feel quite depressed. (I previously suffered from depression 7 years ago, and overdosed, but I have been fine for 7 years with no more signs of depression.) My doctors and hospital are not very good and have not been taking me seriously as I do not fit the bracket of those typically at risk of having something wrong with them. I feel like they think I'm making everything up and are palming me off with excuses.

Now because I'm worrying so much about everything, I'm even incredibly anxious about being home alone. I used to be very independent, but tonight I have been home alone as my partner has gone away, and I have been jumping at little noises all night. My cats were fighting and I even convinced myself that there was a fox in the house?? Now I'm wide awake at 2am writing this because I can't sleep because I'm worrying about things.

I do have a situation with money/debt that I am stressed about but I didn't think it was worrying me this much to cause all this as generally I am quite a worry-free person.

I'm so sorry about how long this is, but I just want to know if anyone thinks I do actually have anything to worry about with my health, or if you think what Im suffering with is anxiety. It's just a never ending cycle going round and round in my head and I am actually starting to think I'm going crazy and need therapy or something!!

Thank you for reading!!

[xxcraigiexx]

I also suffer from health anxiety, it started when I was working in an emergency room and witnessed someone die from a heart attack. Since then I have been plagued by physical symptoms of anxiety. It started with constant heart palpitations with occasional chest pain, I would also have dizziness and the feeling as if I was suffocating. I went to two doctors and had every test done to my heart as well as an mri of my brain and I am told that I am perfectly fine. I am only 26 and I still fear health problems every single day. It sounds like you have anxiety and if you have been told by doctors you are healthy then they are probably right. My health anxiety has made it hard for me to trust doctors for some reason, but I still try and remind myself that I am ok. I know that this can be a very hard way to live but it does get better. Stay strong :)

[majored]

Hi all,
Just looking for a bit of help or advice. I believe I may be suffering from health related anxiety and really wanted to talk to some people to see if what I am experiencing is anxiety. Apologies in advance for the lengthy post!

It started about 3 months ago. I was previously perfectly fine health wise. I only really visited the doctor when I absolutely had to, and felt perfectly fine within myself.
Then all of a sudden when I was lying in bed trying to sleep I started experiencing a pounding, racing heartbeat. I had tingles in my jaw, tightness and pain in my chest, numbness in my fingers and it felt like my heart was beating on my tongue. In that moment I was filled with intense dread and was certain I was having a heart attack. The pain went away, and I phoned NHS direct as I had never experienced anything like that before. They told me to go to hospital, which I did. They asked me if I had been taking drugs as I was very tachycardic and my blood pressure was 160/107.
They didn't find anything wrong with me, but over the next few weeks I was filled with the worst feelings of dread I've ever felt. The tightness in my chest continued, I was experiencing shortness of breath all the time, I spent hours a day on google looking up heart diseases and stories of people who had had heart attacks at a young age (I am 23.) I lay awake every night not able to get to sleep because I was convinced I wasn't going to wake up, and I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke in my sleep. I used to have a normal sleeping pattern and never woke up in the night, but I was finding that when I eventually got to sleep I was waking up numerous times in the night. It got so bad I had to start taking sleeping tablets. I went to the doctors and had blood tests, chest X-rays and ECGs but all came back fine.

In the end I was so convinced I had something wrong with my heart that I went to a private hospital and paid £500 to have some tests done which found I had pericarditis which is an inflammation of the lining of the heart.

That diagnosis was approximately 1 month ago, but my symptoms have continued, although I am now experiencing other symptoms such as tingling, creeping pins and needles feelings in my scalp, the sense that my head is really heavy, numb and heavy hands, and weird feelings in my feet that feel as though a heater have momentarily been placed on them. I feel generally 'not right' although everything I google leads me to believe I have anxiety. So I am worrying that I have anxiety, but because I keep googling all my symptoms and worrying about it, it's making the anxiety worse, which is turn causing me to believe I have something desperately wrong with me.

Lately things have been getting a lot worse, as I have had a few ongoing illnesses for a while that I pushed to the back of my mind thinking I had IBS or something, but now I'm really worried that I have uterine/ovarian cancer as I have been experiencing, abnormal bleeding for 3 weeks straight as well as all the symptoms (which I realised when looking up abnormal bleeding.) I also suffer from Polycystic ovaries so I am worried one of these cycsts has turned cancerous. I found that a percentage of people with these cancers also experience pounding heart/palpitations so I am worrying that a) what I thought was anxiety was actually caused by cancer and b) It's not actually cancer but in fact my anxiety is getting worse.

I am so stressed by all of this because until this all happened a few months ago I was completely fine, and now it seems my whole life has turned upside down.

This has been so detrimental to my health, that I've started to feel quite depressed. (I previously suffered from depression 7 years ago, and overdosed, but I have been fine for 7 years with no more signs of depression.) My doctors and hospital are not very good and have not been taking me seriously as I do not fit the bracket of those typically at risk of having something wrong with them. I feel like they think I'm making everything up and are palming me off with excuses.

Now because I'm worrying so much about everything, I'm even incredibly anxious about being home alone. I used to be very independent, but tonight I have been home alone as my partner has gone away, and I have been jumping at little noises all night. My cats were fighting and I even convinced myself that there was a fox in the house?? Now I'm wide awake at 2am writing this because I can't sleep because I'm worrying about things.

I do have a situation with money/debt that I am stressed about but I didn't think it was worrying me this much to cause all this as generally I am quite a worry-free person.

I'm so sorry about how long this is, but I just want to know if anyone thinks I do actually have anything to worry about with my health, or if you think what Im suffering with is anxiety. It's just a never ending cycle going round and round in my head and I am actually starting to think I'm going crazy and need therapy or something!!

Thank you for reading!!


Hi Parkbench

Well you sound alot like me to tell you the truth. It seems with most people with health anxiety something or one thing starts the whole process of anxiety off. I think ive always
been a bit of a worrier but in dec 2011 one thing that happened to me started this bout of anxiety. Every little niggle, pain, twinge i think something is going on. Then i google it which is the worse thing that you can do, but most people will do it. You want answers, reinsurance ,help, etc. Facts are 8 out of 10 times it will give you a bad fact that will make you feel like your dying. I know that to be true because its happened to me quite a few times now, but it doesnt stop me from looking on google. I think when you look on a forum or something similar for a answer to your symptoms your see a big long list of everything it could be but it could also be something else. People only seem to put bad stories on a health forum and believe me i found loads of them. My health issues never seem to turn out like theirs did and yet our symptoms were the same.

I had a swelling on my stomach .... i was told its a muscle. Pain under ribs ............anxiety. Chest pain.....anxiety. Headache.........Anxiety. Ovary pain...........unsure, etc,etc,etc . Well my list goes on and on!
I had a lot of ovary pain to tell you the truth and spotting. The pain went into my hip and down my leg, swollen stomach. Then on the TV and RADIO came its Ovarian Cancer month, have you got this symptom? are you having this pain? Im thinking YES , YES IVE GOT THAT!. The worry gets the better of me and i make a trip to the docs but really worried about whats going to happen. She said i could have endo as i have pains in my hips & legs etc. The next doc said she would do a blood test to detect it. I got the results Friday just gone and they came back all clear. I had real bad headaches before the results as well as chest pain. I felt as though things were spreading around my body and then i think the worse and its always the worse thing! Now im not so worried about the Ovaries even though the pain is still there. Now i have new worries and i have a little cough and i keep getting pain in my right lung. .....hmmmm should i go back to the doc again?

I like horror films and now i find if im watching them or people arguing, on the tv i start to get palpitations. I lay in bed and i can hear my heart beating as well as feeling it. It seems to move up from my heart up into my neck then head.

Everything in my life just goes round and round. I deal with health issue then along comes another. Because i worry about it and i get stressed then the problems get worse and the whole thing goes round again.

I try to work but the problems are always in the back of mind and i have to smile and be happy in front of my children and yet deep inside im worrying. Im not on any medication for my anxiety a i worry so much about it upsetting my stomach or having side effects.

If i think back up until that point a few years back i was ok and just one thing has turned the way i think upside down. At times its very hard to cope with things and its hard to explain to some who is not feeling the same way or going through the same thing.

If you want to ever talk about things, just message me.

Take care