THINK IV GOT MOST SYMTOMS, PLEASE HELP

[sharp]

Hi
Iv think iv been suffering from anxiety for 6 year now but never quite connected it.
3 weeks ago i had a panic attack and felt the following:
felt like i couldnt swallow, tingling tongue, tingling head, hot, cold sweats, heart felt like it was racing but breathing felt like it was slowing down.
since then iv been ill and been to the doctors on numerous occasions for an ecg and blood tests . ecg came back fine altho finding it hard to believe it didnt miss something as iv convinced myself there is sumthing wrong with my heart and im still waiting for my blood tests.
Symptoms i felt 3 weeks ago were:
Heart palpitations (sometimes feeling like they are sending an electrical shock thru my arms and head, fear that there is something serious wrong with my heart, nauseas, body jolts, when i was lying in bed i kept getting a thump in my chest just as i was about to fall asleep which kept me awake most of the night, cold feelings in my chest.
Symptoms i felt the last few days:
heart flutters instead of palpitations(sometimes still sendng electrical feelngs through body), body jolts, nauseas, weird sensations in chest that are sending weird sensations thru my body,darent go to be on a night, darent get out of bed on a morning, feel like iv gota fight myself from having a panic attack on a morning.
Also I fear being left alone. I have become very clingy with my boyfriend and am absolutely terrified when he leaves the house. I have hung around the house in pjs for weeks and darent move off the couch incase i collapse(i only move when i have to), i have a 5 month old and 6 year old and altho i do look after my children i do it with my ass glued to the couch and asking my boyfriend to pass everything inluding nappies, bottles etc and my 6 year old asks why im moody with him and his dad. 3 days ago i had a cigarette and felt heart flutters, sweats and felt faint so since then i havnt smoked and iv also lost weight because i cannot eat properly.
I have been told i have sever depression and anxiety but sometimes im convinced its something serious. im on beta blockers for my heart rate and venlafaxine . iv only been on them for 2 weeks. I got offered valium today to calm me down but turned it down as i didnt wanna take 3 lots of medication plus didnt wanna admit i was that bad that i needed valium.
Im a constant worrier who never thinks positive and is always thinking horrible thoughts, is any1 the same?

[forwells]

Hi sharp

Sorry to hear how you are feeling .

First off don't worry about the past you need to now focus on the future , on your great kids and boyfriend and getting yourself better .

I have been were you are now and can tell you yes it is not a nice place but you can get past it with the right help .

Ok the tablet you are on is a SSRI and will take a while to work and i know you might not think that valium is good for you at the moment but i would say take it , it will help you calm down a bit and let you work on repair some of the other problems going on .

Anxiety is feed by fear and fear is anxiety so you need to settle and work on braking this cycle .

You have to trust in what the doctors are telling you that it is anxiety , sure make sure you get al the test you need but in the end if they say its anxiety then believe them , the longer you fight it , the more stress you add to your already overstressed system .

You have a long road ahead of you to get better but as i said you can do it and you will come out the other side better for it , you will learn to appreciate life alot more . Now please don't worry about the long road bit , i don't mean you will be like you are now for months on end , you can improve very quickly so that you can live your life again but it will take a while for it to all settle down and go away . You also sound like you need to talk to someone about your way of thinking .

Ok I am going to offer some tips i found over my journey with anxiety and hope they help

1 DO NOT google , do not google your symptoms , google is not a doctor and will more than likely bring up some horrible disease that only 10 people on the planet have. If you wish to google then google things such as stress management , anxiety cures , meditations .

2 Start to meditate , do not think that this is just some new age crap , meditation is the best thing i ever done for my anxiety , it teaches the mind and the body to relax. IT takes a while to learn but the more you do the more it works , i am guessing at the moment you are finding it hard to let things go , meditation will help you with this

3 start to eat , yes i know you don't want to but by not eating you are adding massive stress to your body , remove all things that are bad for you coffee , cola , sugars , white flour rice etc , look into a diabetics type diet . Diet plays a huge part in recovery as your body is using so much energy from being on high all the time so it needs the best fuel it can get . If you cant eat then atleast get some health shakes . Remember natural is always best when it comes to eating

4 Start taking supplements Vit B , multi, Vit C and i big one i have found out is Magnesium , Most people are low in this and being under stress uses it and being low it this in itself can cause anxiety , Google anxiety and magnesium . Another is protein shakes , they have alot of what we use up being under stress

5 Get off the couch , sorry but there is no nice way of saying this , stop feeling sorry for yourself and start to do something about it , with anxiety you need to learn one thing and that is distraction , by learning this you learn to move on from the symptoms of stress instead of sitting their and feeding them . As you move on you will notice them less and less and they will fade away . Walking , playing with kids , reading , puzzles , jigsaws anything that will distract you

6 Get the right blood test and works , i would test for all you vit and mins and see if any is low , also i would get your hormones tested .

7 Read some good self help books , one of the best to start with is Dr Claire Weeks books

8 Learn everything you can about anxiety and the way it works on the body and the way it can be got past . I have a fantastic site i used for this but i am not sure if i can list it here so google anxiety center its the second one down and it pays to join also , This site is run by people that are highly trained and also all suffered in the past , they also do Personal Coaching/Counselling.

9 Start to take some time for you , learn to relax doing what ever it is you like to do , learn to stop and smell the roses

10 Talk , talk to your boyfriend about what you feel , about what you are going though , you are not the only one , but it can sure feel like it some days , its had to believe at times that anyone could feel as bad as you do , but i can tell you they do and many have gotten past it to live bigger and better life's

11 Feel it all , do not hold it in , if you want to cry then cry , if you want to hit a bag then hit a bag , if you want to scream then scream into a pillow , the best thing you can do is let all these emotions out as they are there for a reason ,they are the way you feel , by hiding them will do you more harm than good. You have a right to feel the way you do , what you are going though is very hard and you have the right to feel every single feeling about it

I wish you well and if you ever want to ask any questions let me know and i shall see what i can do

cheers Kev :)

[sharp]

Thanks Kev
I must admit i am a hypacondriac but the worst thing with anxiety is the physical symptoms. I can be fine one minute but as soon as i feel a little niggle of a symptom it sets me off with the worry.
I got my blood pressure took the other day and it was too high and the doc said it was cos i need to calm down.
The reason why i darent move off the couch is because i tried doing some housework and felt a few symptoms come on so i havnt dared do anything since then just like the smoking, still havnt smoked due to the symptoms i got.
I feel as tho im weird cos if i get symptoms whenever im doing someting ill not dare do that thing again.
im fed up at the minute im sat here with all kinds running through my head and feeling weird.

[forwells]

Hi Sharp
I wrote this a while ago Hope you like and give you a better understanding of anxiety and how it works

The 1% rule

So you have anxiety .

Well you really are not much different from everyone else on the planet. Every body has anxiety . Anxiety is just a fancy word for high stress .

We all suffer from stress , thoughout our whole life we will have stress , some good , some bad and there is not much to do to stop this happening but there is many ways to reduce the effects of it .

Over time stress takes a effect of our body , if we do not do something about this stress then our body learns this . Each time we have a stressfull episode in life and don't take action to repair this our body sets our stress level a bit higher. But the body will only take this for so long .

One day it will crack and start to show the symptoms of high stress ( anxiety as its called ) , this is when your body is on 99% stress , it is running at its peak level ,The peak level of the stress that it can take .

Now as i said above everybody has stress , most of the time you may not even see that your stress is raised , it could be as simply as going into a room full of people , sitting in a restaurant , to a little fight with the other half , Talking to the opposite sex .seeing a snake etc. You know what i mean we have all been there before had those butterflies from doing something we may have been a bit nervous about .

Now this sort of stuff has happened before and had very little effect on you .It has raised your stress level a bit but then gone back down just as fast . But now your stress level has changed you are living on 99% stress , so when the little things happen you are pushed over the 100% mark . What is the 100% mark well that's panic , that's when your body starts to send out major symptoms that is cannot take this stress any more and you need to do something about it .

These panic episode will keep happening because you are at the 99% stress level . But you can stop them . You stop them by reducing your stress over time the same way it raised overtime . You stop these attack and GAD by seeing them for what they are . A symptom of a overstressed system , you don't project these symptoms onto other things .Fears are simply a way of projecting you anxiety on to something and not seeing it as it really is solely as a symptom of a overstressed system

You start by understanding why your body is doing this , why your body is sending out all these nasty symptoms. You learn what is behind it .

When you learn what is behind it , you should also see that this is not some evil monster inside you set to destroy you but it is just like any symptom that the body gets when ill . It is your body's way of showing you that their is something wrong . The way god made you if you chose.

Many things change in the body when under stress , your body workings change because it believes it is in danger . It starts the flight and fight response when it is in danger .
There is always a reason behind why those symptoms are happening . Some are such as crazy thoughts . Your body is looking for the danger that it feels but it cant find it and keeps looking , some crazy thought may flash into your head, it may pick this up as a danger and focus on this .Your body will focus under panic . It is built to do this. This is why you can jump out of the way of a runaway bus because your body focus on the danger and reacts. You may fell sick in the stomach . Pins and needles in the hands as the body prepairs for the battle with the danger it is looking for. The reason for these pins and needles is that the body is removing blood from you limbs to reduce bleeding if hurt in the battle . The battle is the danger it feels but cannot see. The body cannot tell the different between that moving bus and you telling it that there is a bus there . It is something that it learns . Just as you have taught it to do many things from walking to riding a bike. It learnt to panic but it can be taught to stop panicing just as easy. By understand these symptoms when they start from a bit of stress and raise you learn not to panic with fear against them. Removing the fear from them stops them from growing .

As you get better which you will , look into what your body is doing , it is a amazing system that the body has to protect itself from danger.

The problem is now is that you have become so stressed over time and this system is now in place but you cant see it . It was there , i bet you had weird symptoms for the months if not years before your stress got to 99% but just look past them as , maybe a bad day at school or work and they settled with a bit or rest and sleep . May people now look back and say Oh i have had GAD for years . Have you or was it just the symptoms of your stress rising over time. Even if you did you are no different from the other billions of people on the planet that have been stressed at one time or another

So how do you get better you reduce your stress , you answer all though questions you have about whats happening . By learning the answers to these questions you reduce the stress and worry that something nasty is going on . Its not , its just your body doing what it was made to do.

You also reduce your stress by facing some of the things that caused it in the first place . These maybe anything from facing problems in your past with people that raised you to current problems you may have with loved ones . I believe a big step in this is forgiveness . You don't have to forget that someone hurt you in the past but you need to forgive and move on. While you are still holding onto this they are still hurting you .
You work on outside stimulants such as to much alcohol , drugs , smoking , poor diet , poor lifestyle etc

So by doing this you drop your stress down over time form 99% to maybe 40 % so that when you get that little stress form going into a room full of people , sitting in a restaurant , to a little fight with the other half , Taking to the opposite sex .seeing a snake etc Then it raises you stress level into maybe 42% . This is the key , it is were on your stress level this 2% is that effects weather we panic or not . As you reduce your stress this 99% will lower and less and less things will stress you out over time. Just as 100s and 1000s of people have before you . Remember that no one live 100% stress free. We have just learned to live at the wrong end of the scale

cheers kev

[forwells]

Thanks Kev
I must admit i am a hypacondriac but the worst thing with anxiety is the physical symptoms. I can be fine one minute but as soon as i feel a little niggle of a symptom it sets me off with the worry.
I got my blood pressure took the other day and it was too high and the doc said it was cos i need to calm down.
The reason why i darent move off the couch is because i tried doing some housework and felt a few symptoms come on so i havnt dared do anything since then just like the smoking, still havnt smoked due to the symptoms i got.
I feel as tho im weird cos if i get symptoms whenever im doing someting ill not dare do that thing again.
im fed up at the minute im sat here with all kinds running through my head and feeling weird.

You know i think we are all a bit of a hypacondriac and anxiety makes this a lot worst
The symptoms are just a working of a overstressed system and even though they suck and can be a pain they will not kill you . Your doctor is right as soon as you worry you blood pressure goes up , your body is built to do this , it is its way of protecting itself from the danger it feels .
Remember they will not hurt you and you need to push past them , a little at a time but just keep moving forwards .

You know the couch thing is not good and you need to brake it down , i had this also and i had where i could not leave home because of fear of another symptom coming on , see the couch is being your saftey zone , every one with anxiety has them . See i will tell you something that took me 8 months to finally get , see you sit on that couch and you feel Ok , you feel safe Why because you think you are , but really there is no diffence between sitting on the couch or going out side on the lawn and watching your kids play , well really there is but it is it is your thinking , you feel safer on the couch , its not that it is safer its just that you feel it is . And that is the key to anxiety , it is all about the way we feel and as we learn again to push past these feeling we start to increase that area that we feel safe in untill it gets back to being what it use to .

I feel as tho im weird cos if i get symptoms whenever im doing someting ill not dare do that thing again.
im fed up at the minute im sat here with all kinds running through my head and feeling weird.

Your not wierd your just stressed , we have all been there , but just try to push past those feelings and syptoms , they well settle as your system settles back down

Those weird racing thoughts are also from a tired body , a body that needs rest and some relaxing , this is were the valium would help because it stops these thoughts , it stops the mind racing and give it some well earned rest for a while .

So what is it that you are really worried about , what is it that really upsets you about all this and i will see what i can do to help you with that

cheers kev

[sharp]

I think my main worry is the fluttering and weird feelings in my chest but i argue with myself everyday about the fact that i concentrate so much on whats going on in my chest that ill be feeling things i wouldnt normally feel if i wernt concentrating so much on it.
Ill give u a little background into my life so u can see where i maybe getting my problems from.
From the age of 11 i suffered from blushing very easily(just talking to someone can set me away) so i guess i have had some form of anxiety from then plus i never talked to anyone not even my own family from a very young age i was a really miserable kid.
I grew up to see my mam get took to hospital on several occasions for various health problems.
When i was 17 my dad was killed on the motorway by another driver, was not my dads fault. Other driver got found guilty but still basically got away with it. 3 month later i fell pregnant but the babys dad didnt wanna know and left me to raise his baby on my own and instead of supporting me he decided to spread rumours of how he didnt think he was the dad etc.
After my son was born i would leave him with me mam everyday and would go out to get drunk on a daily basis. After a few month i was put on venlafaxine for depression and was kept on them for 6 year till i fell pregnant with my 2nd child where i just stopped taking them.
My anxiety has reached its peak after telling the health visitor my feelings and sometimes i feel like i wish i never said anything cos even tho i had little bouts of anxiety its only become extreme since talking about it and admitting to having it.

[Jorja]

oh my Kev.... if what you say is right I need to take heed of your words...
Sharp.... I'm so like you also... all the symptoms of anxiety... ALL!!!! I have no kids and i don't know what causes my "attacks".... i get a couple at least a week now... (if not more) I'm trying to breath and do all those self help things on the net they say to do... I try to convince myself that it's working. I feel like i'm going to die... it's a true feeling to me.. i believe it's happening... heart attack etc... no sympathy from my other half which makes it worse i reckon...

It came to me tonight something that may have triggered my anxiety.... I lost my brother in law 2 yrs ago.... he died in his sleep at 48 with my 33 yr old sister in the bed with him.... horrible time indeed... ever since I've worried SO MUCH that my partner will go the same way.... I find myself checking him at night to make sure he's breathing... perhaps i've taken that stress too far for myself to handle... bloody hell... i don't know.. what i do know is that it's real for me.. and it's damn scary.... :(

I have blamed the smoking, drinking etc... i truly don't believe that is the underlying problem... (altho not good for us either)...

My new year resolution is to try and relax.... have a massage *which i've never had* .. eat healthier and try and exercise more.... will this help??? i damn well hope so....

For me it's getting worse... there is no easy fix is there!! .... been to the Drs etc.. all the B12 and folate and bloods etc... all came back pretty normal... is it enough to convince myself that I'M NOT GOING TO DIE... and it is anxiety that I CAN FIX... positive thinking... easy to say huh..?

anways.... bring on the valium... lol... don't have any anyhow...

good luck with you.... hoping you find what works... let me know k... :)

xx

[forwells]

Hi Sharp

There you go , my first true symptom of anxiety was that weird feeling in your chest in fact mine was a buzzing of the nerves across my chest and the first i thought was oh no here come that heart attack , i was convinced i was going to die then and there.

As hard as it is for you to see now , 14 months later i still get this at time and i just let it go , i know what it is it is just nerves settling and it will pass when ready and if it doesn't then it really does not matter because i don't see it as some nasty thing any more .

See that's the thing about anxiety , it makes us focus , we never use to , infact we did but we had to force ourself to focus on things and now we have to do the opposite and learn to not focus .
I found that by learning all about anxiety and its workings , the things it causes and how they come about let me learn to let them go , to let them pass . See it is very hard and no amount of counselling will help you if you still have in the back of your mind the How and Why . See its fine for a counsellor to sit there and say you need to just except it as anxiety , but you cant , how can you except that your body and mind is refusing to behave itself and move on . well the only way is to understand why it is doing this . What happens then is when you feel that weird feeling across your chest you can say to yourself Oh its just this or that from anxiety and it will past when it is ready. I don't have to like it , but by excepting it you are not feeding it with more worry .

Sharpe you sound alot like me in many ways , i can remember being a very shy person as a kid , i wouldn't talk much , would never eat in fount of people , would not even go to the toilet if someone was close . You do grow out of this if you just push past things . I have always been really shy around girls :oops: and i mean very shy but now i am not so bad .
When you think about things like this just remember everyone is like this , everyone has fears ,shyness , some of us just hide it better than others . I have a mate who is very shy , would never walk into a pub alone , but can stand in fount of 500 people and do a auction , see it all comes down to what we think we can do .

I am so sorry to hear about your dad and i know it must hurt , you need to let that hurt out , it will destroy you if you don't , you also need to face the feelings behind the guy that caused it . I know this is really hard to do as i have been there but everything happens for a reason , people die , some die old some die young , My mother die at 24. You need to learn forgiveness , i know it is hard , you don't have to forget and you never should but by forgiving you are freeing yourself and can move on. Forgiveness is not about anyone other than yourself , it lets you move on.
Just think about what your dad would want , i am sure he would not want you holding on to all that angry. He would want you to move on and live your life the best you can . Also another thing , i know it hard and i know you think that the guy that cause your dads death got away with it so to speak but he didn't , This is something that he has to live with for the rest of his life , he has to live with the fact that by his fault he took someone's life and that in itself it a big punishment i would say. It is not like he did it and walked away never to think of it again , he will have to deal with that fact until the day he dies.

Your babies father is a prick , plain and simply and i really don't understand guys like that , i have two girls and as big as pain in the butts they are at times i could never leave them . It reminds me of a old saying
If you lend someone $20 and never se them again then it was money well spent , Don't look at it as a loss that he left look at it as a good thing . You are better off with out a man like that in your life .

My anxiety has reached its peak after telling the health visitor my feelings and sometimes i feel like i wish i never said anything cos even tho i had little bouts of anxiety its only become extreme since talking about it and admitting to having it.

You know don't look at this as a bad thing , this is infact a good thing , as we let all these things out , we start to feel worst , but as we deal with the we start to feel better , this is what i mean by feeling it all , we have a right to feel what we feel , why shouldn't we feel angry about such things as our parents dyeing at a early age , about being left to raise a kid by ourself , we should but we also need to deal with these emotions and see them for what they are .

You see this is a quick run down on my story , My mother died at 24 , i was 18 months old , she was more or less killed because doctors could not do their job right , i went to live with my uncle and auntie who were a love less couple , my uncle was a real prick , i fought with him most days until i had enough and left at 14 to raise myself , both are now dead . I was a smart kid but didn't have the support to do the things i should have been able to , i was never supported in any way , never shown any love , all i ever knew was angry and hate. I was emotional , physically and sexually abuse by people in my early life . I have been ripped off by many . Had major illness more than once . I built a life and got everything i wanted only to lose it all again .
So as you can see i didn't come out of this very well , i thought i did but the hate for the world and everything in it was destroying me , but then something happened i got anxiety and i truly believe that this was gods way of telling me to change. I did i started to deal with things , i stop hiding things i start to feel the emotions that i should , i start to feel the angry , the hate but as i started to deal with it i started to feel something i had never felt . I started to feel the love , the love that is out there hiding . I stopped seeing the world as some shitty place that was full of misery and hate and started to see it as a better place that is full of love and great people .

I hope that one day you to can see this . I know it hurts but it can change you just need to deal with the things that have happened to you , many if not all happened to you but not because of you , you need to forgive people and the biggest thing i guess is to forgive yourself . We offen only do what we believe is right , and this is also why we need to forgive others because that is also the way they felt , they only did things because they thought it was right at the time .

cheers Kev :)

[forwells]

Hi You

You know those attacks are a learned thing , it is something that auto part of your brain learns and there will always be a reason behind them . Maybe you don't see it but it could be as simple as a thought or a weird feeling the trigger your auto part into thinking that something is wrong and sending it into panic . Blood sugar will also cause many of them , maybe you should start a diary and see if anything stands out such as times from food . I picked my would happen in the morning before i ate so now i eat earlier and havent had one since

The mind is a amazing thing , just think of all the things it remembers such as when you smell something and your mind remembers that last time you smelt it and pictures it or when you hear a song and it triggers emotions associated with the song .

You need to deal with anything that you think is worrying you , see the thing is it may only worry you a little but it could be 50 things that worry you and they all add up and add stress onto your body .

Smoking and drinking hey , well i would try and stop them but i will admit i smoke and pretty high but i think if i could have stopped then it would have help , thi sis my next step .

My new year resolution is to try and relax.... have a massage *which I've never had* .. eat healthier and try and exercise more.... will this help??? i damn well hope so....
Well done , stick to it its not that hard after a few weeks , i use to drink coffee like water , eat so much junk . I had a bad turn about 3 weeks ago , i am convinced that it was cause because i was eating poorly and also because of bad memoires from around last Christmas .

Yes you may feel like you are dyeing at some times but your not and it sucks to feel like you are so do everything you can to fix it by removing all the stress you can .

Another thing which i am going to do this year other than give up the smokes is i am going to go the natural way . I am going to see a natural doctor one that test and heals problems and not hide them with a range of other chemical drugs

cheers and wish you well kev :)

[sharp]

Thanx for all ur replies Kev. Something struck a cord in one of your messages, when you said u felt god had given you your anxiety so you would change your life.
Well i constantly bitch and moan about everything to do with the world and i always moan about how shit my life is when infact I should be thankful for what i have. Maybe its a way of making me see sense and to appreciate the things i have.
sorry to hear about urself, sounds like you had it tough im glad to see you overcame your problem really hope i can do the same cos i cannot stand it much longer it is absolutely horrible.
Another thing, you said i should get my hormones tested, well i have an implant in my arm (contraception) do u think that could be contributing to my feelings as i know it does stuff to your hormones.

[forwells]

Hi Again
Happy to help

Not sure about the thing in your arm , my wife had one at one stage and i think they stopped them from some reason here ( australia ) and now they use a needle ever so often , it might pay to look into it .

Also as i said earlier i am going to get my body tested for toxiins also when they reopen , i have done a bit of reading and toxin in the body can also cause big problems. Not sure were you get this done but here it is from a nautorpath.

You will get past this you just need to change a few things and work on things but it gets alot better trust me on that .

You know i have never been a big believer in god but i have alot of faith now , i see that it was giving to me for the sole reason for me to see what i had become and that i should change it .

cheers kev :)

[mhdwjw]

Best advice I can give is take the valium. Dont try and be a hero they can help ALOT. I am currently suffereing horrible anxiety with frequent attacks with are so physically and mentally draining, I wouldn't be able to look after my babies without valium (actually i take xanax). I rely on my husband ALOT and often have anxiety attacks when he leaves, my worst does are the ones he is not at home with me. I have been on the other side numerous times so deep down I do know that with time, help and patience you can get through it. I know it doesn't feel like it when you are suffering. I take Effexor for depression and I find it takes at least a few months to kick in. You will probably find that you will have good days and bad days but gradually the good days will increase and you wont even realise that you are feeling normal again. It can take months but as time goes by you get better at managing yourself. Hang in there