babygrant
01-27-2011, 10:16 AM
My name is Angela, and I'm a 29 year old married mom of two wonderful little boys!
My problems with anxiety started about 4 years ago. I was in an accident where i rolled an ATV (quad) down a 150 foot embankment. I had a minor concussion, lots and lots of scrapes and bruises, but thankfully narrowly escaped the quad rolling right over me. Ever since then, I've had some very anxious moments while driving or riding in a vehicle with someone else. I went to a few different councellers and I HATED it. For some reason the one guy kept bring up my marriage. I have NO problems with my marriage. Zero, zilch, nada. I have the best husband ever. I left his office more frustrated and upset than I went in there with. The second lady I went to was years ago and she just kind of snickered and looked generally bored with me being there, so that sucked.
Back in August of last year I was having abdominal pain but we needed to take my youngest son to an appointment, so we hopped in the truck and off we went. About 5 minutes away from the house my abdominal pain turned into a full blown anxiety attack. First full blown attack I'd ever had. I was hyperventilating, was nauseated, dizzy, heart pounding out of my chest. I was so scared and was bauling my eyes out. We stopped at my son's appointment, and after being in there for about 5 minutes, I had to go sit in the truck. The pain fro my gallbladder was so bad, and it was so scary and that just kept the anxiety going and going and going. I called my husband on his cell and told him we needed to go to the hospital NOW because I thought I was having a heart attack. We drove to the hospital and I was on oxygen for about 1/2 hour because there was no doctor in the emergency room yet (she was late!!). I was given an EKG and all was well. The doctor told me that it was acid reflux, so gave me a perscription for zantac and sent me on my way. The very next day I woke up and was vomitting, severe abdo pain and just did not feel well.
Over the next two months I was in and out of emergency. I was still having the severe abdominal pain and severe nausea. When I was getting the pain and nausea the anxiety would kick in. So not only would I have abdominal pain and nausea, I would have heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, etc. I was so afraid of what it could be. I never knew when the pain would come and that scared me. I was put on the wait list for an ultrasound, but in the meantime I was told to take gravol and percoset. So for almost three months I took gravol every single day and percoset every couple of days. Four months after my first bad attack I found out I had stones in my gallbladder.
At the end of November I had my gallbladder removed. Of course now I have no more abdominal pain, no more nausea. My anxiety is WAY better. Now instead of having an anxiety attack every day or every odd day I have only had 2 or 3 in a matter of 2 months and they were not full blown attacks. I still get days where I feel really anxious, but no more trips to emerg or anything.
I've gone to see my doctor and thankfully she isn't a pill pusher. She's encouraged me to try some natural remedies, exercise, and clean up the diet. I went with her suggestions and tried 5HTP but it gave me an upset stomach (and that's a trigger for me for anxiety since it happened with my gallbladder). I also tried L-theanine. I felt great for about 8 hours but then the anxiety was 10 times worse than normal. On a daily basis I take a multi, B complex, fish oils, and 5000 iu of vitamin D. My doctor is not opposed to me taking perscription meds, but on MOST days I don't feel i am to that point yet. My anxiety seems to get REALLY bad a few days before my period, and stays that way until about 3 or 4 days after it's done. Other than those days I function fairly well.
My one main problem is that because I had the really bad anxiety attack while driving with my husband, now I find that sometimes I get very very anxious when riding with him. I'll be perfectly fine driving around town. But as soon as we start driving on a highway and I know we are going in the opposite direction of a hospital (as in getting farther away) I get really scared and the anxiety starts wrecking havock. I am scared that I will have an anxiety attack in front of my kids. I don't want to scare them, and I don't want to pass my fears onto them. When we drive somewhere I usually just have to close my eyes and keep myself from freaking out until we get to where we are going. That's been just fine and dandy...but with summer coming up I'm not sure how it's going to work with vacations and such. We have a few trips planned where we will be driving 6, 7, 8 hours to go see family. The road has stretches that are 4 and 5 hours without reaching another town so I need to get this passenger anxiety figured out before we go. I'm almost debating going back to the doctor and asking for a few ativan or something just to keep in my purse. I think just knowing that I have something will keep me a bit calmer.
I went to the health food store yesterday and picked up some Valerian and some New Roots Chill Pills but haven't taken any yet, because I am always afraid that it will make the anxiety worse. Grr. Vicious cycle. Anyone have any experiences with the Chill Pills or valerian? Yesterday I also purchased the Lucinda Bassett program as well as the Linden Method but not sure which one I should try first. Any suggestions?
Anyways, this post got really long. I have done lots of reading on this forum and have to say it's really helpful.
My problems with anxiety started about 4 years ago. I was in an accident where i rolled an ATV (quad) down a 150 foot embankment. I had a minor concussion, lots and lots of scrapes and bruises, but thankfully narrowly escaped the quad rolling right over me. Ever since then, I've had some very anxious moments while driving or riding in a vehicle with someone else. I went to a few different councellers and I HATED it. For some reason the one guy kept bring up my marriage. I have NO problems with my marriage. Zero, zilch, nada. I have the best husband ever. I left his office more frustrated and upset than I went in there with. The second lady I went to was years ago and she just kind of snickered and looked generally bored with me being there, so that sucked.
Back in August of last year I was having abdominal pain but we needed to take my youngest son to an appointment, so we hopped in the truck and off we went. About 5 minutes away from the house my abdominal pain turned into a full blown anxiety attack. First full blown attack I'd ever had. I was hyperventilating, was nauseated, dizzy, heart pounding out of my chest. I was so scared and was bauling my eyes out. We stopped at my son's appointment, and after being in there for about 5 minutes, I had to go sit in the truck. The pain fro my gallbladder was so bad, and it was so scary and that just kept the anxiety going and going and going. I called my husband on his cell and told him we needed to go to the hospital NOW because I thought I was having a heart attack. We drove to the hospital and I was on oxygen for about 1/2 hour because there was no doctor in the emergency room yet (she was late!!). I was given an EKG and all was well. The doctor told me that it was acid reflux, so gave me a perscription for zantac and sent me on my way. The very next day I woke up and was vomitting, severe abdo pain and just did not feel well.
Over the next two months I was in and out of emergency. I was still having the severe abdominal pain and severe nausea. When I was getting the pain and nausea the anxiety would kick in. So not only would I have abdominal pain and nausea, I would have heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, etc. I was so afraid of what it could be. I never knew when the pain would come and that scared me. I was put on the wait list for an ultrasound, but in the meantime I was told to take gravol and percoset. So for almost three months I took gravol every single day and percoset every couple of days. Four months after my first bad attack I found out I had stones in my gallbladder.
At the end of November I had my gallbladder removed. Of course now I have no more abdominal pain, no more nausea. My anxiety is WAY better. Now instead of having an anxiety attack every day or every odd day I have only had 2 or 3 in a matter of 2 months and they were not full blown attacks. I still get days where I feel really anxious, but no more trips to emerg or anything.
I've gone to see my doctor and thankfully she isn't a pill pusher. She's encouraged me to try some natural remedies, exercise, and clean up the diet. I went with her suggestions and tried 5HTP but it gave me an upset stomach (and that's a trigger for me for anxiety since it happened with my gallbladder). I also tried L-theanine. I felt great for about 8 hours but then the anxiety was 10 times worse than normal. On a daily basis I take a multi, B complex, fish oils, and 5000 iu of vitamin D. My doctor is not opposed to me taking perscription meds, but on MOST days I don't feel i am to that point yet. My anxiety seems to get REALLY bad a few days before my period, and stays that way until about 3 or 4 days after it's done. Other than those days I function fairly well.
My one main problem is that because I had the really bad anxiety attack while driving with my husband, now I find that sometimes I get very very anxious when riding with him. I'll be perfectly fine driving around town. But as soon as we start driving on a highway and I know we are going in the opposite direction of a hospital (as in getting farther away) I get really scared and the anxiety starts wrecking havock. I am scared that I will have an anxiety attack in front of my kids. I don't want to scare them, and I don't want to pass my fears onto them. When we drive somewhere I usually just have to close my eyes and keep myself from freaking out until we get to where we are going. That's been just fine and dandy...but with summer coming up I'm not sure how it's going to work with vacations and such. We have a few trips planned where we will be driving 6, 7, 8 hours to go see family. The road has stretches that are 4 and 5 hours without reaching another town so I need to get this passenger anxiety figured out before we go. I'm almost debating going back to the doctor and asking for a few ativan or something just to keep in my purse. I think just knowing that I have something will keep me a bit calmer.
I went to the health food store yesterday and picked up some Valerian and some New Roots Chill Pills but haven't taken any yet, because I am always afraid that it will make the anxiety worse. Grr. Vicious cycle. Anyone have any experiences with the Chill Pills or valerian? Yesterday I also purchased the Lucinda Bassett program as well as the Linden Method but not sure which one I should try first. Any suggestions?
Anyways, this post got really long. I have done lots of reading on this forum and have to say it's really helpful.