Am I suffering?

[canon]

Im not sure if iam am suffering from anxiety so any advice would be greatly recieved.

For the past 2-3 years I had been having chest pain, pain on breathing in and worrying about my heart and that I had a heart problem or having a heart attack. Then for around a week a month ago it got worse and i was sweating lots, noticing my breathing, off my food and felt terrible. So about about a month ago I went to a private doctor and it turns out that the pain is caused by a slight curve in my spine. Then pretty much instantly my symptoms went, apart from the breathing in deep pain but thats caused my the curve in my spine. But the feeling like iam going to have a heart attack went.

Although from the next day after this and onwards until now which is just over a month I have been having the following symptoms:

Constant feeling of being overwhelmed.
Fear of losing control
Fear that you are losing your mind.
Fears of going crazy, unusual feelings and emotions, unusually frightening thoughts or feelings.
Feelings of unreality
Having difficulty concentrating
Obsession getting better, wanting to stop feeling this way.
Repetitive thinking or incessant ‘mind chatter’ .
Feeling down in the dumps
Feeling like things are unreal or dreamlike
Frequent bad, bizarre, or crazy dreams
Eye tricks, seeing things our of the corner of your eye that isn’t there, stars, flashes

The frightening thoughts and unreality worry me the most, like I fear that iam going mad.

Ive been feeling like this basically 24/7 constantly thinking about it.

Do you this is all anxiety related?

[coops025]

Hi Canon,

Most of your symtoms can be related however they can change a great deal from person to person suffering from Anxiety.

I had a huge worry about my heart with constant pains and fluttering from the heat/chest area, instantly i thought i was going to have a heart attack or my heart was giving up on me :( Turned out with all the stress i had been under my body seemed to be becoming tense therfor causing the symptoms. Eventually i found that heart burn tablets shifted the problem away for me, my guess it can be easy to confuese the two or they just help. Not sure if this will help you but its worth a try, my Doctor had no idea and was focusing on my Stomach for the answer.

Shared symtoms i have are:
Feelings of unreality
Having difficulty concentrating
Obsession getting better, wanting to stop feeling this way
Repetitive thinking or incessant ‘mind chatter’
Feeling like things are unreal or dreamlike

You will most likely come accross more symtoms as you go along, i have found the following helpfull (for me).

Nausia - Drink Peppermint tea (not too much it hurts your stomach)
Dizzyness/Nausia - Stemitil medicine
Genral heart excitment - Stay away from all suger and carbonated drinks
Sleep - Pleantly of sleep helps a little for me
Excercise - Walking makes me worse but Weight lifting helps (go figure??)
Breathing - Try to keep your breathing steady ( i found this hard)
Talking - Have a chat to someone close to you about your problems (this helps quite alot believe it or not)

I know you dont have some of those but if you do then you can try them, it helped me alot.

[PinkStripe]

I don't have even half of the symptoms that you've said about but I've been told that I suffer from anxiety.

I get an odd feeling in my chest, palpitations, that odd moment when you just know your heart is going to go THUMP, it feels like it's a struggle to breath and I feel a bit odd, a bit unreal I suppose.

I've had everything checked out, heart, blood etc and everything's fine so it must be all in my head. Just a shame the doc doesn't give any help on where to go next.

[coops025]

Same here i had everything checked but they had no idea what to do with me. I think the big move forward is knowing what is wrong with you and Anxiety is mosty in your head which makes your body go crazy.

Simple explination that my dad said which opened my mind is...

1. You go for a run and your heart races right? Of course it does because you blood is being pumped faster for the extra stress your body is under.

2. You find yourself infront a a great big roaring lion which you think is going to eat you arrgghhh. Your heart will rush again but hmmm hang on your not running so yes this part is in your mind, meaning that any event can change your heart rate. Hope you see my point here.

[PinkStripe]

Your dad talks a lot of sense! I like his explanation of it all.

I had heard that if your heart is pounding then that's a sign of a strong heart so it's nothing to worry about. Easier said than done of course particularly when it feels like it's trying to jump out of your chest! But yes, you're right that anxiety starts in your head. I'm going to do my best to try and be a bit more aware of what's going on before these "turns" happen again.