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Southside
10-26-2008, 07:27 AM
Sorry for the length.

I am not sure where to start. I think I've always been a worrier, but it seemed normal. Every time I would get any health symptom, I thought the worst, but I didn't really obsess over it. 2 months ago, I had a small red spot on the roof of my mouth and that set everything off. I couldn't get the thought of AIDS out of my mind. The spot went away. I had a cold, but convinced myself that, that could not be the reason. For the next week or so, I had diarrhea and nausea and every second of the day that's all I thought about. I started having weird dreams and was unable to sleep past 4:00am. I went to my doctor and told him about my problems. I did have unprotected sex 15 years ago, and I've been with my beautiful wife for 10 years 100% faithfully. He told me that I was nervous over nothing and that it would be "pretty far fetched" to have AIDS from a one time experience 15 years ago and have no health issues since except for a few colds and a bad back. He told me not even to bother getting tested for AIDS, but did recommend routine blood work for cholesterol, glucose etc. Right around this time, my wife and I started talking about having kids and I started a new job. By the way, the girl from 15 years ago is married with 2 kids, one is 5 and one is 10 months.

For a while, I felt better. Recently I can't stop thinking about my health. I have nausea every day, especially when I wake up. I have this buzzing, twithching feeling randomly over my body, especially feet and fingers. The other day at work I started getting heart palpitations (missing a beat). I have gotten them before like every one else, but these were every few seconds/minutes all day. They went away for a few days but came back not as bad. At times I feel dizzy. The other day I had to sit down for a few minutes it got so bad. I feel like I'm on the computer all the time looking up symptoms for everything. I thought I was having vision problems (flashes of light). I went to the eye doctor she said my eye sight was very good.

I feel like I'm losing my mind! Most days I just sit and obsess over all of this. If I do do something that gets my mind off of it, my problems go away. I was carving pumpkins with my wife last night and had no twitches. I then sat down to watch tv and actually said to myself, "I feel good, no twitches" About 30 seconds later they were back. I am 99% sure it's anxiety, and I get mad at myself for doing this to myself. But then I also worry about diseases I might have. I am definitely not an emotional person or crier, but in the last few months at times when I am alone I just start crying. My wife who has been very supportive tells me its anxiety, every symptom I look up on the internet, the first cause is stress and anxiety.

I'm not even sure why I wrote this, reassurance, just to get it off my chest or for help. For the 1st time in my life I don't feel normal. Thanks for listening, the other posts I have read have been helpful.

idreamofskiba
10-27-2008, 12:15 PM
I don't have any advice or know what to say, really, but you're not alone, and sometimes that's good for reassurance. My anxiety has been through the roof recently...I get the buzzing and twiching and lightheadedness. My whole body aches because I've been so tense. My hands hurt so bad right now because I slept with my fists clenched all night. I know I have issues with stress and anxiety, which could be causing the symptoms I'm having, but I can not get it out of my mind that I have some horrible disease and look up symptoms all day long, which only makes the anxiety worse.

Southside
10-28-2008, 06:46 AM
It doesn't make me happy that you and others do the same things I do, but like you said, it does give me reassurance. For me, the mornings are the worst. I don't get a lot of sleep, so early every night I'm exhausted. I don't want to go to sleep, because I have a lot of stress and anxiety when I wake up.

I'm trying to stop looking up symptoms on the internet and constantly poking and prodding myself. Sounds strange, but I found this online quiz the other day to see if you were a hypochondriac. Needless to say, the results said my risk was very high, but it made me feel a little better. Trying some of the tips I've seen on this board. Thanks for the help. Problem is I don't smoke, drink or even drink coffee. Maybe I should!