Wierd symptoms - I'm 99% it's anxiety - anyone felt similar?

[philthejuggler]

Hiya - I'm normally an irrepresibly cheerful soul, but seemed to have transformed into a cancer-phobic hypochondriac in the last 5 months. Dunno if it because I turned 40 this year.

Firstly it's been a difficult year with my wife not being her usual self due to an iron deficiency.

July: Kept feeling rather tired and feverish for a few weeks - made the mistake of Googling the symptoms and convinced myself I had a lymphoma. Blood tests came back normal and I felt fine the minute I heard the test results.

August-October: Got 'globus-hystericus' after an indigestion incident which got slowly better over the course of a couple of months although I developed a voice problem in this time ("Oh-no - cancer of larynx!!!!!")

November: Went to an ENT who looked at vocal cords and confirmed they were fine - said the problem was rhinitis - this is being treated and getting better.

Now, here's the interesting bit - the very second I heard my throat was ok, I then developed some odd chest discomfort for a few days - I convinced myself I was imagining that and instead I have since been getting random twinges under my ribs on either side of the body, upper back twinges and then lower back twinges!

With twinges moving all over the place I suspect it's psychosomatic. Also, I don't notice anything at all if I'm actively engaged in something. Doesn't seem to affect my sleep either, but if I wake early feeling anxious, then I can sometimes get twinges then.

Anyone experienced similar symptoms? The timing of the onset and moving / coming / going of the symptoms makes me think it's my head playing tricks on me.

Drives me mad, because I keep thinking 'oh my poor wife / kids if I drop dead', but logically this seems nonsense - there's no real sign of illness, just odd twinges reminding me of my current health anxiety!

Thanks in anticipation!

Phil

[Mattb22]

Hey phil and welcome, i'm quite new here too. Your story is very similar to mine except im only 21... Have a read of my thread and you will see what I mean, im currently thinking I have lymphoma, but in the past 6months have thought I had Melanoma, HIV, mouth cancer, throat cancer, cancer of the oesophagus, Stomach cancer, colon cancer.... oh and on and off a brain tumour. Im still trying to convince myself its anxiety but really struggling hope someone else can help you a bit further.

Cheers Matt

[philthejuggler]

Hey phil and welcome, i'm quite new here too. Your story is very similar to mine except im only 21... Have a read of my thread and you will see what I mean, im currently thinking I have lymphoma, but in the past 6months have thought I had Melanoma, HIV, mouth cancer, throat cancer, cancer of the oesophagus, Stomach cancer, colon cancer.... oh and on and off a brain tumour. Im still trying to convince myself its anxiety but really struggling hope someone else can help you a bit further.

Cheers Matt

Thanks Matt, will go and have a read now!

Phil

[klm9088]

It could be heartburn caused by stress/anxiety. I had something similar a few weeks ago. I took some acid reducers and relaxed a bit and it went away after a few days.

[philthejuggler]

It could be heartburn caused by stress/anxiety. I had something similar a few weeks ago. I took some acid reducers and relaxed a bit and it went away after a few days.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm on omeprazole for acid issues so I can rule that out!

[philthejuggler]

Does anyone have twinges that move about and particularly ones that disappear when you're concentrating on something only to re-appear when you think about them?

Phil

[philthejuggler]

Howdy Phil

Pretty common . I had days on end were my left eye lid would twitch . I have also had all the buzzing that you could think of from finger tips to half my skull .

They do pass . Have you thought about trying some magnesium ???

cheers kev :)

Thanks, Kev. Magnesium is supposed to help I take it?

Phil

[alankay]

Yeah I used to have myself convinced I had, let's see, bone cancer, heart problems, oral cancer, testicular cancer, leukemia, which a laugh at now. My anxiety was really something back then. Yep, and I used to get psychosomatic pains(on the vague side but they were there). Rest assured it's alllll anxiety playing it's not so funny game. Scarin' the bejesus out of you. Unless you trace it to some conflict/major stressors in life you might want to run that by a counselor if you have insurance. Nowadays I get all the normal bodily sensations of being 48 and I recognize them for what they are(nothing much). Amazing how much goes on in your body and once it a while you notice a vague sensation and there it starts. Anxiety/worry. Anyway once I got treatment for the anxiety in general I don't worry about that too much anymore. Maybe a touch more than most but...so be it. Better than before by a mile.:) I had a psychologist tell me he was not a Freudian but Freud did say "There is love and work". He agreed most things that manifest anxiety on folks can be traced back to issues/conflicts/stressors/worries that are either regarding those you love and your work situation. I found that true. Take stock and these 2 areas first and see if you can spot something that has you concerned but your suppressing, minimizing it or denying importance of something. Just think about that. I had a buddy at work with some anxiety and he saw no reason for it. We talked and when I asked about his daughter he said all was well. He looked funny and I pressed him, turned out he was worried about her since she was just starting to date. We talked more about all this and he realized he was more worried about her and her growing older. He felt better and had a loooong talk with his wife about it all(how he felt and how it was effecting him). She gave him a little perspective form a womans point of view, etc, and realized he was suppressing his anxiety over her "coming of age" and was in denial of as maybe this was a sign(in his mind) of weakness, etc. I said "Gerry, it's a sign of a Fathers love and concern for his daughter growing up and soon will be entering the world and not weakness". Soon he realized maybe that was what was really bothering him and just that recognition improved his anxiety. Just an example of the kind of situation that can manifest itself in anxiety. I hope maybe you can figure out what's causing/contributing to the worry/anxiety about your health as I've been down that road. Message me any time.

[Chiliphil1]

Hello, I wanted to post here because I have much the same problem, when my anxiety flares up, I have chest pains, back pains, heartburn, and more! I have made the mistake of getting on web md everytime it happens, and have so far thought I had ulcers, cancer, hiv, heart disease, pneumonia, and a host of others. I have not experienced the exact things you are, but I have noticed pains that move especially in my stomach upper, lower, left, right all over the place, step one is to make sure that everything is OK, have a doctor check you over, then once you know you're OK then try to just forget about the pains I know that's hard but it's all coming from your mind, so if you get your mind going another way and train it not to think about that pain and you will notice it goes away!

[philthejuggler]

Thanks so much for such long and detailed replies! I'm sure my symptoms are anxiety-based as they disappear as soon as I'm enjoying myself! It's now a case of trying to work out what's underneath the anxiety.

Phil