Peak
11-10-2015, 04:42 AM
I suffer from anxiety anyway, typically about health but also about events in my childhood, however the past 2 months have been stressful beyond belief.
I also suffer from a bad back which is made worse my stress and anxiety and this was really playing up a couple of months ago to the point I had to go back to my Osteopath as we were about to go on holiday for the first time in 5 years. Unfortunately the day before we went I saw the Osteopath again who did something which my back reacted to and I was in severe pain but determined to still go, we went on holiday.
The first day was not too bad but the 2nd was very painful and I had to go to a chemist to get pain killers. On the third day we received a phone call to say my father-in-law had died suddenly! Needless to say my wife was devastated and we cancelled our holiday and came home to organise the funeral. During this time I went back to my GP and Osteopath and was signed off work.
During the next 2 months we have had to deal with the following:
Organising the funeral of my father-in-law
Dealing with my father-in-law's estate
Another close family member had a heart attack - thankfully they survived but are elderly, weak etc
My mother fell over and broke her wrist
My wife is made redundant
My mother then has a mini stroke
And then finally, yesterday, our cat died.
I am still signed off work because of my back but aiming to go back on Monday.
Throughout all of this I have been prescribed Propanalol which I take every morning for anxiety and Prozac for Stress/Anxiety/Depression. I have also put on a lot of weight as I am a comfort eater and have put on nearly a stone (13lb) which means I'm the heaviest I've ever been and very, very much over weight.
What I have noticed though is that my anxiety symptoms have taken different physical forms which, because they are different, then make me feel anxious that they may not be anxiety related but heart health related (my greatest fear). Whereas normally I would get heart palpitations and dizziness I now find I get:
Dizziness
Acid Indigestion
A fleeting feeling like I'm being smothered - like I can't breathe but in actual fact I can and am breathing normally.
Sweating
The first three I can deal with and kinda understand but the sweating is weird, unsettling and embarrassing. Most times it happens when I'm active and when I say active, because of my back, this just means walking to the shops etc. For example I just walked to my GP for a blood test and in the 10 minutes it took me to get there I was sweating heavily and by the time I got home my t-shirt was soaked. Okay perhaps you could put this one down to some subconscious anxiety over a blood test but this happens whenever I walk anywhere for more than 10 minutes. I'm not out of breath, I don't feel tired or weak, I just sweat buckets. Before all of this happened I was around 6lb lighter and didn't really have this problem. Yes if it was a hot day I would sweat if I walked for 20 mins or more but it's winter, and even if I don't wear a jacket and just a t-shirt I sweat. I've also noticed that if I have a hot shower, when I get out I still feel hot and so I then start to sweat again, it's like I can't regulate my temperature properly. It feels like if I start to feel warm my body starts to panic as if it's fearing it means something else and I start to sweat, the more I sweat the worse I feel and the more I sweat and so on.
Does anyone else have this, could this be a side effect of the drugs I'm on or is it simply that I'm now so fat and unfit I can't move without sweating buckets?
I also suffer from a bad back which is made worse my stress and anxiety and this was really playing up a couple of months ago to the point I had to go back to my Osteopath as we were about to go on holiday for the first time in 5 years. Unfortunately the day before we went I saw the Osteopath again who did something which my back reacted to and I was in severe pain but determined to still go, we went on holiday.
The first day was not too bad but the 2nd was very painful and I had to go to a chemist to get pain killers. On the third day we received a phone call to say my father-in-law had died suddenly! Needless to say my wife was devastated and we cancelled our holiday and came home to organise the funeral. During this time I went back to my GP and Osteopath and was signed off work.
During the next 2 months we have had to deal with the following:
Organising the funeral of my father-in-law
Dealing with my father-in-law's estate
Another close family member had a heart attack - thankfully they survived but are elderly, weak etc
My mother fell over and broke her wrist
My wife is made redundant
My mother then has a mini stroke
And then finally, yesterday, our cat died.
I am still signed off work because of my back but aiming to go back on Monday.
Throughout all of this I have been prescribed Propanalol which I take every morning for anxiety and Prozac for Stress/Anxiety/Depression. I have also put on a lot of weight as I am a comfort eater and have put on nearly a stone (13lb) which means I'm the heaviest I've ever been and very, very much over weight.
What I have noticed though is that my anxiety symptoms have taken different physical forms which, because they are different, then make me feel anxious that they may not be anxiety related but heart health related (my greatest fear). Whereas normally I would get heart palpitations and dizziness I now find I get:
Dizziness
Acid Indigestion
A fleeting feeling like I'm being smothered - like I can't breathe but in actual fact I can and am breathing normally.
Sweating
The first three I can deal with and kinda understand but the sweating is weird, unsettling and embarrassing. Most times it happens when I'm active and when I say active, because of my back, this just means walking to the shops etc. For example I just walked to my GP for a blood test and in the 10 minutes it took me to get there I was sweating heavily and by the time I got home my t-shirt was soaked. Okay perhaps you could put this one down to some subconscious anxiety over a blood test but this happens whenever I walk anywhere for more than 10 minutes. I'm not out of breath, I don't feel tired or weak, I just sweat buckets. Before all of this happened I was around 6lb lighter and didn't really have this problem. Yes if it was a hot day I would sweat if I walked for 20 mins or more but it's winter, and even if I don't wear a jacket and just a t-shirt I sweat. I've also noticed that if I have a hot shower, when I get out I still feel hot and so I then start to sweat again, it's like I can't regulate my temperature properly. It feels like if I start to feel warm my body starts to panic as if it's fearing it means something else and I start to sweat, the more I sweat the worse I feel and the more I sweat and so on.
Does anyone else have this, could this be a side effect of the drugs I'm on or is it simply that I'm now so fat and unfit I can't move without sweating buckets?