Greets From Canada

[Kaiser]

I am an anxiety sufferer, or so I'm told...

but first, my background:

I'm a 20 year-old man currently working as a reserve soldier in the army, i have plans to transfer to full-time service as a weapon technician. although with the events that have transpired over the last 3 years, I fear that I will loose my job, and my future career.

thus bringing me to why I am here writing this now :

3 years ago, this all started : I was using drugs (hallucinogenic specifically, and marijuana) , one night after ingesting a fair quantity of mushrooms I had begun to faint repeatedly, about 3 times overall, in a period of maybe an hour.. so of course I made a trip to the emergency room where I was told that it was the drugs and to go home. After the fallout of that night I had begun experiencing dizzy spells and faintness almost non stop every day (suffice to say I never touched a drug again). this lasted for a few months, tapered off, and then just like that : things changed again. Nausea ensued, Nausea that was so bad i could barely eat, and lasted almost 2 years. several tests were done including endoscopies, and countless blood tests. the result? IBS with a slight B-12 Deficient anemia .. for the last year or so i had been living comfortably with my "IBS" and tanking B-12 supplements, managing it well. UNTIL about a month ago, when I had noticed a fluttery feeling in my chest which would last for a second leaving me with a flash of dizziness, and would repeat about 3 or 4 times in a period of 5 minutes. at first I didnt put much thought to it, until one day at McDonald's when it got REALLY bad, I mean so bad that my heart was skipping beats left right and center, I thought it was going to sputter out and stop all together. so I did what anyone would do in such a situation, I ran to Emergency! the did an ECG and nothing showed up (of course!) I was given a Holter monitor shortly after which still, almost a month later, still dont have the results back ! I doubt it caught anything at all..
Now since that fateful night, I've had two more attacks to that magnitude, one was so subtle that i just took an ativan (that i was hastily given by doctors who decided within 3 seconds that i needed without testing me for anything) and it calmed me down enough to not care. the second time was about 2 hours ago, I had woken up maybe 2 hours prior to that incident, and was having a cigarette when the all too real feeling struck me again...the drop in the chest, the feeling of dizziness and faintness... oh yes it was happening! i put out the smoke and went inside to sit down, I felt my pulse and it was fast, slow, skipping beats.. all over the place... scared the crap out of me! there is no way that this is a symptom of anxiety, I mean, every time it happens, I feel fine, just minding my own business, when out of the blue it hits me, and trust me the anxiety follows!

My point is that the erratic pulse i've been having doesn't seem to be related to anxiety, but it does create a hell of alot of anxiety! Here is a list of my OTHER (main) symptoms :

stomach pains (cramping)
abdominal problems (hardly ever regular)
Nausea (as mentioned)
Weakness and Fatigue
Cold hands
Hot Flashed (almost like my blood is acidic)
Sweating
Clouded or foggy mind
Difficulty concentrating
Low Blood Pressure
Low Blood Sugar
Dizziness

Now not all of these come and go at once, but there's hardly a time when I am symptom free. This is why I don't think I have a "panic" disorder, as I'm constantly suffering. And a general anxiety disorder doesn't seem to fit either! I dont know what to do, maybe you guys know more about it then I do, and it would be great to hear of people who are just like me, and hopefully find some kind of help, other than doctors who don't care, or natural path docs who just want to sell me suppliments !

thanks for reading this massive post, if you did it means you care... Dont exactly know if it should be in the welcome boards, but it is my first post so it sorta fits haha!

[leeann76]

All of the symptoms you mentioned are caused by anxiety sweetie. I know how scary it is. My heart has started doing kind of the same lately. I notice it happens when I'm really stressed.

I wish I could give you a big hug (((squeeze)))). Does the army offer any type of mental health programs? If they do, I would take advantage of those resources. You are so young and it sounds to me that you really know what you want to do with your life. You are so much stronger than you know. Don't give up sweetie, you WILL beat this!!!

Take care

[StopTheMadness]

Yes!!! Mine too!!! Happens just like this every time. It absolutely is anxiety. I will be just minding my business out of the blue my heart does something crazy and i am suddenly nauseated, muscle spasms, cold hands, tunnel vision, lightheaded, etc.

The reason the dr gave u ativan is because they can usually tell immediately whether u are having a heart attack or anxiety. And if u were having a heart attack, the ativan wouldnt have made it worse to begin with so it was still a safe bet.

When i was a child my mother went to the er thinking she was dying. They took one look at her and gave her an ativan and she kept saying "i dont need to calm down yall are going to let me die? I need my heart checked". Guess what, in 20 mins she was calm and feeling silly for thinking it was a heart attack.

As a fellow anxiety sufferer and as a paramedic, i hope i can help u feel at least a little more assured by saying this: it cannot kill u. The heart wants to beat. Even if the natural pacemaker we all have at the top of our heart fails, nature gave us two other backup pacemakers in the lower parts of our hearts to keep us alive. So these palpitations/skipped beats cannot kill us. They can scare us, give us stomach upsets, make us even hyperventilate til we pass out, but our hearts will not let this pesky anxiety kill us.

That being said, we need to find drs that can fix the underlying issue. If u are like me and are usually very mellow then ur anxiety is probably caused by a hormone or something off balance with our brain chemicals. Good luck to u!