Really Struggling

[Evan92]

I have been struggling with anxiety throughout my younger years and adult life but up to now it has not been greatly debilitating. My Father passed away from cardiac arrest back in November, I performed CPR on him, he had been diagnosed with CHF and afib for a few months before his death. I have been having cardiac symptoms myself relating to what doctors state is just anxiety. Sinus tach 160 bpm during extreme panic attacks been taken to er twice by ambulance. All they want to do is give ativan or klonopin for symptoms, say ecg is all right. Had cardiomyopathy screening echo cardiogram, ecg, holter 24 hour, mri and cardiac enzyme panels. Doing a 48 holter this week to see if abnormalities are discovered, gp gave me valium and trintilelix for anxiety and depression respectively . I miss my Dad every day and do not know how to function between supporting my mom, work and grief. Symptoms are destroying me, worried i will die just like that, so scared.

[RoadToRecovery]

Hi Evan - I'm so sorry to hear that you are going through such a difficult time. The loss of a loved one is one of the most painful seasons we go through in life, and can cause much stress. Please understand that your anxiety symptoms are likely caused by a very, very stressed body, and nothing more. When we worry, our endocrine system releases stress hormones called cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones produce physiological, for psychological, and emotional changes in our body. This is called what you may know as the fight or flight response.

when our body is stressed for too long, our nervous systems can become "hyperstimulated". They basically get used to being in. A stressed state and that becomes the norm for our body. Our body accepts this as the new norm and can begin secreting stress hormones that lead to symptoms constantly. For example, I used to have frequent periods of panic alwhere my heart would start racing in the 150+ BPM range even though I wasn't worrying. Just - boom - out of nowhere. Later I realized this was because my body was hyperstimulated.

There's so much more I'd like to say but it's unfortunately very late here and I have to be up for work early in the morning. However I would highly encourage you to read my story that you can find on this forum at the following link:

http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showth...ange-Your-Life

I suffered with a SEVERE anxiety disorder for about five years of my life. There were times I nearly lost hope and considered suicide because it seemed like there was no way out. I thought I'd never feel normal again. However I am about 95% recovered today and in many ways much better than I was before I developed the disorder. You CAN overcome this with the right help, information, and support. It is my hope and prayer that you take the time to read my story and can gain hope and a right direction to freedom from this.

Jordan

[MrsMargo]

Hi, Jordan? What did you do for recovery? What helped you ?

[RoadToRecovery]

Hi Margo. The link that I made in my above post willl take you to the other post I made on this site I was talking about. It's in the fourth post where I start talking about how I found the right help. If you want to make a long story short though, i found my help through the website anxietycentre.com. They have been instrumental in my recovery. I would encourage you to click on the link and read the details though, as I go into detail about why they helped me. If you don't like clicking links though, you can simply search this website for my post titled "all anxiety sufferers please read - this could change your life".