rhys
10-31-2007, 11:20 AM
well I've been thinking about posting on a forum to do with anxiety for a while now.
***If you don't want to read my life story just scroll down to the LAST PARAGRAPH :D***
first of all I do apologize if this sort of post has been made a million times before. I've done abit of research into anxiety and the physical symptoms it can cause but I'm just posting here mainly for reassurance.
Ill give a little history that I think might have caused anxiety:
First of all my dad suffered terribly with his nerves/panic attacks/anxiety/depression growing up which could be associated with tubersclerosis which causes cysts to form on the personality side of the brain which can cause behavioral issues, depression and so on.At the age of 21 he suffered a nervous breakdown and made him unfit to work for just over 2 years. during those 2 years he suffered a constant 'knot' in his stomach, quite frequent panic attacks, depression and from what my mum told me, anxiety as well.It seems that even though i haven't been diagnosed with tubersclerosis and it seems that I probably wont ever be diagnosed with it I have still inherited some of my fathers anxiety issues.
The first time I remember ever having a panic attack was when I was about 10 or 11. I woke up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and started shaking quite badly. Obviously at that age I didn't know what was going on with my body so that just made things worse where I ran into my parents room and my dad calmed me down.
I never suffered any attacks after that and I think allot of that panic attack was to do with the fact that I had recently witnessed my brother (who has been diagnosed with tubersclerosis and polytheistic kidney disease, sorry for bad spelling) having an epileptic fit. This 1 was quite violent compared to several other milder fits that I had witnessed in the past. No panic attacks for many years after that right up until the age of 17 where by my girlfriend that I had been dating for 2 years broke up with me for no reason (yes, cliché i know :D) but that totally crushed me and for several weeks after I suffered from being almost constantly light headed. I had no idea what was wrong with me so i saw my doctor and some my blood was taken for testing along with the usual blood pressure/heart rate tests. Obviously the tests came back clean and there was nothing physically wrong with me and so life went on. The light headed feeling eventually wore off and life returned to normal. About 2 and a half years ago i started dating again and one night we were happily watching the blaire witch project. For 2 nights previously I'd had difficulty sleeping and as a result was feeling quite strange from the lack of sleep.
At the end of the film I felt abit odd and started to hyperventilate because it seemed i was not used to being freaked out by a film (sad i know) and the whole 'fear of fear' thing started as my first panic attack in 8 years started. I managed to control it and calm myself down, and for a few days later was a little confused as to why it had happened. I blamed it on the lack of sleep as I do tend to feel a little weird without enough sleep. anyway, a year passed and I had finished my 3 year course in college and it was time to find a job. I had been working in a store part-time while i was in college and they offered me more hours over the summer period and decided to keep me on full time. Eventually after about a year working there they started to trim back my hours so me and my girlfriend (who was also working there) decided to quit and look for a job with better hours.
We handed in our notices and worked our final 2 weeks there before leaving. on the last day we had planned a 'leaving party' just to say bye to all the people that we had worked with for the past 12 months and was planned for the 14th of July 2007.
As I arrived home with my girlfriend to get changed I thought all was well as we both scurried up the stairs to go get ready. my girlfriend was infront of me and as she got to the top of the stairs she paused...turned back and said smiling 'why is your dad snoring so loudly'. I stopped in my tracks a few steps from the top of the stairs and listened....
my heart was in my throat as i knew this sound....it sounded exactly like the sound my brother used to make after an epileptic fit. dropping my bags to the floor i ran into the room to see my dad (51 years old) laying on his bedroom floor unconscious and unresponsive snoring incredibly loudly. We had to call the paramedics along with family to come help but me and my girlfriend were alone for around 10 mins where by I had to tend to my father in this horrible state. he would stop breathing from time to time and then gasp for air before continuing snoring.
Paramedics eventually arrived and he was taken to hospital where he was immediately given a brain scan. hours passed and eventually a doctor came in to inform us that my dad had suffered a massive brain hemerage.
He never recovered from that and 2 days later passed away.
Sadly that wasn't the end of the problems. Because the day this had happened was in fact my last day at my job I had no income and my mother who was living with my auntie decided that it would be best if i kept renting the house. So bills were dumped on me and my girlfriend though ALOT of support was given by all my family and they are still supporting me 100%.
I didn't have alot of time to grieve me fathers death as it was straight to dealing with bills and looking for jobs. My girlfriend found a job almost immediately but I still haven't found a job after 2 months of searching, handing out c.v's and filling in application forms.
Now around 3 months from that dreaded day I'm starting to suffer anxiety.
I worry constantly about my health, I lay awake at night in bed in fear that I'm going to die any second the same way my dad did. I worry about silly things like meningitis because a friend of a friend a few years back died suddenly because of meningitis in his sleep. Over the past 3 weeks I've been suffering from panic attacks where by my body tenses up really tight and i start to shake. My girlfriend has been so supportive and normally talks to me through it all and plays silly games with me to try and take my mind off it.
Lately I've been getting some abdominal/stomach/chest pain. nothing severe but enough to notice theres a pain there. At first i thought it was my appendices and immediately saw my doctor. He didn't think there was anything wrong as i wasnt showing strong enough symptoms (he could press my appendices with no pain and i could still walk and eat perfectly normal) The other night when i was washing the dishes i felt slightly winded...like somebody had punched me in the stomach but not a hard punch. I pass alot of wind normally with these pains most times (embarrassing) but not always. I always get tension in my neck when i have panic attacks because of how much my body tenses up during an attack.
I've read up about 'Hypochondria' and that sounds like me all over. I worry so much about my health i think that it might actually be making me ill or at least causing my brain to think ive got a physical symptom such as abdominal pain. I think i now have a cold comming on. Thats been going around again I've got a slight sore throat and abit of a blocked nose but i even worry about small things like that.
ANYWAY! sorry to rant on like that this is the first time ive ever posted about anxiety so i thought id try and be as detailed as possible. To summarize all of the above: is it possible for anxiety to cause physical symptoms such as abdominal pain, chest pain, stomach ache or should i go and see my doctor again? (i haven't been to see him about the chest pain because I feel like I'm wasting his time)
Thanks for your time
***If you don't want to read my life story just scroll down to the LAST PARAGRAPH :D***
first of all I do apologize if this sort of post has been made a million times before. I've done abit of research into anxiety and the physical symptoms it can cause but I'm just posting here mainly for reassurance.
Ill give a little history that I think might have caused anxiety:
First of all my dad suffered terribly with his nerves/panic attacks/anxiety/depression growing up which could be associated with tubersclerosis which causes cysts to form on the personality side of the brain which can cause behavioral issues, depression and so on.At the age of 21 he suffered a nervous breakdown and made him unfit to work for just over 2 years. during those 2 years he suffered a constant 'knot' in his stomach, quite frequent panic attacks, depression and from what my mum told me, anxiety as well.It seems that even though i haven't been diagnosed with tubersclerosis and it seems that I probably wont ever be diagnosed with it I have still inherited some of my fathers anxiety issues.
The first time I remember ever having a panic attack was when I was about 10 or 11. I woke up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and started shaking quite badly. Obviously at that age I didn't know what was going on with my body so that just made things worse where I ran into my parents room and my dad calmed me down.
I never suffered any attacks after that and I think allot of that panic attack was to do with the fact that I had recently witnessed my brother (who has been diagnosed with tubersclerosis and polytheistic kidney disease, sorry for bad spelling) having an epileptic fit. This 1 was quite violent compared to several other milder fits that I had witnessed in the past. No panic attacks for many years after that right up until the age of 17 where by my girlfriend that I had been dating for 2 years broke up with me for no reason (yes, cliché i know :D) but that totally crushed me and for several weeks after I suffered from being almost constantly light headed. I had no idea what was wrong with me so i saw my doctor and some my blood was taken for testing along with the usual blood pressure/heart rate tests. Obviously the tests came back clean and there was nothing physically wrong with me and so life went on. The light headed feeling eventually wore off and life returned to normal. About 2 and a half years ago i started dating again and one night we were happily watching the blaire witch project. For 2 nights previously I'd had difficulty sleeping and as a result was feeling quite strange from the lack of sleep.
At the end of the film I felt abit odd and started to hyperventilate because it seemed i was not used to being freaked out by a film (sad i know) and the whole 'fear of fear' thing started as my first panic attack in 8 years started. I managed to control it and calm myself down, and for a few days later was a little confused as to why it had happened. I blamed it on the lack of sleep as I do tend to feel a little weird without enough sleep. anyway, a year passed and I had finished my 3 year course in college and it was time to find a job. I had been working in a store part-time while i was in college and they offered me more hours over the summer period and decided to keep me on full time. Eventually after about a year working there they started to trim back my hours so me and my girlfriend (who was also working there) decided to quit and look for a job with better hours.
We handed in our notices and worked our final 2 weeks there before leaving. on the last day we had planned a 'leaving party' just to say bye to all the people that we had worked with for the past 12 months and was planned for the 14th of July 2007.
As I arrived home with my girlfriend to get changed I thought all was well as we both scurried up the stairs to go get ready. my girlfriend was infront of me and as she got to the top of the stairs she paused...turned back and said smiling 'why is your dad snoring so loudly'. I stopped in my tracks a few steps from the top of the stairs and listened....
my heart was in my throat as i knew this sound....it sounded exactly like the sound my brother used to make after an epileptic fit. dropping my bags to the floor i ran into the room to see my dad (51 years old) laying on his bedroom floor unconscious and unresponsive snoring incredibly loudly. We had to call the paramedics along with family to come help but me and my girlfriend were alone for around 10 mins where by I had to tend to my father in this horrible state. he would stop breathing from time to time and then gasp for air before continuing snoring.
Paramedics eventually arrived and he was taken to hospital where he was immediately given a brain scan. hours passed and eventually a doctor came in to inform us that my dad had suffered a massive brain hemerage.
He never recovered from that and 2 days later passed away.
Sadly that wasn't the end of the problems. Because the day this had happened was in fact my last day at my job I had no income and my mother who was living with my auntie decided that it would be best if i kept renting the house. So bills were dumped on me and my girlfriend though ALOT of support was given by all my family and they are still supporting me 100%.
I didn't have alot of time to grieve me fathers death as it was straight to dealing with bills and looking for jobs. My girlfriend found a job almost immediately but I still haven't found a job after 2 months of searching, handing out c.v's and filling in application forms.
Now around 3 months from that dreaded day I'm starting to suffer anxiety.
I worry constantly about my health, I lay awake at night in bed in fear that I'm going to die any second the same way my dad did. I worry about silly things like meningitis because a friend of a friend a few years back died suddenly because of meningitis in his sleep. Over the past 3 weeks I've been suffering from panic attacks where by my body tenses up really tight and i start to shake. My girlfriend has been so supportive and normally talks to me through it all and plays silly games with me to try and take my mind off it.
Lately I've been getting some abdominal/stomach/chest pain. nothing severe but enough to notice theres a pain there. At first i thought it was my appendices and immediately saw my doctor. He didn't think there was anything wrong as i wasnt showing strong enough symptoms (he could press my appendices with no pain and i could still walk and eat perfectly normal) The other night when i was washing the dishes i felt slightly winded...like somebody had punched me in the stomach but not a hard punch. I pass alot of wind normally with these pains most times (embarrassing) but not always. I always get tension in my neck when i have panic attacks because of how much my body tenses up during an attack.
I've read up about 'Hypochondria' and that sounds like me all over. I worry so much about my health i think that it might actually be making me ill or at least causing my brain to think ive got a physical symptom such as abdominal pain. I think i now have a cold comming on. Thats been going around again I've got a slight sore throat and abit of a blocked nose but i even worry about small things like that.
ANYWAY! sorry to rant on like that this is the first time ive ever posted about anxiety so i thought id try and be as detailed as possible. To summarize all of the above: is it possible for anxiety to cause physical symptoms such as abdominal pain, chest pain, stomach ache or should i go and see my doctor again? (i haven't been to see him about the chest pain because I feel like I'm wasting his time)
Thanks for your time