A bit of my story...

[BekkaD]

Hello ..My name is Bekka. I'm 42 and have been dealing with anxiety for the past 6 years. The past 2 years have been the worse. I believe my anxiety started when my husband passed away 7 years ago. I knew then that my life would never be the same again, but this is not what i had in mind.
I have an overwhelming fear of something happening to me and leaving my kids without a parent completely. My husband died suddenly with a heart attack. I have went overboard on making myself healthy by exercising, changing my eating habits and my whole lifestyle. I have always been healthy,perfect blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol. Now, with the anxiety, I feel like i am falling apart. I have aches and pains all the time. Tension headaches .. muscular tension in my neck and back... stomach issues.. you name it... it's hurt! I'm trying to deal with this without medication. Any tips??

[kakariki]

Hello ..My name is Bekka. I'm 42 and have been dealing with anxiety for the past 6 years. The past 2 years have been the worse. I believe my anxiety started when my husband passed away 7 years ago. I knew then that my life would never be the same again, but this is not what i had in mind.
I have an overwhelming fear of something happening to me and leaving my kids without a parent completely. My husband died suddenly with a heart attack. I have went overboard on making myself healthy by exercising, changing my eating habits and my whole lifestyle. I have always been healthy,perfect blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol. Now, with the anxiety, I feel like i am falling apart. I have aches and pains all the time. Tension headaches .. muscular tension in my neck and back... stomach issues.. you name it... it's hurt! I'm trying to deal with this without medication. Any tips??

Hi Bekka, your story almost made me cry. It is very similar to mine. I have huge health anxieties and worry almost everyday about my health. My husband has had two heart operations which is what brought on these anxieties. I am consumed sometimes by the worry of death, mine, his or my children. I have similar symptoms to yours but also get palpitations and panic attacks sometimes. I do see someone and it has helped. My doctor has given me anti depressants which help with anxiety but I am too afraid to take them because of the side affects. I am sick of this ruling my life and really ruining it because I feel grumpy and detached from my family most of the time because of the irrational feelings I get. I have started taking magnesium and Executive B stress tablets which are meant to help so Im hoping. I am also trying to change my eating and cut out coffee etc.

[BekkaD]

kakariki... Wow! We do have very similar stories. I have found that speaking to a therapist can help alot with putting alot of my fears to rest. She has given me alot of tools to help relax me and to help put a stop to a panic attack before it gets out of hand. I don't like the feeling I have when in on medicine. I to have more anxiety about the side effects. It's not worth the trade off. I also have found out that writing down my fears and how they effect me and my family has helped me put things in perspective. Oh I have written what would add up to 10 novels. I'm sure nothing anyone would want to read. Its really soothing in a way. I guess when I'm focused on writtibg I'm not focused on the fear and pain brought on by the anxiety.

[kakariki]

Thats funny because I was going to start typing up how I feel, infact I was going to starting writing about my life, not that its very important but we have had lots of funny things happen to our family for many years and people have always said we should write about it. Im off coffee today, decaf so Im hoping that helps. Also the vitamins should kick in soon. Went through some anxiety last night and I dont really know why. Do you find once you start it is soooo hard to stop. I sit there saying positive affimations and stuff but its still there in the back of my head. I slept ok last night and feel ok today. Im going to sit down and talk to my husband tonight. He knows Im anxious and stuff and is worried but he doesnt really know how I feel about him and if anything happened to him. I almost feel like I dont deserve to have a happy life and if I let my guard down and enjoy it (we do have a wonderful life with 3 beautiful children and everything we could ever want) that something bad will happen ie like his heart problems. Im going to tell him that tonight and maybe that will start pointing towards a better point?