new - think I'm suffering from anxiety attacks

[clay]

hi guys... sorry I'm not really "officially" diagnosed with anxiety disorder yet. but I've been having symptoms of anxiety attacks all day every day for the last week. I've gone to the hospital twice and my family doctor once in the last week. They cannot find anything wrong. The last doctor at the hospital suggested that I'm having anxiety attacks.
Initially I thought I was short of breath and my heart was racing to the point I thought I was going to pass out. I actually walked out of a meeting that was being lead by my boss (he is not the type of person that you would walk out on... he wouldn't take that well). This was last Tuesday. I had my mom take me straight from that work meeting to the hospital. They did an EKG, bloodwork, Xray and urine analysis. They didn't find anything really but told me I should be using my asthma inhaler twice a day and they prescribed me an antibiotic because they thought I had a UTI (when they did further tests they realized they were wrong, I did not have a UTI). I couldn't go to work the rest of the week. Every time I'd try to do anything, I felt short of breath and my heart would race. So I stayed home from work all week. nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea started (I have IBS so if anything is the matter with me, i'll have diarrhea for sure). On Saturday I felt really bad. I had my husband take me to the hospital again. They did another EKG, more blood work, and a urine analysis. They hooked me up to a monitor. They did a lung capacity test. They concluded that my heart and lungs were perfect. My lung capacity test came back as 110%! That was when I first realized that I wasn't really having trouble breathing... it had to be something else. The doctor at the hospital said that he thinks I'm having anxiety attacks. I didn't want to believe it. Nothing terribly stressful has been bothering me in the last week (other than you know feeling like I can't breath and my heart is racing). Today I attempted to go back to work. I lasted 3 hours but I had gone to the bathroom 3 times during that time just to be by myself! one of those times I sat on the bathroom floor for who knows how long, just trying to steady myself. I came to the point where I realized I wouldn't be able to talk if someone asked me a question. I knew I wasn't steady enough to stay at work and do my job. So my manager told me I could go home but that now I need a doctor's note because I already missed 3 full days of work in a row.
Now that I'm home, I feel quite a bit better. That leads me to believe that it really was an anxiety attack. I still feel tight in my chest and in my throat.
I'm scared that I won't be able to work tomorrow... I can't keep missing work forever... they need me there and I need my job.
I left my family doctor a voicemail requesting an appointment for tomorrow morning, told him what the hospital said on Saturday and that I need a doctor's note now.
So... you are all very experienced in the area of anxiety disorders... do you think that is what is wrong with me? My work isn't THAT stressful. I've been there 6 years and at the moment, things are going well at work (or they were until I walked out of that meeting last Tuesday.).
I'm 29 years old. My husband is already on anti-anxiety meds as well as a mild anti-depressant. Mental illness runs in his family so he is particularly susceptible to anxiety and depression. He has been going through a very tough time with his business over the last few months and was not able to cope any more, but the anti-anxiety meds have really really helped him.
I feel like a mess at the moment. I don't know how to get myself back to normally quickly and get back to work.

[dark_inferno_22]

Anxiety can happen at any time, I've found. I was working at a job I loved, I had lots of responsibilities, that I was excited to do and stressful at times, and just loved it.
Next thing I know I'm nauseated for 5 weeks straight; and once they control the nausea I feel like I can't breathe. All in all, come to find out, I do have Anxiety problems. They put me on Celexa.

It does sounds like Anxiety, I hate to say. I feel for you, as we all do, and I hope you, as well as everyone else, gets better. I'll post more when I get off work. (I had to quit my previous job due to anxiety though just as an informational item).

[clay]

thank you for your reply. that was helpful.

I went to my doc this morning. So in the last week I've seen my doc twice, and been to the ER twice... my doctor has concluded it is anxiety. He's given me a doctor's note to take the rest of this week off work and he prescribed effexor. I don't know what that is but he says in a few days I will start to feel it working.

[clay]

I think effexor is for anxiety and depression.
I'm not depressed though... anxious yeah, but depressed, no. When I read through these forums, I get the impression that depression and anxiety are not necessarily related. It seems like many of you suffer from anxiety but you aren't actually depressed about anything - just worried and anxious.
I don't feel like the sky is falling. I feel like I have a future. I can see that the current stresses will not last forever. I am happily married. I have friends who I like to spend time with. the only thing that makes me feel depressed is the anxiety itself. I feel down about being anxious. I feel down when I think that anxiety is stopping me from accomplishing daily tasks that would normally be a breeze.

[forwells]

Howdy :D

Sound like anxiety to me .

You are doing alot of worrying in your first post.

You dont have to know what caused it to start but worrying about why its there is enough to keep it going. There are so many times that you question things and use such thing as i hope , im scared etc . this is what is helping it build .

Anxiety builds and is not something that comes out of the blue . The fact you have IBS tells me that you have had a anxiety problem building for a while and it has just come to a head .


Mental illness runs in his family so he is particularly susceptible to anxiety and depression There is no truth behind this and it is now all changing to surgest this . It is not in his blood but just that it is something he has learned from the people around him .


He's given me a doctor's note to take the rest of this week off work and he prescribed effexor. I don't know what that is but he says in a few days I will start to feel it working. I dont like drugs and i also believe that they solve nothing but one thing i would like to point out is that this drug is a SSRI which take a while to work and not just a few days.


I'm not depressed though... anxious yeah, but depressed, no.


he only thing that makes me feel depressed is the anxiety itself. I feel down about being anxious. I feel down when I think that anxiety is stopping me from accomplishing daily tasks that would normally be a breeze.

You cant have it both ways . You are depressed and that not some bad thing . You are depressed as you said because you cant run your life the way you want to .

I would surgest that you take some time out and relax . Dont worry about anything happening you have anxiety and it will settle if you stop feeding it . Yes i know its hard but trust me it is no harder than if this thing takes control of your life in a big way .

Is there anything that is stressing you out that you can think of . Have a good think we all have them but sometime we like to think we don't .

cheers kev :D

[clay]

thank you for your interest and your comments. this is new to me - although I agree I have probably been living with anxiety for quite some time. the more I read about anxiety, the more I see that I have been experiencing it for years but didn't realize it until it came up and knocked me over the head (almost literally speaking, or so it feels).
I took the first pill last night and overnight and into today I feel a lot worse. The anxiety is much worse today. I called my mother and asked her to come spend the day with me because I was such a mess this morning. vomiting and everything.
I had one thing i had to do today - I had to take my car to the shop today. I'm sure you know how that feels when you know you have to go out and accomplish a task that would be simple on any other day but in the midst of this, it was a monstrous task! but I did it. then I got sick when I came home from picking the car up.
I have read that for the first few days after taking these meds that your anxiety symptoms can actually increase, so I think that is what I am experiencing today.

on another note - my husband is blaming himself for me going through this. he is on anti-anxiety and anti-depressants because of the stress of his business over the summer. now he blames himself for making me sick. I tried to tell him that it isn't his fault, we are partners in this marriage so we experience ups and downs together, and even that my anxiety isn't 100% due to him and his business issues but also my other family issues lately. so now that DH is feeling so guilty, it makes me feel worse.
I'm looking into counseling to help us through this. Not that our marriage is in trouble, but our mental health obviously is. I am trying to find out what my work health benefits will cover in regards to therapy.

Thank you guys so much for your responses. it has helped me quite a bit.

[fastpanegunman]

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